01_AzuelosVoltaggio_161_178_copia_161_178 10/07/15 11:33 Pagina 163 163 THE “ANGEL SENT FROM BEFORE THE LORD” IN TARGUM JOSHUA 5,14 163 “And Rahab the innkeeper, and the house of her father, and all that were hers, Joshua kept alive. And she dwelt in the midst of the chil- dren of Israel until this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho”. Josh 7,22: “So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath”. Targum Jonathan: .!whytwxt apskw hynkXmb !yrymj ahw ankXml wjhrw !ydgza [Xwhy xlXw “Then Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and behold, they were hidden in his tent, and the silver was under them”. In both cases, these are angels of flesh and blood, who perform a mission assigned to them by Joshua. In both cases, Targum Jonathan translates the term “angels” as aydgza or !ydgza (“mes- sengers”), the commonly used term for flesh and blood angels in Targum Onqelos, as well as in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pen- tateuch 9. Although the appearance of flesh and blood angels is mentioned specifically only twice in the Book of Joshua, and while the term “angel/angels” understood as a non-corporeal emissary of God does not appear at all in Joshua, another heavenly being, named -rf hwhy-abc, “the commander of the Lord’s army”, appears in Josh 5,15, and is translated in Targum Jonathan as “an angel sent from before the Lord” (ywy ~dq !m xylX $alm). We discuss this being in detail below, since it is our opinion that a discussion of angels in the Book of Joshua and a comparison with other biblical texts and their trans- lations can contribute to a fuller understanding of the angelological world of the Aramaic Targums. The insertion of the term “angel” in Targumic versions, even when it does not appear explicitly in the original biblical text, is (ArBib 10; Wilmington, DE – Edinburgh 1987); E. MARTÍNEZ BOROBIO, Tar- gum Jonatán de los Profetas Primeros en tradición babilónica, I. Josué – Jueces (CSIC.TE 46; Madrid 1989). 9 Cf. Tg. Onq. and Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 32,7; Num 20,14; 21,21; 22,5; 24,12; Deut 2,26. For each of these verses, Tg. Neof. translates “messengers” (!yxylX), except in Gen 32,7, where the term “spies” (h[y]llm) occurs instead.