Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Targum

by Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy

TARGUM (הרברם) in its concrete sense signifies the paraphrastic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, or parts thereof, into the Aramaic tongue. It has, however, three other meanings:—(1) a translation from any language into another^[1] (2) an interpretation in any language; ^[2] and (3) the Aramaic portions of certain books of the Bible (notably Daniel and Ezra). ^[3]

The word is not itself found in the Bible; but the participle methurgam (מתרבם) occurs in Ezr. iv. 7. The noun Targum, a form similar to Talmud (q.v.), occurs for the first time in the Mishnah, both canonical^[4]and non-canonical,^[5]—the latter being apparently the older source.

Origin.—Although none of the Targums now in our hands are as old as the Septuagint (q.v.), the public use of Targums on Sabbaths, festivals, &c., is very ancient, and indeed their language was for several hundreds of years the sole one understood by the majority of the Jews in Palestine and Babylonia. How the Hebrew people of Judæa came so entirely to unlearn their own Hebrew tongue as to stand in need of an Aramaic translation of their Scriptures need not be dwelt on here (see vol. xi. p. 597 and vol. xxi. p. 648). But an important contrast between the Aramaic and Greek versions deserves particular notice. The use of the Septuagint by the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, Asia Minor, and elsewhere caused those who adopted it to forget entirely their own Hebrew tongue. The Aramaic version (Targum), however, springing from a religious necessity, was the cause of revival of the knowledge of Hebrew, which had been nigh forgotten. It is therefore easy to understand why the Jews in general have shown comparatively little attachment to the Septuagint, whilst they ever ardently revered the Aramaic version, even after the institution of publicly reciting it had ceased. ^[6] To this day pious Jews privately prepare themselves every Friday for the lessons of the coming Sabbath by reading the weekly portion twice in the sacred text and once in the Targum (שנ׳םמקראךאחרתרכךם )

Former Use of the Targum in Public.—The following rules had to be observed in the reading of the Scriptures at the synagogal service:—

I. As regards the Law (Pentateuch). (1) The private person called to the Law (which chiefly contains halakhic ^[7] matter) read one verse of it, which the official methurgeman or turgeman (translator) immediately paraphrased; (2) whilst the reader of the Law was not allowed to take his eye off the written scroll, the .methurgeman was forbidden, not merely to read out of a written Targum, but even to look into the sacred text; ^[8] (3) each of these had to wait till the other had quite finished the reading and translation respectively; (4) one was not allowed to raise his voice in a louder key than the other; (5) a certain number of passages, although allowed to be read, were not allowed to be translated; these were —

(a) such as might reflect unfavourably on a father of a tribe, or on an eminent teacher (T. B., Megill., 25b, Tosaph, catchword מעשה); (b) such as might encourage the ignorant to think that there was some truth in idolatry ; (c) such as might offend decency (Mishnah, Megillah, iv. 10; Tosephto, ibid, 35, 37; T. Yer., ibid., iv. 10; and T. B., ibid., leaf 25b); (d) such as were fixed by the Lord Himself to be read in Hebrew only (as the sacerdotal benediction, Num. vi. 24-26); ^[9] (6) the translator was neither allowed to give a literal translation nor to add anything that had no foundation in the Divine word; he had to give the spirit of the letter. ^[10]

II. As regards the Prophets. (1) The person called to read the Prophets (which chiefly contain agadic matter ^[11]) might read three verses, of which the translator, who might be the reader himself, ^[12] sought to render the meaning to the best of his ability; (2) the translator was allowed both to read out of a Targum volume and to look also into the book containing the prophetic text; (3) if reader and translator were two different persons they observed the third rule given above for the case of reading the Law; (4) here also certain passages were not allowed to be translated:— (a) such as reflected on great men of the Israelite nation; (5) such as offend decency; (5) any one sufficiently intelligent might read, and of course paraphrase, the portion from the Prophets.

III. As regards the Hagiographa. The widest range of liberty must have been granted both to reciters and translators, as very scanty mention of any particular provision concerning it is to be found in the Talmuds. The Psalms and the book of Esther are classed together in so far as they may be read and paraphrased even by ten persons (T. B., Meg., 21b). For Job and Lamentations, see below.

Duration of this Practice.—The practice of publicly reciting the Targum continued somewhat later than the last of the geonim. Within the last 400 years of that period, however, the power of this ancient institution began to fluctuate, gradually declined, and finally almost—but not entirely ^[13]—died out. The causes of this were twofold. One was, that after the Mohammedan conquests Arabic supplanted Aramaic as the vernacular, and the Targums thus became unintelligible to the mass (see Seder Bab 'Amram, i., Warsaw, 1863, leaf 29a), even as was already the case in the Western world. A second and more important cause, however, was the spread of Ḳaraism, whose criticism of the Rabbinic contents of the Targums provoked the Rabbanites to pay more attention to the etymology and grammar of the Hebrew text of the Bible. Thus the Targums, both in their periods of vigour and decay, exercised, directly and indirectly, a salutary influence. In each case the knowledge of Hebrew was promoted; and it advanced so much, that by 1000 A.D. the Jews of Irak, like those of the rest of the world then, and as in our own days, certainly knew the pure Hebrew better than the Aramaic idiom. The same was the case in other Arabic-speaking parts, as Spain, Africa, &c.,—Yemen then and still forming a solitary exception. ^[14]

Authorship and Age of the Various Targums.—The Targums on the various books of the Bible are not merely by various authors, but also of various ages. They have only one thing in common,—all of them rest on oral traditions, which are hundreds of years older than the earliest form of the written Targums now in our hands. We enumerate them according to Biblical order, although that is not necessarily the chronological order in which they were either composed or committed to writing.

I. The Pentateuch. — (α) There is a complete Targum known as Onḳelos (אזנקלזם, אזנקלם, נקלזם, אזנק׳לזם). The person and even the name of Onḳelos have been for the last three hundred years a crux criticorum.

According to the Babylonian Talmud, Megil., 3a, "Onḳelos (son of Calonicus, Gitt.,56b, or of Calonymus, Ab. Zar., 11a), the proselyte, composed the Targum on the Pentateuch (אמרז) out of the mouth of R. Eli'ezer and R. Yehoshua'," who taught in the 1st and 2d centuries. In the Jerusalem Talmud, Meg., i. 9, the same thing is related on the same authorities, and almost in the same words, of the proselyte Aquila (Akylas) of Pontus, whose Greek version of the Bible was much used by Greek-speaking Jews down to the time of Justinian {Nov., cxlvi. cap. 1). ^[15] There are other parallels between what Tosephto and the Babylonian Talmud tell of Onḳelos and what the Jerusalem Talmud and the Midrash tell of Aquila. Both throw their idolatrous inheritance into the Dead Sea (Tos., Demai, vi. 12; T. Y., Demai, vi. 10), and both have connexions with Roman emperors, Onḳelos being sister’s son of Titus (Gittin, 56b), and Aquila of Hadrian (Midr. Tanh., Mishpatim; see, also, for Onḳelos, Ab. Z., 11a, and for Aquila’s connexion with Hadrian, T. Y., Hag., ii. 1; Shem. Rab., xxx.; Epiphanius, De Mens. Et Pond., xiv. sq. ). From these facts some (see H. Adler, Nethinah lagger, in the Vilna Pent,, 1874, Introd.) still argue that Onḳelos is but another name for Aquila, and that the Greek translator also wrote our Targum. This view was long ago refuted by R. 'Azaryah de’ Rossi, ^[16] and is quite untenable. It is incredible that Aquila or any other Greek could have had the mastery of Aramaic and of traditional lore as well as of Hebrew which the Targum displays; and the phrase of T. Y.,Megil. , i. 9, “an untutored person picked out for them Aramaic from the Greek, is quite inapplicable to Onḳelos, and ought to be taken as referring to the Peshito Syriac, which is admittedly dependent on the LXX. In a Jewish writing "for them"—set absolutely—means “for the Christians.” The view now accepted by most critics is that the word Onḳelos is a Babylonian corruption of Akylas, but that the name “Targum Onḳelos” originally meant no more than “Targum in the style of Aqiiila,” i.e., bearing to the freer Palestinian Targums a similar relation to that of Aquila’s version to the Septuagint. ^[17] On this view there never was a real person called Onḳelos. But how Akylas (ץק׳לם ; in Ber. Rab. i. middle, אק׳לזם or ק׳ל׳ן, i.e., ק׳לץ) could be corrupted into Onḳelos has not been satisfactorily explained; and, besides the traditions about Onḳelos which resemble what is known about Aquila, there are others, and these older than either Gemara, which have no such resemblance, and assign to him an earlier date, associating him with R. Gamliel the elder, the teacher of St Paul (Tosephto, Shab., vii. [viii.] 18; Hag., iii. 2, 3; Kel. Bab. Bath., ii. 4; Miḳv., vi. 3; Talmud B., Ab. Zar,, 11a; Mas. Semaḥ., viii. init.). The Zohar (iii. leaf 73a of the small ed.) ascribes his being circumcised to Hillel (R. Gamliel’s grandfather) and Shammai. These notices, it is true, do not speak of Onḳelos as a targumist; and, indeed, the Targum being a representative piece of the oral law was certainly not written down, private notes (megilloth setharim) excepted, before the Mishnah, Tosephto, &c., i.e., till about the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 7th century. But in the opinion of the present writer this need not prevent us from recognizing Onḳelos as a corrector and compiler of oral Targum in the 1st century. As regards the name, it may be suggested that Onḳelos is a deliberate perversion of Evangelus, a Greek proper name which exactly translates the Jewish (and especially Babylonian- Jewish) name Mebasser. As the Christian writings are called Aven (iniquity, idolatry), and as the pre-Mishnic teacher R. Meir calls the gospel (evangelion) ongillayon (iniquity of the roll; T. B., Shab., leaf 116, Amst. ed. of 1645), or, by inversion, gilyon-aven (roll of iniquity), the name Evangelus, which suggested associations with the gospel, might be perverted into Onḳelos quasi On-keles (iniquity of disgrace). And, while a Babylonian Jew coming to Palestine might find it convenient to translate his Hebrew name into Evangelus, this good Greek name was enough to suggest in after times that he was of heathen origin and so to facilitate the confusion with Aquila. The idiom of the Targum Onḳelos, which is held to be Palestinian with some Babylonian features, points to Babylonia as the country of its final redactor, if to Palestine as its source. It must be remembered that Hillel and other great fountains of Palestinian learning were of Babylonian origin. ^[18]

(β) Certain Targumic fragments on the Pentateuch go under the name of Targum Yerushalmi, or, rather, Palestinian Targum. These are the remains of a much larger Jerusalem Targum, once current in Palestine. But, the Palestinian rabbis not having approved of it, because it accorded in various of its interpretations and phrases with interpretations and phrases to be found in the Gospels,^[19] it gradually lost its authority and the greater portion of its original matter, and is now in our hands what it is. It certainly never was part of the T. Onḳelos, nor was the T. Onḳelos part of it, though the two are closely related. As regards its age, several of the pieces formerly found in it (now in T. Yonathan) were in the 2d and 3d centuries distinctly quoted^[20] with disapprobation. But like Onḳelos it cannot have been written down before the Mishnah and other parts of the oral Law.^[21]

(γ) The Targum Yonathan, or T. of Jonathan, on the Pentateuch is also Palestinian. This Targum was no doubt undertaken, as Dr Bacher has shown (Z.D.M.G., xxviii. p. 69), to combine the finest parts of what early T. Onḳelos and T. Yerushalmi contained. This attempt could not have been made without both these Targums lying in writing before the compiler of the third Targum. The Targum Yonathan on the Pentateuch is a product, at the earliest, of the 7th century, to which conclusion internal evidence also points.^[22] The author is, of course, not the Yonathan b. 'Uzziel, principal of the eighty disciples of Hillel (T. B., Sukkah, 28a), who, according to T. Bab., Megill., 3a, composed a Targum on the Prophets from the traditions of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.^[23]

II. Targum Yonathan on the Prophets.—It has been known from early quotations, as from Rashi (q.v.) and others, but notably from Kimhi (q.v.), that, in addition to the complete extant Targum on the Prophets, there existed other Targums or fragments of them. These are now known from the marginal additions to the Reuchlinian Codex of the Targum on the Prophets published by Lagarde (Leipsic, 1872), and have been discussed by Bacher (ut sup.). As regards the complete Targum on the Prophets, no mistake can be greater than to believe that Rab Yoseph, a teacher of the 3d and 4th centuries, and head of the academy of Pumbaditha (see Rabbah), was the author of this Targum in whole or in part. This mistake has its origin in the repeated phrase of the Babylonian Talmud, נרמתרכסרניוםף ("as Rab Yoseph targumizes"); but then a similar phrase exists with regard to Rab Shesheth, נרמתרכסרניוםף ("as Rab Shesheth^[24] targumizes"). And in like manner the expression נרמתרכסרניוםף ("as we targumize") is of frequent occurrence. In this last instance the words mean "as we are in the habit of translating certain passages in Holy Writ according to a Targum we have received." As applied to Rab Yoseph and Rab Shesheth the phrase may certainly mean more and yet not imply that these teachers were in any way authors of the Targum on the Law, the Prophets, or Hagiographa. Rab Yoseph and Rab Shesheth were both blind, and as such were not allowed to quote in extenso the written word of the Law, which it was forbidden to recite orally. They therefore committed to memory the oral Targum, and so were, of course, appealed to as Targumic authorities, &c.^[25] That Rab Yoseph was not the author of the Targum on the Prophets will be clearly seen from the following Talmudic passage (B., Megillah, 3a; Mo'ed Katan, 28b):—"Were it not for the Targum of that verse [Zechar. xii. 11] I should not know the meaning of the prophet." This verse is from the last but one of all the Prophets;^[26] and we see that Rab Yoseph must have had the Targum on the Prophets before him. In the opinion of the present writer this Targum was composed by Yonathan; and, not being on books of the Law, there was no reason why it should not have been there and then written down.^[27] Although the traditions it embodies came originally from Babylonia and returned to Babylonia, its language has yet a more marked colouring of the Palestinian idiom than that of Onḳelos, because it was not studied so much and therefore not so much modified and interpolated. Some of the Agadoth occurring in this Targum are ascribed in the Talmud and Midrash to later men, but this is no conclusive argument against an early date. It can be shown that many laws and sayings supposed to be of the 2d, 3d, and 4th centuries of the Christian era are actually of pre-Christian times, and, indeed, certain explanations, figures of speech, &c., had been, so to say, floating in the air for centuries. Certain passages in the Septuagint contain Agadoth which reappear, seemingly for the first time, in the Talmudic literature. The Prophets themselves knew Agadoth which only reappear in what are believed to be late Midrashim (comp., e.g., Isaiah xxix. 22 with T. B., Synh., 19b; Isa. xxx. 26 with Targum on Judges v. 31, Ber. Rab., xii.; Ezek. xxii. 24, &c., with. Ber. Rab., xxxiii.).^[28]

III. Targum on the Hagiographa.—No author’s name is attached to this Targum in whole or in part. The Psalms must have had one^[29] or two^[30] Targums; the book of Proverbs at least two;^[31] the book of Job at least three.^[32] There must have been two Targums on Canticles,^[33] Ruth,^[34] Ecclesiastes,^[35] and Esther,^[36] and probably theee on Lamentations,^[37] the earliest of which was, no doubt, simultaneously coming into existence with the earliest on the book of Job. For Ezra-Nehemiah no Targum exists. Daniel only in part wanted a Targum, and it is supposed to have had one;^[38] and the books (or rather the book) of Chronicles have a by no means late one,^[39] although it is not by Rab Yoseph, of the 4th century.^[40]

State of Text.—The Targum text is, taken as a whole, in a very corrupt state. The causes of this corruption are many, but chiefly the following:—(1) mistakes ordinarily made by scribes through carelessness, or ignorance, or both; (2) the Targums had passed from century to century and from country to country without having been written down; (3) when written down they were probably not provided with vowel-points at once; (4) when provided with vowel-points most of them were first provided with Babylonian (or Assyrian), which afterwards were changed into Palestinian ones; this change was a fertile source of fresh mistakes; (5) the loss of the general knowledge of the Targumic idiom contingent on the decline and final fall of the institution of publicly reciting the Targum was an additional source from which mistakes arose; (6) conjectural emendations contributed their quota to the corruption of the text; (7) Buxtorf’s emendations founded on the diction of the Biblical Targum (as suggested in the Methurgeman) are a gross mistake, inasmuch as they lack the criticism of history; (8) printers’ mistakes, increasing in every new edition, have all but ruined the text. The remedies for this corruption are:—(1) good Targum MSS. in private hands and public libraries, notably in Italy, Germany, and England; (2) Targum MSS., according to the Babylonico-Assyrian system of punctuation, chiefly preserved in South Arabia, Russia, and England; (3) some early and comparatively good printed editions; (4) the Massoreth of the Targum.

Value of the Targums.—The idea so long entertained, even by the learned, that these old versions were valuable chiefly as guides to the original readings of the sacred text must be given up. All of them contain more or less, whether visible at first sight or not, certain paraphrastic elements, which give no absolute security for the exact reading of the pristine Hebrew text. But besides their importance as linguistic monuments they have the highest value as historical records—(1) of the exegesis which obtained at the time of their composition, and (2) of the then current manners, thoughts, and aspirations both of the Jews and of the surrounding nations.^[41] (s. m. s.-s.)

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1. Hence אשכנף תרנךם (German translation), &c.
2. When the word is used in either of these two senses the language into which the translation is made, or in which an interpretation is given, must be specified, or otherwise indicated, e.g., תרנרם השכעם (Greek translation), תרנרם השכעם (Septuagint), תרנרם השכעם (Aquila translated), except when it is Aramaic, in which case the language may be named (as in Ezra iv. 7) or not (Tosephto, Shabbath, xiii. [xiv.] 2).
3. Compare Mishnah, Yadayim, iv. 5.
4. See last note.
5. Siphere (see vol. xvi. p. 507) on Deuteronomy (Pericope Shophetim), Pisko 161.
6. “Let not the Aramaic be lightly esteemed by thee,” says the Jerusalem Talmud, “seeing that the Holy One (blessed be He!) has given honour to it in the Pentateuch (Gen. xxxi. 47), in the Prophets (Jer. x. 11), and in the Hagiographa (Dan. ii. 4),” (Sotah, vii. 2). Instead of “Arammi” (Aramaic) the Midrash Rabbah on Genesis reads “Parsi” (Persian); the reading here is "Sursi" (Syriac).
7. See Mishnah, vol. xvi. p. 503.
8. This was done to prevent its being thought that the Targum (the exponent of the oral Law) was to be found in writing in the Pentateuch (the exponent of the written Law).
9. The Babylonian Talmud (Megillah, 25b) says that the priestly benediction was not to be recited in Aramaic on account of the phrase “the Lord shall lift up His countenance upon thee,” which would appear as if the Lord had been a respecter of persons. In Talmudic times they had apparently, in Babylonia, lost the real reason of the Mishnic prohibition, which is that this benediction is doubly, yea, trebly Divine, being framed in its every word by God Himself, and can thus only be recited in those very words (כה, thus; Num. vi. 23). See Mishnah, Sotah, vii. 2; T. Yerushalmi, ibid., and Megillah, iv. 11, and, finally, Bemidbar Rabbah, cap, xi. in medio.
10. See Tosephto, Megillah, iv. in fine.
11. See Midrash, vol. xvi. p. 285.
12. Thus Jesus (Luke iv, 16–27) no doubt read the Haphtarah (prophetic portion) himself, and paraphrased it himself. From this custom of reading and paraphrasing by one and the same person the sermon sprang. The passage in question (Isa. Ixi. 1, &c.) was read on the Sabbath before the New Year (day of memorial).
13. Long after the institution of publicly reciting the Targum on the Law had generally declined, it was yet retained in Germany and Italy on certain days of the three high festivals, viz., (a) the seventh day of Passover, (5) the first day of Pentecost, and (c) the last day attached to the festival of Tabernacles (i.e.,מזרה שמחח ). The passages so I recited were—(a) parts of the lesson for the day—the song of Moses and the children of Israel, with the introduction; (5) the Decalogue in Exodus; (c) the last portion of Deuteronomy. In the first case the paraphrase was from the three Targums mixed, in the second from the Targum Yonathan with deviations, in the last from the Targum Oukelos. (These pieces are interspersed with sundry bits of poetry; see Camb. MS. Add. 374, leaves 169a–171b, 199a–203a, 423b-427b.) Towards the end of the 14th century, as regards Passover and Pentecost, the custom fell into desuetude, but down to our own days some of the congregations of Italy continue the usage of reciting the Targum Oukelos in connexion with the narration of the death of Moses. This custom, however, is now rapidly dying out. As regards the recitation of the Targum on the Prophets, a small remnant of the congregations following the rite of Rome (i.e., the so-called Italiani) continue it to this day on the festival of Passover. For the use of the Targum on Pentecost, see Responsa, by R. Meir of Rothenburg (Rosh, q.v, footnote 3), No. 59.
14. In Yemen the Targum is publicly recited to this day, and, strange to say, by boys of nine years of age or so in turn. See J. Saphir, Eben Sappir, i. (Lyck, 1866, 8vo) leaves 53b, 61a. Saphir once told the present writer that a youth, eighteen years of age (ut supra, 61b), who carried his travelling-bag and served as his guide over the mountains, Saïd, i.e., Se'adyah, by name and a shoemaker by trade, could translate to him in Aramaic from memory any passage Saphir recited in Hebrew.
15. For the connexion of Aquila with R. Eli'ezer and R. Yehoshua', see also Beresh. Rab., Ixx. ; Bemidh. Rab., viii. end; Kohel. Rab., vii. 8.
16. I.e., “min Haadummim.” The Adummim are supposed to be one of the four noble families carried to Rome by Titus.
17. The Jerusalem Talmud repeatedly cites Aquila’s renderings and never names Onḳelos. But it does show acquaintance with renderings found in Onḳelos (e.g., Megil,, iv. 11; cf. Onḳ, on Exod. xxxii. 35). In the Midrash Rabbah, besides many citations from Aquila, we find one of Onḳelos by name (in Bem. R., ix. in fine; Onḳ. on Deut. xxxii. 24) and various allusions (without name) to renderings found in him. He is also cited by name in the Palestinian Pireḳe de-R. Eli'ezer, xxxviii.
18. Bibliography of the Targum אזנקלזם—(A) There are very fine MSS. of this Targum at Parma, Oxford, Cambridge (Dd. 11, 26, Add. 446, 1053), the British Museum, Kissingen (Rabbin Bamberger), &c. (B) A Massoreth on our Targum by an anonymous author, who must have lived in or before the 12th century, has been published—(1) by Luzzatto (Oṣar Neḥmad, iv.); (2) by Adler (Vilna edition of the Pentateuch of 1874) ; and (3) by Berliner (with a German translation, &c., Leipsic, 1877, 8vo). (C) Leading editions:—(1) Bologna, 1482, editio princeps, without vowel-points; (2) the Complutensian polyglott; (3) the Bomberg Rabbinic Bible of 1517; (4) Sabbioneta, 1557, 16mo (reprinted, not without mistakes, at Berlin, 1884, imp. 8vo); and (5) Vilna edition of the Pentateuch of 1874, the Targum being pointed according to a Bodleian MS. (Canon. Orient. 91). (D) Translations:—(a) into Latin—(1) by Alphonsus Zamorensis (Polygl., 1517, &c.); (2) by P. Fagius (Strasburg, 1546, folio); (5) into English by Etheridge (Targums, London, 1862–65, 8vo). (E) Commentaries, all in Hebrew:—(1) Pathshegen, by an anonymous Provençal rabbi of the 12th century (see Maḥzor), in the Vilna Pentateuch of 1874; (2) by R. Mordekhai b. Naphtali (Amsterdam, 1671–77, fol.); (3) Leḥem Vesimlah (double commentary) by R. Bensiyyon Berkowitz (Vilna, 1846–56); (4) by Dr Nathan M. Adler (Vilna Pentateuch of 1874, ut supra). (F) Other literature (also for the other Targums):—(a) in Hebrew—Meor 'Enayim, by R. 'Azaryah m. Haadummim (cheapest and best edition, Vilna, 1863; Mine Targumo, by R. Y. Berlin or Pick (Breslau, 1851, 4to); Oheb Ger, by S. D. Luzzatto (Vienna, 1830); Oteh Or, by the before-named B. Berkowitz (Vilna, 1843); Iggereth Biḳḳoreth, by R. Z. H. Hayyuth (Chajes), ed, Brüll, Presburg (1853, 8vo); Rapoport, Erekh Millin, (Prague, 1852, 4to); Löwy, Biḳḳoreth Hattalmud, i. (Vienna, 1868, 8vo); (5) in Latin—Morinus, Exercitationes, ii. viii, 6 (Paris, 1660); Winer, De Onkeloso (Leipsic, 1820, 4to); R. Anger, De Onkelo (Leipsic, 1845–46); (c) in German—Zunz, Gottesd. Vorträge (Berlin, 1832); Geiger, Urschrift (Breslau, 1857); Hamburger, Real-Encyclopädie; Targum Onḳelos, by Dr A. Berliner (Berlin, 1884, imp. 8vo). On this work, see Nöldeke, in Zarncke’s Centralbl., 1884, No. 39, and Lagarde in Gött. Gel. Anzeig., November 1886 (No. 22); (d) in English: E. Deutsch, in his Literary Remains—to be used with caution. (G) Lexicons to this and other Targums:—(1) as for the Talmuds and Midrashim, so also for the Targum, R. Nathan b. Yehiel's Arukh (see Talmud, p. 37, note 7) stands first; (2) next to it is Elias Levita’s Methurgerman (Isny, 1541, fol.); (3) Buxtorf’s Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum, et Rabbinicum (cheap and new, though by no means best, edition, Leipsic, 1869–75); (4) Levy’s Chald. Wörterb. (1866–68); (5) Jastrow’s Dictionary, i. (New York, 1886). (H) Grammars:—(1) Juda Jeitteles’s Mebo Hallashon (Prague, 1813, 4to); (2) Bliicher’s Marpe Leshon Arammi (Vienna, 1838); (3) Fürst’s Lehrgeb. d, Aram. Idiome (Leipsic, 1855); (4) Lerner’s Diḳduḳ Lashon Arammith (Warsaw, 1875); all in 8vo.
19. See T. Yer., Berakhoth, v. 3, and compare with it Luke vi, 36. Compare Berliner, ut supra, pp. 85, 86.
20. Compare last note.
21. Bibliography of the Targum Yerushalmi on the Pentateuch.—(A) There is a MS. of this Targum preserved in the Vatican library (ccccxl.). (B) The first edition of this Targum is in the so-called Christian Rabbinic Bible of 1517. It is to be found also in most polyglott and Rabbinic Bibles, including the Polish editions (Warsaw, &c.). (C) Translations:—(a) Latin—(1) by Taylerus (London, 1649, 4to); (2) by Chevalier (in the Polyglott, London, 1653-57). (b) In English by Etheridge (Targums, London, 1862-65, 8vo). (D) There are two commentaries on this Targum in Hebrew:—(1) by .R. David b. Ya'akob (Prague, 1609, 4to); (2) by R. Mordekhai b. Naphtali (Amsterdam, 1671-77, fol.).
22. See our Targum on Gen. xxi. 21, where Mohammed's first wife (Khadīdja) and their youngest daughter (Fatima) are mentioned by name.
23. Bibliography.—(A) There certainly exists, somewhere in Italy, a MS. of this Targum, although the owner is at present unknown. (B) This Targum appeared for the first time in the Pentateuch edition of Venice (1590-91, 8vo). (C) Translations:—(a) Latin by Chevalier (London, 1653-57); (b) in English by Etheridge (op. cit.). (D) Commentaries:—(1) by R. David b. Ya'akob (Prague, 1609, 4to); (2) by R. Mordekhai b. Naphtali (Amst., 1671-77, fol.); (3) by an anonymous author in the Warsaw edition.
24. In the editions before us (T. B., Sotah, 48b) Yoseph stands on the margin instead of Shesheth; but in the edition before R. 'Azaryah m. Haadnmmim the reading was absolutely Shesheth; see Meor 'Enayim, cap. xlv.
25. See Tosaphoth on B. Ḳam., leaf 3a, catchword נרמתרנם.
26. This is by no means an isolated phrase; in T. B., Synhedrin, 94b, a similar one occurs, referring to Isa. viii. 6.
27. See, however, vol. xxi. p. 648.
28. Bibliography.—(A) There are MSS. of the Targum on the Prophets in the Bodleian (Opp. Add., 4to, 75 and 76, Uri 4 and Kennicott 5). (B) The earliest edition is in the Rabbinic Bible of 1617. (C) Translations:—(a) in Latin—(1) by Alphonsus Zamorensis (revised by Arias Montanus and afterwards by Clericus); (2) Jeremiah, by Ghislerus, 1623; (3) Minor Prophets, by Mercenis, 1559, Tremellius, 1567, and Figueiro, 1615; (4) Hosea, Joel, and Amos, by Quinquarboreus, 1556; (5) Obadiah, by Bedwell, 1601, and Leusden, 1656; (b) in English—Isaiah, by Pauli (London, 1871, 8vo). (D) Besides the general literature mentioned under Onḳelos (in fine), we must mention Frankel, Zum Targum der Propheten (Breslau, 1872, 4to), which must be used with caution.
29. See T. B., Megillah, 21a, and also Rashi on T. B., Ta'anith, leaf 18a. Zunz is greatly mistaken when he says (Gott. Vortr., p. 64) that the Targums on Psalms, Job, and Proverbs have one and the same linguistic- character. The Targum on Proverbs is almost pure Syriac.
30. See the Targum itself on Psalm Ixxvi. 11.
31. There, no doubt, existed another Targum on this book, older than that now in our hands; see Ber. Rab., xciii.
32. See the extant Targum on Job xxiv. 19, and. comp. note 19 infra.
33. See R. Nathan b. Yehiel’s {'}Arukh, s.v. פלסיא "Yerushalmi Targum" presupposes at least one other.
34. The Targum on the Five Megilloth has all one character, and is therefore wholly Yerushalmi.
35. The Targum itself repeatedly quotes another Targum.
36. See Rashi on T. B., Megillah, leaf 13b, catchword זכה. We have still two Targums on Esther. It ought to be mentioned here that in the post-Talmudic Massekheth Sopherim, xiii. 6, an Aramaic translation of Esther iii, 1 is given with the introductory words: תרנם ׳וסף רכ ("Rab Yoseph targumized"). This somewhat lengthy translation is found (the quotation from the Targum on Proverbs excepted) almost verbatim in the Targum Sheni in loc.
37. The book of Lamentations, and consequently a Targum thereon, was no doubt used along with the book of Job and the Targum thereon, by mourners. See Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue, i. p. 27.
38. See Munk, "Notice sur Saadia" (Cahen, La Bible: Isaïe, Paris, 1838), p. 159. His ingenious remarks are scarcely borne out by fact.
39. From a late name occurring in a book no conclusions must be drawn, as isolated words may be a mere interpolation. The internal character of a work must decide the age in which it was composed.
40. Bibliography.— There are MSS. of the Targum—(1) on the Psalms, in Parma (De-Rossi, 31, 32, 732) and Paris (110); (2) on Proverbs, in Parma (31, 32) and Paris (as before); (3) on Job, in Parma (31, 32) and Paris (as before); (4) on the Five Megilloth, in the Court Library of Vienna (xxix.), Parma (31, 32), the Bodleian (Uri 1, 44), Cambridge (Add., 436); and (5) on Chronicles in the Vatican (Urb. i.), the Erfurt ministerial library, Cambridge (E 5, 9), and the Bodleian (Uri 35, 36). (B) The earliest editions of the Targum on the Hagiographa (except on Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles) are the Rabbinic Bibles, and on Chronicles those of 1680-83 by Beck and 1714 by Wilkins. (C) Translations:—(a) in Hebrew—the Targum Sheni—(1) Leshon Zahab (Const., 1732), and (2) Pathshegen hakkethab (Amst., 1770, repr. at Czernowitz, 1838),—all 8vo; (b) in Latin—(1) on the Psalms, by Aug. Justinianus, and again by Arias Montanus; (2) on Proverbs, by Alphonsus Zamorensis; (3) on Job, by the same; (4) on Canticles, by the same, and again by Schreckenfuchs (Basel, 1553, 8vo); (5) on Ruth, by Arias Montanus, Quinquarboreus (Paris, 1556, 4to), Mercerus (Paris, 1564–65; revised 1657); (6) on Lamentations, by Alph. Zam., by Quinquarboreus (Paris, 1549, 4to), by Ghislerus (Leyd., 1623, fol.), and again by Taylerus (Lond. 1651, 4to); on Ecclesiastes, by Ar. Mont., by Schreckenfuchs (Basel, 1555, 8vo), and again by Costus (Leyden, 1554, 4to); (7) on Esther, by Ar. Mont. (1572, folio); (8) Chronicles by Beck from the Erfurt MS. (imperfect, Augsb., 1680–83) and by Wilkins from the Cambridge MS. (Amst. 1715); (c) in German—(1) on the Five Megilloth, by R. Ya'aḳob b. Shemuel (Breisgau, 1584, 4to); (2) on the Targum Sheni, by David Ottensosser (Sulzbach, 1820, 8vo). (D) Commentaries:—(a) in Hebrew—(1) on the Targum of the Five Megilloth, by R Elyaḳim Rothenburg (Prague, 1618); (2) on Esther alone, by R. Shemuel Maḳshan (Prague, 1601, 4to); (3) on the same Targum, by R. David b. Yehudah Melammed (Cracow, 1644, 4to); on the Targum Sheni, by R. David b. Ya'akob (Prague, 1609, 4to); (b) in Spanish—on Canticles, by R. Mosheh Laniado (Venice, 1619, 4to).
41. R. Yehudah Ibn Ḳoreish fully understood the value of the Targums. See his interesting epistle, addressed to the Jewish community of Fez, published at Paris (1857, 8vo), under the name of Epistola de Studii Targum Utilitate. A translation of the introductory part (by Wetzstein) is given in the L. B. O., iii. col. 22 (reprinted by Dr Berliner, T. O., p. 168 sq.). Ibn Ḳoreish belonged to the 9th century, and not, as Berliner says, to the 10th or 11th; nor was he a Ḳaraite as Graetz (v, p. 293) half believes.