Martin McNamara, «Melchizedek: Gen 14,17-20 in the Targums, in Rabbinic and Early Christian Literature», Vol. 81 (2000) 1-31
The essay is introduced by some words on the nature of the Aramaic translations of Gen 14 used in the study (the Tgs. Onq., Pal. Tgs. as in Tgs. Neof. I, Frg. Tgs., Ps.-J.). Tg. Neof. identifies the Valley of Shaveh (Gen 14,17) as the Valley of the Gardens (pardesaya). The value of Tg. Neof.s evidence here is doubtful. Most Targums retain Melchizedek as a personal name (not so Tg. Ps.-J.). Salem of v. 18 is identified as Jerusalem. Melchizedek is identified as Shem, son of Noah, mainly because of the life-span assigned to Shem in Gen 11. The question of Melchizedeks priesthood in early rabbinic tradition and in the Targums (Tg. Gen 14; Tg Ps. 110) is considered, as is also the use of Jewish targumic-type tradition on Melchizedek in such early Fathers as Jerome, Ephrem, and Theodore of Mopsuestia.
Jeromes text continues:
Compute the number of years through each generation and you will find that from the birth of Shem to the begetting (generation) of Abram there are three hundred and ninety years. Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years. Having made the subtraction, it follows that Shem outlived Abraham his descendant to the tenth degree by thirty-five years.
d) Shem the Great in Pal.
Tg. texts and Melchizedek-Shem in Ephrem the Syrian
Here I may further note some other
chronological details pertinent to the mention of Shem in the Pal. Tgs. The targumic
midrash has arisen from the biblical data on the patriarchs, taken in conjunction with the
chronological consequences of the age assigned to Shem in the Bible.
The biblical evidence is as follows: Abraham was a 100 years old at the birth of Isaac (Gen 21,5). Isaac was thus 75 years old when Abraham died. Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah (Gen 19,2) and was 60 years old at the birth of Esau and Jacob (Gen 25,25). Jacob was thus born fifteen years before the death of Abraham, and consequently 50 years (15 + 35) before the death of Shem. Isaac died at the age of 180 years (Gen 35,28). Shem thus lived during 100 years of Isaacs 180, and during fifty years of Jacobs lifetime.
Shem the Great is mentioned twice in the Pal. Tgs. with regard to events in the lives of Isaac and Rebekah. As Rebekah was being taken in marriage to Isaac, Isaac "was coming from the schoolhouse ()#$rdm tyb) of Shem the Great, to the Well over which was revealed the One who sustains every age. And he was dwelling in the land of the South" (Pal. Tgs. Gen 24:62; Frg. Tgs.PVNL; Tg. Ps.-J.; Tg. Neof. has "from the sanctuary of", )#$dqm tyb, which is obviously an error. The NRVS renders MT as: "Now Isaac had come from [Hebrew: )wbm )b, "coming from to"] Beer-la-hai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb"). The Pal. Tgs. Gen 25:22 say that when the children pushed themselves together in her womb, Rebekah "went to the schoolhouse (#$rdm tyb) of Shem the Great to beseech mercy from before the Lord" (Frg. Tgs.PVNL; Tg. Neof.; Tg. Ps.-J.) (NRSV: "She went to inquire of the Lord").