'E/iihii - Eloltim' is God Ihe Almighty. Creator of the Universe.
Examples of Usage
• "The Targumic fomlUla of Genesis in Aramaic is as follows:
In the Beginning did El;iMi create
\\hat is on high and what is Oil la\\'.
And the exact Apprehender, lohamin, the faithful repeater, but not a poet, basing himself on the computation of the Creation of the World by the ten Mcmraisations of the creating Elaha, goes back beyond time, beyond the 'Beginning', and gives us the computation of the Engendration of the Memra by the memraising-EHiha, ule transcendental and eternal Engendration which existed 'in dlC Beginning'." (Jousse 2000:211-212)
• "E/fihfj is the All-Powerful One, the All-Knowing One, the One who possesses everything in fullness,
the One whom no-one has seen nor can see, the lnvisible One! If ever we reach Him, it will be through analogy.
I am still playing analogically with gestes of the visible world that I transpose to the invisible world. By analogy, tllen, I can say that certain gestes in this Lnvisible One are essential. 11ll1s, I do not know who this Invisible One is. Blit He is. He acts.
( ... ) He is tlle Speaking One. As the great Nabis said:
Thus says lahvc. Israel's Elohim and they themselves repeat what the Eternal One recited to them.
111e Speaking One, transposed into Palestinian pedagogy, is called the Abbti o.flhe Heavens or the Abba of the Heights, to distinguish Him from the abbas of the earth. It is obvious that we are still dealing there with an analogy, for the AJI-Powerful One cannot be localized. He is everywhere:' (Jousse 2000:397)
• "Anthropological knowledge of the Bible is the most infonned antllfopological knowledge. I.n that
primordial Palestinian milieu, nothing was written because everytJ1ing was living. hl the Bible, one is dealing with global internal mechanisms which express themselves without any kind of verbalisation. Primordial creation precedes verbalisation, which is why I am not at all surprised to fllld that universal Bilateralisation pre--empts the great recitations:
In the Beginning did Elohim ereate
the !-/igh Qnd the Low
The incidence of balanced opposition is assured tllfough all eternity: the Creator and the Created, the one who Breathes and tl1e one who receives the Breath, etc." (Jousse 2000:249)
• "In the initial action, we see the modelling of the dust: And Elohim modelled the Awm-anlhropos
with the dust of the Awmah-carth The second action, shows us the nasal breath of the rofihti:
And he breathed into its nostrils a breath of life
I.n a third action, we have tl1e respiration of the ntiftho-throat which will irradiate life throughout this scrap of modelled earth:
101
And the Ad.111l-anthropos bee.lIlle a respimting. living mifsh:i And thus he becamc the Acti.m-anthropos
according to his mimcmc and according to his analogclllc"·
(Jotlsse 2000:391) See olso .lou.He 2000: /;8-1./9. 158. 205. 206. 209. 232-233. 236. 359378 . ./06. ,/71 . ./8./-./85. 518-519.
529. 538. infer (/{w.)
o Enchainment -Song of Songs - Song of Solomon -conjugal - doctrinal
!memol")·-aidIIOr:II-st~·le ethnic milicul!Our Father!
./ousse Iden/~fies the Oral-style structure of the Smlg of Solomon (referred 10 as Ihe Song of Song ... ) OS
./f)rmll/aically enchained 10 provide pjy(;ho-physiological mnemonic Sllpporf of 'he kind fhaf Joune identifies as the primary memory-oid in an Oral-style ethnic miliell.
Examples of Usage
• "Song of Songs is a translation of the Hebrew, 'Shir Hashirim' the root of which is 'Enchainmenl of Enchainments'. Traditional fonnulae are chained together. When it is said: 'I sing to the Lord a new canticle', more precisely it means 'I sing to the Lord a new enchainment'. Hence this parable of Ieshoua:
Evcry mbbi well-instmctcd in the Malkout:i. of Shcmayyii to what can hc be comparcd? To a man, a nlilstcr of the household who brings out from his treasure some ofthc new and some of the old.
Some of what was old was the traditional fonnulae. Some of what was new was the new, personal enchainmenl of tllese fomwlae. leshoua thus demonstrated to us tlle technique of his improvisation."
(Jousse 2000:573)
• "Every effort at translation should try to re-establish tlle living enchainmenl of the complex,
inconummicable, ethnic mental attitudes that are at play in tlle formulae of the Song of Songs. We are total strangers to some of the traditional verbal subtleties. We need to understand fully the personification of the Torah as the 'Spouse', in her 'Totality', fully decked out with all her jewels (which are the Pearl-Lessons of tlle Torah), and pearls with shimmering reflections (which are the fonnulae worked out in different ways). We need to understand the full significance of the 'Beloved', daughter of Wisdom, who has leamed tlle precepts of Justice by giving the milk and honey to be eaten and to be drunk from mouth to mouth. From tlle lips of the 'Beloved' flow tlle precepts of knowledge, mercy and exactitude; and consolation, remembrance of which is sweeter than tlle taste of wine, are imbibed from the breasts of the 'Spouse', etc.
In addition to the 'Spouse', we have tlle Bridegroom, i.c. the 'knowing one', both in the concrete sense of the word, and also 'knowing ' in the sense of ·savouring'. He is also a king who gives a regulation, a Malka, who gives a Malkouta. and at tlle same time, a shepherd, for he leads his sheep to graze, he teaches them and gives them good things to eat." (Jousse 2000:598)
• "TIlis Qehilla-assembly is a gestual aide-memoire of a similar assembly which received nemonically, the gift of the Torah into the heart of its memory, on the same day. set deep in history and the Sinai desert. That earlier assembly was like the spouse-apprehender, conunemorating her mimismological, rhythmo-pedagogical union with the Spouse-Teacher. Therefore, I am not surprised to find both tlle fonnulae of Rabbi Ieshoua's oral Besoreci-Announcement, and the fonnulae of the Song of Songs, or more accurately expressed, the . Enchainmenl of Enchainments', on the lips of those Galilean earthling- men, assembled around Mariam in the professorial Cenacle: all the types of formulae that were transmitted from one end of the Torah to the other, i.e. the authentic Torah, prophets and psalms, were chained together there." (Jousse 2000:418-419)
• «Traditional fonnulae are chained together. When it is said: 'I sing to the Lord a new Canticle' more precisely means 'I sing to the Lord a new enchainment. Some of what was old was the traditional
102
formulae. Some of what was new, was dle new personal enchainment of these fomllllae."· (Jollsse 2000:573)
• "lllerefore, I am not surprised to fmd bOtll the fomllllae of Rabbi h~shoua's oral Besoreta-
Announcement, and the fonllulae of the Song of Sougs. or more accurately expressed, the 'Enchainment of Enchainmcnts" on dle lips of Ulose Galilean earthling-men, assembled around Mariam in the professorial Cenacle: all the types of formulae that were transmitted from one end of the Torah to the other, i.e. the authentic Torah, prophets and psalms, were chained together there.
It is logical ulat tllere should be a similar )ollr-mernOlre' (day of remembrance) for tile gift of dle Torah, a day remembered as a prestigious and sublimated formulary of the entire Torah.
There is no doubt tllat the ancient Hebraic fomlulae of tile Soug of /)'o"gs were recited liturgically in their original language. But tile original Hebrew language had become by then, and for several centuries previously, a dead language. It had thus become imperative to encode it in comprehensible Aramaic formulae, in Aramaic encoding targum. But tllis encoding was so dense that it needed itself to be rendered more comprehensible, whence the Aramaic midrashising targum that has been fortuitously preserved for us in a later copy and put down in writing, which copy we have no real reason to believe was seriously altered. l1le living Palestinian tradition has never lost the traditional characteristic of reCllallOf1o/.fidelity. So it is, that, WiUl undiluted scientific joy, I am still able to hear the rhytlllllo- melodising of one of the purest masterpieces from the lips of Rabbi h!shoua's Mother, repeated by my modler's and other apprehenders' lips." (Jousse 2000:420)
• "Every effort at translation should try to re-establish the living enchainment of the complex,
incommunicable, ethnic mental attitudes that are at play in the fomwlae of the Song of Songs. We are total strangers to some of the traditional verbal SUbtleties. We need to understand fully the personification of the Torah as the 'Spouse', in her 'Totality', fully decked out Witll all her jewels (which are tile Pearl-Lessons of the Torah), and pearls with shimmering reflections (which are the fomlulae worked out in different ways). We need to understand the full significance of the 'Beloved', daughter of Wisdom, who has leamed tile precepts of justice by giving the milk and honey to be eaten and to be drunk from mouth to mouth. From the lips of the 'Beloved' flow the precepts of knowledge, mercy and exactitude; and consolation, remembrance of which is sweeter tI,an the taste of wine, are imbibed from the breasts of the 'Spouse', etc.
In addition to dle 'Spouse', we have tile Bridegroom, i.e. the 'knowing one', both in the concrete sense of the word, and also 'knowing' in tile sense of 'savouri.ng'. He is also a king who gives a regulation, a Malka, who gives a Malkollta, and at dle same time, a shepherd, for he leads his sheep to graze, he teaches them and gives them good things to eat." (Jousse 2000:598)
• "In his appointed time, in a sort of transcendental fomlUiism, tile greatest of tile Palestinians, leshoua of Nazareth, the Galilean Rabbi-Teacher, will again descend from the solitude of the mountain with the sole purpose oftaking up this union and conununion of the manducation of the manna, the manducation of his teaching and the manducation of Himself, the only true Teacher. This is total logic because it is global logic: without it incoherence reigns supreme; with it, all becomes understood.
In truth, this is really universal fonnulism, the 'enchainment of Enchainments'. This is really the Song of SOllgs expressed in its fundamental Hebraic fonnulae of the Torah and in its Aramaic targumic explications." (Jollsse 2000:441)
See also JOllsse 2000:419. ·120-·121. -I·U. inter alia.
103
o Encoding - encodism - encoder - decodislIl - translate - translating - translation - lrnnshtlor - interpreted - interpretntion
ll\1ctoll..,~clt1;in I I mcmor~'-lIidl I Formulism
I
Ent,:oding is a trans/ation process unique 10 Ihe Ora/-sly/e milieu. Such tralls/ation - encoding. requires nOl only the translation of the Imglllstlc aspects, bill also of Ihe tralls/atiol1 of the embedded Oral-:ityle Mnemotechnical DeVices such as 'avocalisalion' (assonance) and 'acolJsonantisatlOlJ' (alliteration) and onomatopoeia. Because these last are language specific, they [reqllenrly have no eqllivalenl in the larget language because
• oft/udr phonetic structure
• Ihey are embedded in metaphor, worldview and value systems, which are elhnic cllllure specific, The capaclfy /0 formulate Oral-style recitalives consisting of Propositional Formulas in one language IS
remarkable enough. bur Ihe capacity to reformulate Ihose Propositioned Formulas in Oral-style reci/otlVes in another language as an encoding _ or 'IrfUls/alion J - oflhe first is even more remarkable.
Encoding is rooled in and dependent upon Ihe mnemonic support of I?hythmo-mimism, Bilateralism and Formulism. which bOlh aid and challenge the encoder. the practice of encoding is/was well-known in Oral-style milieus worldwide,
Wllh reference 10 the ancient Galifean milieu. JOllsse notes that before being put-into· writing, the Hebrew Torah was a series of Oral-style mnemonic lexlS. When the scripted (wriflen) T6rah was encoded Into the oral Aramaic Targum, the daunting task of encoding the 'double play on formulas' was the area of expertise of Ihe Hebreo-Aramaean Melourgeman, who was responsible for ensuring that the Hebrew Torah was made accessible IQ the understanding and memories of his Oral-:ilyle traditioned Aramaic Appn:henders. This expertise was IIsed again at the poinl when Ihe Aramaic Bes6rah needed 10 be made acceSSible to a variety of Oral-style alfdiences speaking different languages in Ihe diaspora by the Metollrgemans-Sunergoi who - as encoders - accompanied the Apostle.Envoys on the missionary journeys,
Examples of Usage
• "Between 'translating' and 'encoding' there is an abyss. In a translation as it is usually understood there are as many versions as there are translators. Try to re-translate Tacitus or Pindar from schoolboy translations! If you do not know the original text, you will end up with pure invention.
With the encoding procedure, you have a sentence built up word by word, which you cannot change because it is formulaic and traditional. Because this sentence was repeated frequently, the encoders, the metourgemans very rapidly acquired a stereotyped procedure which obeyed a rigid tradition as well. They were trapped by the mechanism of formulism which worked by propositions of imposed terms, to the extent that the formulae of the Aramaic Targum encoded the Hebraic fonnulae, as much as was possible, We cannot translate word by word with the help of a dictionary for fear of entering into dangerous territory. Instead we must translate the encoding of propositional ethnic formulae: the whole block must be grasped and translated", (Jousse 2000:597)
10-1
• "TIlis oral 'buccalised' re-encoding will be played out in three phases.
In successive stages, we will study first the melodized Rhythmo-catechisation, followed by the onginal recitative, followed by the el/coded recitative, followed finally by the re-encoded recitative."
(Jotlsse 2000: 325-337) 71te Encoded Recital/vC!
• "TIle second phase is the encoding phase. It unfolds as soon as the original recitative is transported orally from the primitive ethnic milieu to another ethnic milieu of a different language.
To extend and facilitate our new personal 'awareness', let us take up once again the original French recitative. transcribed above, and encode it orally into Latin, a language accessible to almost all traditionists.
Era! p;:r horrorem profundae n<>elis.
sub obscura clarilate quae cadit de slellis.
Paler mcus. ille heros cum subrisu lam dulci.
ibat. ebrius somnio heroico et brutali.
Such is the phase, ell coded entirely in Latin. 1.11 this re-encoded recitative, one senses very quickly and clearly that the linguistic structure of the Latin re-encoding does not resonate Witll tlle origi.nal rhythm or semantics." (Jousse 2000:326)
The Re-e"coded Recitative
• "We must decide how best to proceed when we are confronted by a Gospel encoded in Greek. One option is to proceed as the Greeks did: having long emerged from the Homeric oral stage and knowing nothing about the Aramaic formulaic style and its quasi-liturgical encoding. they assumed that tlle Greek encoded text was original and interpreted it semantically as such. In some instances, this resulted not only in the meaning being obscured, but even in tlle heresy of textual interpretation contrary to known historical and traditional Palestinian fact.
C .)
TIle anthropological Law of FOnllUlism teaches us tllat we must work methodically: tllis is what the Greeks did eitller only half-heartedly or not at all. When working methodically, the text is literally only a pre-text. It is a prerequisite that the encoded text must be subjected to the vital play of the linguistic mechanism's third phase: re-encoding, which must not be confused with re-translation." (Jousse 2000:326-327)
The Re-E"codi"g lnlo Formulae
• "This must be understood as a re-encoding 'into f0n1111lae'. because of the traditional fonnulaic
composition of the original. Had the original encoded texts not been 'fonnulaic' in character, the re- encoding would of necessity have been idiosyncratic, and could then have been called. more precisely, re-translation. Under those circumstances, we would have been able to experiment with the re--d.iscovery of the original text, whetller it was French or, as in this instance, Aramaic, in numerous ways.
The fonnulaic nature of the text is thus an essential condition for us to be certain that we will rediscover the original after the re-encoding process. TIlat is why I insist so emphatically on FomlUlism as a basic tool in the research method." (Jousse 2000:330)
• "Each Hebraic fonnula was inunediately and quasi-automatically decoded orally into Aramaic by tlle abba. who tllen played the role of paraqlito or metollrgllemon to the hero. The Aramaic encoding was repeated by the bera as many times as was necessary for perfect memorisation.
This Aramaic encoding was the Targum or Translation." (Jollsse 2000:500)
• "'t would be interesting to analyse the unfolding of this explicatory flowering, i.e. the progressive passing from decoding Targum to midrashising Targum. One would then see that the decoding Targum starts to become midrashising by detailing intra-propositionally a formula which is overly concise, deeply obscure or which potentially invites irreverence.
While dealing with Rhythmo-catechistic Pedagogy, we should note an important but anthropologically nonnal phenomenon: this 'detailing' midrash always tends to take on a fomlUlaic
105
structure which is identically repeated when the same explanatory need is felt elsewhere within a Propositional Fomlllla. It is a new fonnula set in an old fomlUla.
But the explanatory midrash soon breaks out of the decoding proposition and acquires a relative independence. It then blooms, more or less amply, in the mimodramatic fonn ofthe miishiil or parable.
In the foml of the parable, we encounter the full power of the living elaboration of the didactic fommlae and modules of this Palestinian 'literary genre'. lllis was a genre which underwent, phase by phase and from as early as Esdras's time, prodigious development in the learned and familiar rhythmo-catechistics of the Rabbis." (Jousse 2000:334)
• "Because of the relative 'oral amnesia' of the Greek milieux, the elementary Aramaic Besoreta was dms directly preserved for us m the fOnll of three instances of the putting-into-writing of the oral Hellenist Targum-decodings: Kepha's Recitation was encoded by Mark, Shaoul's Recitation was encoded by Luke, and Mattai"'s Recitation was encoded by a Targumist whose name remains unknown. Unfortunately we have, in the case of the superior Aramaic Besoreta, only one instance of putting-into- writing of the Hellenistic oral Targum encoding: the Recitation of lohanan-John himself was encoded by someone unknown." (Jousse 2000:342)
• "The word aide-mbnoire, the decoding of an Aramaic tenn, is translated by our Graeco-Latinizing liturgists into the vague word 'remembrance' or 'memory', and not, as it ought to be, into the immediately revealing tenn aide-mbnoire. llle geste of memory is a question of pragmatic pedagogy: we have to make aide-memoire gestes." (Jousse 2000:452)
See a/so JOllsse 2000:88. 325-337. 3,/1. inter alia.
o
'enemies of memory' - "amnesics' - synoptic problemIfidclit~'IIOur FutherllwordllCoullling-necklaccl h)al)~'rO\'orcsIIOral-st~'lc milieu)
Jousse d{fferenliates distinctly between those who perceive there to be a Synoptic Problem. and those who tlnderstand the power of a 'normal' and 'natural' memory /lsed for learning and teaching without scribal wriling. For JO/lsse. Ihere was no '!')noptic Problem': instead Ihere was a massive misinterpretation of the facts and a lack of understanding of how people operate when the oral and Oraf- style mode is the preferred mode of communication. as it was in Calilean Palestine 2000 years ago.
JOllsse freqllently refers to the Synoptic Problem as a ·pselldo-problem·. one of many created by an inappropriate perspective of the Ora/-style mode by people who are themselves 'amnesic'. because they use structllres of language which are the 'enemies of memory' because they lack rhythm. balance and fornw/a.
Jow'se explains away the "Synoptic Problem' by identifying the simultaneolls fidelity, flexibility and fluidity of the mnemonic Oral-slyle lext. In an Oral-style milieu. the essentially literate notion of the 'word' has no meaning. therefore fidelity' cannot be understood in terms of 'word:for-word accuracy' bllt 'proposition-for-proposition flUidity and flexibility'. Such was the case of the transmission of the history and doctrine of the Rabbi !eshou"a in Ancienl Calilee and the extra-ethnic milieu by Iwelve unschooled scriba/ly illiterate peasants.
Examples of Usage
• ""le misfortunes of the Oral Style are well-known in the ethnic milieux of our Written Style. We can assume that at some pomt in history, writers, fortuitously gifted with intellectual brilliance. graphically
106