In passages where eyes, arms, hands, fingers, face, mouth, wings, etc., are attributed to God, some other expression (as 'word,' 'might,' 'shekinah') is often (not always) employed: Gn821, Ex 7-1 »ii> Ism, Jos 42* 9", Ps 3iii. Expressions in the gen. case before the name ot God are paraphrased : Gn 2Sl'~ 3113, Ex 420.
The sense of a passage is even altered from motives of rever- ence or to avoid anthropomorphisms : tin 4i4 2013, Ex 33^*, Is 118 Hi", Ps 27. Interrog. sentences are rendered by the words that expressed the translator's sense of what the answer intended would be : Gn IS'-*, Dt 3'".
When one and the same expression has for object both God an<l men, the difference to the IraTishitor's mind is obtained by using a diiTerent preposition : On 32'-^ 60'20, Ex 1431, Nu2P. The word D'hVn, when used of heathen deities, is usually rendered Kiyo : Jos 23'' lo, Jg 21'2. When applied to men it is rendered 3T (Ex 418 71), K':-n (Ex 210, i„ Ps 821 \'i-1) ; ct, further. On 3» I'DIDTS = D'.lVxD, Ps 8" N'SnScD = D'.TJNO.
i. TaHOUMS on THE PENTATEUCH.— 1. OnkcloS. — The official Targ. on the Pent, has been lianded down under the name of the Targ. of Onkolos. According to the Bab. Talmud, Unkclos wjis a proselyte who lived in the 1st cent, a.d., but only once is any mention made of him as the \\Titer of a Tai'gum ;§ and here the corresponding passage in the Jerus. Talmud,|| which makes no mention of a Targ. of Onkelos, makes it clear that a confusion with the Gr. translator Aquila is the origin of the tradition which connects Unl>eIos with the Targ. called by his name. The author of the Targ. is (|uile unknown ; and it is not at all certain that we have to seek for it a sinj'le author. It has certainly a uniformity of style and diction, but this may equally well arise Irora official revision. The work, or parts of it, may have been first com- piled during the 2iid or 3rd cent. A.D. in Judiea,
• Weber, System der A ltjt]/n(tgofjatiichen Theotoffis, p. 174 f. t Notice the use of nO'D Job "8 19I8 (of Job himself). J Cf. GInsburgor, /Ktf AiithropoTnorphiiimen in tUn Thar gumim, p. 44. i Bab. Ueg. iii. 1. I Pal. Jfiv. L Ml
680
TARGUM
TARGUM
but it never seems to have obtained any great iQirency or esteem in Palestine. It is first quoted by the name of Onl>elos in a writing of Gaon Sar Shalom in the 9th cent. A.D.* In the Bab. Talmud it is referred to as 'our Targura' (pn Duin), or by the formula ' as we translate.' t The name ' Baby- lonian Targum ' does not therefore refer to its lin- guistic character, as was formerly supposed, for its language is the Aramaic of Juda'a, but has been given to it because in the 4th or 5th cent., after a final revision in Babylon, the centre of literary activity among the Jews at that time, it was sanctioned or recognized as an 'authorized' version. It came, in fact, to enjoy the reputation of being tlie best of all the Targums, and a special Massorah was prepared for it as for the original text itself. Even after the original purpose of the Targ. had been left behind, when Aramaic had disappeared before the rise of Islam and tlie spread of the Arabic language, the Targ. of Onkelos con- tinued to be written, and printed, as an accompani- ment of the Heb. text, verse after verse, or in parallel columns. The custom of reading it in the synagogue has gradually died out. Yemen, in South Arabia, is now the only exception to this.
Speaking generally, the translation is good, and faithful to the original. The text from which it was made was in all essentials the Massoretic text, and it is rendered in accordance with the con- ceptions that prevailed in the Jewish schools of tlie period. Poetic passages, e.g. Gn 49, Dt 32. 33, are not rendered so accurately, probably on account of their greater ditticulty ; paraphrase occasionally takes the place of translation ; mid- rdshim, both halakhd and haggadd, though by no means in the same degree as in the other Targg. to the Pent., are not entirely wanting. The removal of anthropomorphic or anthropo- pathic expressions referring to God is efl'ected by the devices mentioned above ; but, apart from this, the characteristic Jewish theological doctrines find scarcely any illustration in this Targum. Figura- tive language, as a rule, is not translated literally, but is explained: e.g. Gn 49-=, Ex 15s- a- lo 29K For an instance of cabbalistic interpretation in Onkelos cf. Nu 12', where NnT£:[? xnnx is the Targ. for n-i?2n ncxn. Gn 49'" and Nu 24" are ' Messiani- cally' explained. Geographical names are some- times replaced by those current at a later time ; cf. Gn 1U'"37», L)t3".
The first edition of this Targum was published at Bologna in 148l'.
2. Fragmentary Jerusalem Targum. — This Targ. contains only certain parts of the I'ent., estimated at about 850 verses in all. Three-fourths of it are on the historical sections of tlie Pent., and the remaining fourtli on the legislative sections in Exod., Lev., Numbers. In about 90 verses the trans- lation refers only to some single word of the text, and in about 14 chapters there is no translation or annotation at all. Where longer sections of it occur it is often extremely paraplirastic, the text being overlaid with midrashic stories. Its lan- guage is Palestinian Aramaic, but of a degenerate type, foreign words occurring in it to a great extent. It has afiinities with the lanmiage of Onlcelos, the Pal. Talmud, and midr&shtm, and also with the vocabulary of the Bab. Talmud.t