* Of. the preform. Impf. 8 pen. masc. iniat well a< in * ; emph. nati cf noun* etc.
)rm. Impl in •.. ; V
(or n*; adverbs in n'K, ; Vl (=qi-!K),
t Dathe, De rati&ne cniisensus vfrsionis chaldairce et gijriacfe i^rov. Saloin., ed. Rosenniuller, 1814; cf. Noldeke in Merx'B Archie, 1871, p. 240; MayUum, ti. p. 8&
The translation is literal, and additions to the text are extremely rare.*
2. The Targg. on the Megilloth are distinguished among the Targg. to the Uagiog. by their extreme Ijaraplirastic treatment of tlie text. In parts of them we can still liud the translation embedded in the paraphrase, but in other parts the legendary and hoimletic sections whicli have been added form the main feature of the work. These are made up in various ways. Historical parallels are cited for the narratives of the te.xt, with what would be anachronisms if the Targ. were regarded as a tr. of an ancient writing ; motives and reasons are supplied to explain the occurrence of events ; proper names are etymologized and 'explained'; wliilo hgurative language is rendered into prose, allegory takes the place ol narrative ; the Sanliedrin is fre- quently mentioned, and the study of tlje Law intro- duced on every possible occasion ; lengthy gene- alogies are appended to some of the names occurring in the text ; general statements are connected witn the names of particular individuals, esp. the patri- archs, Nimrod, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Titus and Vespasian, Alexander (? = Antiochus), Messiah the king, and Elias the high priest. The books of Kuth and Lam. are less paraphrastic than Eccles., Esth., or Canticles. One text of the Targ. on Esther (that given in the Antwerp Polyglot) Is, with few exceptions, a literal translation. Essenti- allj' the same text, with many haggadic additions, is printed in the London Polyglot, and this forms the usual Targum to Esther. The so-called second Targum (Sheni) is much more voluminous than the last named, and is regarded as an amalgam from other Targums and midrdxhim which from time to time were made for this favourite book. It is quoted by the commentators as ' haggada ' and as ' niidrash.' More than half the work has nothing to do with the story of Esther, but contains legends about Solomon, the queen of Sheba, etc. The Targ. on Canticles is of the same midrashic class : on the basis of certain words of the text we have outlined for us the varying fortunes of the Jewish people from the days of Moses down to the Talmud. We may note besides in this Targ. references to the two Messiahs — Messiah son of David, and Messiah son of Epliraiiu (iv. 5, vii. 3 ; cf. Jerus. Targ. on Ex 40" ; also Jerus. Targ. on Zee 12'" in Lagarde, p. xlii).
3. No Targ. to the Books of Chronicles was known to exist until after the great Polyglot Bibles had been published. In A)S0-83 a some- what incomplete Targ. from an Erfurt MS was edited with tr. and notes by M. F. Beck ; t and in 1715 a more complete form of the text from a Cainb. MS was edited with tr. by D. Wilkins. There are numerous variations in the two recen- sions. The tr. is in many parts fairly literal, but examples of mw/)«.v/uc ainplilication are not want- ing (cl. ICh l-'o- ■-! 4'» 7=' 11"-^ 12^-, 2Ch2«3'23"). The author made use of the Jerus. Targg. to the Pent. (cf. Gn lU-" and 1 Ch I'", Gn 36^" and 1 Ch I''*). The Targ. on the Books of Samuel and ICings was also largely used, of course with the changes in diction and orthography which characterize the Jerus. Targums. 1 Ch IG is tr. from the Heb. text of Chronicles, and the variations from the Targ. on the Psalms are quite as noticeable as the agree- ments. Indications of the age of tlie Targ. are the translations or modern forms of geographical names. The redaction of the te.xt represented by the Erfurt MS has been assigiieil to the 8th cent., that of the Cainb. text to the Uth.J
The text of the various Targg. has been banded
• Of. PinltuBS in ZA TW. 1894, p. 109. He mention* inlj twc
instances ol paraphrase, 24'-* 28'.
t Cf. Lai^arde, ila'iioijrapha ChaUlaicr, 1873. i Bobeuberg und Koliler in Geijfer's ZUcJu 1870L
TAEGUM
TARSHISH
G83
down and edited in a very unsatisfactory condition. Tlie official Targums on the Pent, and Prophets are relatively the best preserved, but an exandnation of >ISS and the printed edd. shows that a critical ed. was never attempted, nor were the materials for it forthcoming. The early disuse of the Targg. accounts for the unskilful and arbitrary treatment of the texts, and of the nou-olficial Targg. it would be correct to say that they never readied a fixed form till such was obtained by the multiplication of printed copies. The voc;ilization is specially faulty. The South Arabian MSS, with the simpler supra- linear system of vowel points first brouglit to Europe in 1876, provide us with an older and more trustworthy recension of the Targ. on the Law and Prophets tlian any vet in our hands. MSS on the Pent., Prophets, anil Megillotli are now to be found in London, St. Petersburg, and Strassburg, and selections from these have been published.*