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 Melchizedek’s 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.

the king" ()klmd )syr tyb )wh )npm r#$yml), a translation followed by Tg. Ps.-J. Tg. Onq.’s rendering as "empty" ()npm) is in keeping with the meaning of the hw#$ of the HT (in Hebrew and Aramaic) and also with the identification of "King’s Valley" that follows. Given the existence of royal hippodromes and amphitheatres (for those of Herod at Jerusalem see Josephus, Ant. 15.268-276), Tg. Onq.’s identification of "King’s Valley" is quite understandable.

        The Frg. Tgs.^VNL (not Frg. Tg.P) here identify the Valley of Shaveh as "the Valley of Hazoza, hzwzx, (that is the place of the Valley of the King)", a text also found in the margin to Tg. Neof., where it is obviously drawn from Frg. Tgs. "Hazoza" is most probably an error for "Hazweh" (hwzx), "[the Valley of] the Vision", a phrase used to render "Oaks of Mamre" in Pal. Tg. Gen 12,6; 13,18; 18,1; Deut 11,30, and in a related manner in Tgs. Neof. and Ps.-J. Gen 14,13. (Gen 14,13 has not been preserved in any of the texts of Frg. Tgs.)

        Tg. Neof. identifies the Valley of Shaveh of v. 17 with the"Valley of the Gardens" ("in the Valley of the Gardens", pardesaya – )klm hr#$m )[w]h )ysdrp r#$ymb). Tg. Neof. is alone in this identification.

        An inscription with the words "Of St Thomas of Phordesa" occurs in a processional cross, coming from the environs of Jerusalem, and the place-name Phordêsa, (from the Aramaic pordesaya/pardesaya "gardens"), on the outskirts of Jerusalem is attested for the Byzantine and early Arab periods⁶. There was a hospice for the poor and elderly there. This place-name has been regarded to be the same as the Valley of Beth Carma (the Valley of Beth-haccherem), already noted, given in 1QapGen 22,13-14 as the identification of the "Valley of Shaveh – that is the Valley of the King". J.T. Milik has expressed the view that "the Valley of the Gardens" ()ysdrp r#$ym) of Tg. Neof. Gen 14,17 makes direct reference to this place-name near Jerusalem. He writes: "Since the word saweh, whatever of its etymology, in no way presents itself spontaneously as a synonym of pardesaya, I would readily see in this last name a place-name that really existed at the time of the composition of the Targum, and attached to a geographic entity in the vicinity of