. root ragamu, “to stone.” Although the word targum has occasionally been used for other translations, such as the LXX, it came to be used exclusively for a particular group of translations of the OT into Aram. The Targums are Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Old Testament. And she that was exalted among the peoples and powerful among the provinces, to whom they paid tribute, hath been scattered abroad so as to be oppressed and to give tribute to them after this." The Peshitta (400 AD) is a Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) translation for the Aramaic Christians. These MSS., however, were only owned privately not officially as for a long period the Targums were without authoritative and official importance in Palestine. A perspicuously arranged compilation of the fragments that have been preserved is given by Ginsburger in the ZDMG, LVII (1903), 67 sqq., and in loc. Visit the President's page to see his availability to speak at your church or ministry. Ancient Versions of the Bible Concerning the reverence by eastern Masoretes for the holy text of the Tanakh, in relation to the Targums, Pinkhos Churgin says in his Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, “The Aramaic rendering of They help us understand how they interpreted scripture. Gospels … In a number of passages a second translation is introduced with the remark another Targum. The designation that thus arose became customary through its acceptance by Rashi and others. It is supposed that some manuscript was denominated simply "the targum of J," which, really being the initial representing, "Jerusalem," was taken as representing Jonathan. Another explanation is that as the Greek version of Aquila was much praised by the Jews for its fastidious accuracy, and this Targum of the Law was credited with equally careful accuracy, so all that is meant is that it was regarded as a version which as accurately represented in Aramaic the Hebrew of the Law as did Aquila’s Greek. This value is somewhat lessened by the fact that most of them contain many additions or changes from later periods. dialects) and S Sem. (b) The Targums on the Megilloth are not in reality translations but rather Haggadic commentaries. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico in 1977, the M. Div. It consists of 450 folios covering all books of the Torah, with only a few damaged verses. English translations are: Pauli, The Chaldee Paraphrase on the Prophet Isaiah Translated (London, 1871); Levy, Targum on Isaiah, I (London, 1889). dialects); and within the NW branch it is distinguished from Canaanite (Heb., Phoen., Ugaritic). Compare also (Gen., xlix, 26) the position of Esau and Ishmael as representatives of the Mohammedan world. However, translations into Aram. The name 'Peshitta' is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pÅ¡îá¹­tâ (ܡܦܩܬܐ ܦܫܝܛܬܐ), literally meaning 'simple version'. ; GINSBURGER, loc. The Peshitta (400 AD) is a Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic) translation for the Aramaic Christians. 110 of the National Library at Paris; (2) variants from Cod. It contains the entire Old Testament, the apocryphal books and 22 books of the New Testament minus: John 7:53-8:11, 2-3 John, 2 Peter and Jude. Targum, (Aramaic: “Translation,” or “Interpretation”), any of several translations of the Hebrew Bible or portions of it into the Aramaic language. Bible, but it contains many paraphrases or interpretative additions. According to the Megillah (IV, 4), when the lesson to be read aloud was from the Torah only one verse was to be read to the translator (Methurgeman). Verse 8 says: “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (KJV). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised. One very marked feature is the presence of yath, the sign of the accusative translating the Hebrew ’eth, whereas in ordinary Aramaic, Eastern and Western, this is unused, except as supporting the oblique case of pronouns. in Theol. Concerning this codex cf. The ruler shall not depart from the house of Judah nor the scribe from his son’s sons for ever till the Messiah come whose is the kingdom and whom the heathen shall obey. The Aramaic and Palestinian versions printed here are acknowledged to be the oldest and most widely used renderings of the ancient language translations of the orig Targum meaning translation references the various language transliterations of the original Hebrew … When, however, a poetical piece occurs, the writer at times gives rein to his imagination. into Aram., with a certain amount of explanation of the meaning of the passage. Zuckermandel). Socini, No. The later prophets are more paraphrastic as a whole than the earlier, as having more passages with poetic metaphors in them--a fact that is made plain to anyone by the greater space occupied in the rabbinic Bibles by the Targums of the Prophets. Ru has not suffered such a dilatation; in the text it is a fifth, in the Targum a fourth, the size of Proverbs. Targum Neofiti is the largest of the Western Targumim on the Torah, or Palestinian Targumim. Ginsburger's views will have to be accepted as the more probable. Zuckermandel). The Aramaic Targums are not a single translation of the Hebrew Bible, but rather were individual translations of books or groups of books, that arose over time, according to need. In the mysterious passage, Ex 4:24-26, later Jewish usage is brought in to make an easy sense: "And it was on the way in the inn (house of rest) that the angel of the Lord met him and sought to slay him. As this verse is in Aramaic it might have been thought that it would have been transferred to the Targum unchanged, but the Targumist has made of the 10 words of the original text 57. cit., XLI (1897), 289 sqq., 340 sqq. The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, 166) Mantua, 1863, fol. This gives a sufficient example of the extent to which expansion can go. Blau in Jewish Quarterly Review, IX, 1897, p. 727 sqq.). The labours of Onkelos are referred to in Meg., 3a, in the following words: Rab Jeremiya, according to others Rab Hiya bar Abba says: 'According to the statement of Rab Eliezer and Rab Josua, Onkelos the proselyte has said, that is, has orally formulated, the Targum of the Torah'. The directions also state which portions are to be read aloud but not translated (cf. The Palestinian Targum contains a specific reference to the city of Constantinople, which was not founded until a.d. 325, and attributes to Ishmael a wife and daughter with the same names as a wife and daughter of his famous descendant, Mohammed, who did not become prominent until the 7th cent. word as used at the beginning of the Christian era, but such evidence must be used with great caution. In addition to the Latin translations in the Polyglot Bibles there is one by Fagius (Strasburg, 1546); there is also an English translation by Etheridge, The Targum of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Pent., with the Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum, from the Chaldee (2 vols., London, 1862-65). You will also be given the opportunity to join our team tasked with how to make BiblicalTraining.org better. (Leipzig, 1877); LANDAUER, Die Masorah zum O. In recent years question has been raised about this, and some scholars suggest that the change to Aram. Fundamentally the language of these Targums is Palestinian Aramaic but of a very mixed type. Thus, for instance, one on the Book of Job is mentioned in the era of Gamaliel I (middle of the first century A.D.), which he, however, was not willing to recognize (Sabb., 115a; cf. of the Targumim is invaluable. We may neglect then the position of Mr. Stenning (Enc Brit (11th edition), XXVI, 418b) that "probably as early as the 2nd century BC the people had adopted Aramaic." Like most of the targums it had its origin in Pal. In the Babylonian Talmud and in the Tosephta, Onkelos is the name of a proselyte who is mentioned as a contemporay of the elder Gamaliel (Aboda zara, 11a; cf. The attempt has been made, quite without warrant, to derive it from the Heb. “The earliest Targums date from the time after the Babylonian Exile when Aramaic had superseded Hebrew as the spoken language of the Jews in Palestine,” brittanica.org wrote. These fragments were first printed in the rabbinical Bible of 1517. What interval separated this public reading of the Law from the reading of the Law as a portion of synagogue worship we have no means of knowing. As to its form it is a free Haggadic treatment of the text, that is, an exposition of rather than a translation. This is generally called the Targum of Jonathan or of the Pseudo-Jonathan, because it is cited in the first printed edition (Venice, 1591) under the name of Jonathan ben Uzziel. At the time when Nebuchadnezzar carried the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah captive to the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, the language of everyday life in Assyria and Babylonia had ceased to be that which has come down to us in the cuneiform inscriptions, and had become Aramaic, the lingua franca of Southwestern Asia. Or, to take an example more cognate, if less accessible to the general reader, the difference may be seen if one compares the Syriac of the New Testament Peshitta with that of the Peshitta of the Old Testament. The prophetic section of the Bible according to the Jews contains, besides what we ordinarily reckon prophetic books, also all the earlier historical books except Ruth, which is placed among the Hagiographa. An English translation has been published by Etheridge (supra). the Arabic translation by Saadya (Jerusalem, 1894-1901), in which publication the vowel pointing above the line has been changed to sublinear pointing; Barnheim, The Targum of Onkelos to Genesis (London, 1896), on the text of the Yemen manuscripts. However, they are of great interest for showing certain aspects of Jewish interpretation in the centuries immediately after the time of Christ. The Book of Esther has two Targums. Ps 23 is further from the text, but it also is exegetic; instead of "Yahweh is my shepherd, I shall not want," the Targum reads, "The Lord nourished His people in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing." The legend is that it was written by one Onqelos, a proselyte son of Kalonymus or Kalonikus, sister’s son of Titus. Its authorship is attributed to Onkelos, אונקלוס, a famous convert to Judaism in Tannaic times (c.35–120 AD).” (Wikipedia) --Bill Mounce. As an example the blessing of Judah in Jacob’s blessing of his sons may be given: "Judah, thou art praise and not shame; thee thy brethren shall praise. Originally the gospel of Matthew was probably written in Aramaic. “ Targums were designed to meet the needs of the unlearned Jews to whom the Hebrew of the Old Testament was unintelligible,” brittanica.org also stated. Jastrow derives it from the Assyrian r-g-m, "to speak aloud," an etymology which suits the origin of the Targums. 27031) by Ginsburger, Targum Jonathan ben Usiel zum Pentat, (Berlin, 1903). In doing this the Aramaic language is treated similarly to the Greek in the translation of Aquila, consequently the many Hebraic idioms. He is said to have desired to write a Targum of the Kethubhim, but was forbidden by a voice from heaven. Meg., IV, i = fol. The others are paraphrastic to a greater or less degree. Another regulation was that the Targum was not to be written down (Jer. There are two Targums of Esther, the first about five-sixths the size of Proverbs, the second, nearly double. There is a tendency to insert something between God and His worshipper, as "mimera’ Yahweh" instead of simply "Yahweh." Dr. Bill Mounce blogs on spiritual formation and on Greek at BillMounce.com. In their present form the latest targums that have been preserved are those on the Hagiographa. It must be acknowledged, however, that this cannot be regarded as a direct pronunciation of the Palestinian pronunciation; it may have sprung from a formal treatment of the Targum of Onkelos customary among the Babylonian scholars. Zuckermandel). Make sure to get the Aramaic targums to study along with these expert modern English translations. So the Tanakh in the local synagogues would generally be a document written in Hebrew, from which Aramaic oral translations were sometimes given. 440 and Lips. Another process had begun among the captives. in linguam Latinam translatum (London, 1655); GELBHAUS, Das Targum scheni zum B. Esther (Frankfort, 1893). Targums Of Onkelos and Jonathan Uzziel – Genesis and Exodus (1862) in PDF. 84 (Halle, 1893); BERLINER, Die Massorah zum Targ. From the facts above narrated, this language was of necessity Aramaic. The dialect of Mesopotamia, and its text was changed at places, in view of the altered situation. It is evident, however, that in the passage mentioned (Meg., 3a) there has been a confusion with the name of Aquila, the translator of the Bible, for the older parallel passage of the Palestinian Talmud (Meg., I, 11 = fol. Those of the five Meghilloth, as they are called, So of Songs, Ruth, Lamentation, Ecclesiates, and Esther, are excessively paraphrastic. 36b). The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, 166) languages and is, therefore, different from E Sem. Three groups are to be distinguished as regards linguistic character and relation to the original text: (a) Targums to Proverbs, Psalms, and Job; (b) Targums to the five Megilloth, that is Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Canticles; (c) Targums to the Books of Chronicles. As the majority of the population ceased to be conversant with the sacred language it became necessary to provide translations for the better understanding of the passages of the Bible read in Hebrew at the liturgical services. This designation is not correct; the older and more correct name, Palestinian Targum, is found for instance in the writings of Gaon Hai (d. 1038). 74d). Gospels and Acts as early as the El-Amarna tablets (c. 1400-1350 b.c.). Sometimes these expansions may be much shorter than the above example, but are illuminative, showing the views held by the Jewish teachers. A modern edition from the Bomberg text, with Chronicles from the Erfurt Codex, was edited by de Lagarde, Hagiographa chaldaice (Leipzig, 1873). Some words in the New Testament are Aramaic. Haggadic additions are found only occasionally in the Targum on the Psalms. However, there may well have been earlier targums on these books, which have disappeared. In English the different Bible Dictionaries. It was also to be found in volume IV of the London Polyglot. It is, however, in the poetical passages that the writer gives loose rein to paraphrase. Aramaic Manuscripts Cambridge Digital Library Targum Manuscripts - This database contains multiple Targum fragments from Targum Onqelos and Targum Jonathan. The Targums on the Pentateuch have been translated by Etheridge. Jonathan is regarded as the contemporary of the first Gamaliel, whereas Onqelos is the friend of Aqiba, the contemporary of Hadrian. Targum Neofiti is the largest of the Western Targumim on the Torah, or Palestinian Targumim. The Aramaic Bible is an impressive series that provides English translations of all the Targums, along with extensive introductions and notes. (1911). This is the view of Zunz (p. 73, and passim), and also that of Geiger, Urschrift und Udersetzungen der Bibel (Berlin, 1857), 454. IDEM (Berlin, 1903); NEUMARK, Lexikalische Untersuchungen zur Sprache der jerusalemischen Pentat. 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