How Pseudo-Jonathan Read the Rainbow as the Word of the Lord

The Noahide covenant in Genesis is famous for its sign. The rainbow in the clouds. The Hebrew says the Holy One placed it as the sign of an everlasting covenant between Himself and every living creature. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis, the expansive Aramaic Targum preserving older traditions in a later redacted form, modifies the parties.

In the Aramaic, the covenant is not between the Holy One and every living creature. It is between the Word of the Lord, the Memra, and every living creature. The Targum interposes the divine mediator at every mention of the covenant. Three closely related passages show how consistently the Aramaic translator preserves this theological move.

The Sign Between the Memra and the Living

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:12 records the initial declaration. This is the sign of the covenant which I establish between My Word and between you and every living soul that is with you, unto the generations of the world.

The Hebrew of this verse names the covenant as between Me and you. The Targum substitutes between My Word and you. The Memra is the operative party on the divine side. The Holy One is not engaging directly. The Word, the divine mediator, is the one establishing and maintaining the covenant.

The teaching is theological and protective. The Targum's translator does not want the reader to picture the Holy One Himself signing a contract with the creaturely world. The Holy One transcends contracts. The Memra is the configuration through which contracts can be made with finite beings. The rainbow, in the Aramaic, is the Memra's signature, not the Holy One's.

The Bow That Triggers a Memory

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:16 describes the bow's function. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between the Word of the Lord and every living soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.

The verse gives the rainbow a precise role. It is a mnemonic device. When the bow appears in the cloud, the divine gaze rests on it. The gaze triggers the divine memory of the covenant. The covenant is then upheld.

The Targum's Aramaic again specifies that the covenant being remembered is between the Memra and all flesh, not between the Holy One directly and all flesh. The rainbow is thus a sign that operates within the mediated economy. It calls forth the Memra's recollection, and through the Memra the covenant remains in force across generations.

The Sign Between My Word and All Flesh

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:17 closes the cluster with the final formulation. This is the sign of the covenant that I have covenanted between My Word and between the word for all flesh that is upon the earth.

The Targum's Aramaic here is densely layered. The covenant is between My Word, the Memra, and the word for all flesh, a phrase the Aramaic translator uses to indicate the principle that governs creaturely life. The verse, in this reading, is a covenant between the divine Word and the principle of life itself, with the rainbow as the visible insignia.

The teaching has cosmic scope. The covenant is not limited to Noah and his descendants. It is not limited to humans. It is a contract between the divine Word and the entire principle of living-flesh, the structural fact that organisms breathe and reproduce. The Memra has signed, in effect, a treaty with the category of life.

Why the Memra Was Inserted

Stack the three passages and the Targum's editorial pattern becomes legible. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan consistently interposes the Memra wherever the Hebrew has the Holy One entering directly into a creaturely contract.

The original sign-declaration substitutes the Word for the unmediated Me. The bow-as-memory passage specifies the Word's covenant with all flesh. The final formulation extends the contract to the principle of life itself, with the Word as the divine counterparty. The Aramaic translator's project, across all three verses, is to keep the unmediated essence of the Holy One transcendent while preserving the operational reality of the covenant the rainbow keeps signaling.