[Avodah] Targum Yonatan & Pirush Yonatan on Ber 1:16

[Motti Yarchinai]

I am seeking help understanding the Targum Yonatan's explanation of 
Bereshit 1:16. Not so much his translation of the text but his 
embellishment of it from the legend (also quoted by Rashi on the same 
verse) in Hulin 60b about the Moon having been diminished in size 
after vying with the Sun for supremacy.

A minor point of puzzlement is that in TY's version of the legend the 
Moon speaks slanderously of the Sun. (This not part of the tale told 
in Hulin.) But more important to understand is his calendar 
arithmetic giving the exact moment at which the diminishment of the 
Moon occurred.

I believe that I have managed to work out the logic behind this 
arithmetic in the light of something else I have read which uses the 
same time as given here by TY. I have fully explained this in an 
article: "On the search for a source for the Jewish tradition that 
the Sun was created at zero hours (Jewish time) on Wednesday." That 
article can be downloaded from 
http://www.geocities.com/calendar.luchot

What I cannot understand at all though, is the amendment to the TY's 
arithmetic suggested by Pirush Yonatan. This is also discussed in the 
above article, but it remains an enigma to me. Pirush Yonatan is the 
work of an unspecified author printed in certain editions of the 
Mikraot Gedolot chumashim. (Mine is the Mechon Hamaor edition.)

Both the Ty and the PY are reproduced in full (and translated) in my 
article. I have consulted the Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer referred to by 
PY, and that too is discussed in the article. Although it suggests 
that there are some words missing from the number (the subtrahend) 
given in PY, this is not much help in working out what PY is getting 
at.

Also mentioned in the same article is another related matter on which 
I am seeking help. I am trying to find a source for a reported 
variation on this legend told about the Moon. In another version of 
the legend, the Moon was punished by being shut up in darkness (i.e. 
she was not permitted to shine) for a period of 47 hours (nearly two 
days), ending at Molad VYD, when Adam was being formed. That vesion 
of the legend, it would seem, was aimed at explaining how the Moon 
was already two days old at the moment of its first conjunction with 
the Sun.

Has anyone else heard this alternative version of the story, and, if 
so, do you have a source for it? One thing that is significant about 
this version is that it puts the Moon's creation at Wed, 15:00 
(Jewish time).

Motti