have dropped the first syllable, and bestowed it on those miortVnding '• ray" or " rye grasses," by which the dar- nel is represented in our hay-fields. Thus understood, "how well ilo these 'tares' rejjresent those who make a false profession; who ai)pear among God's people; who draw near with their mouth, and honor (jod with their lips, but their heart is far from him ( Isa. xxix, 13; Matt. XV, X; JIark vii.G)! Both grow together, and at tirst may seem alike. !Man cannot accurately distinguish between the true and the false ; but at the great harvest- day the Lord will separate them. He will gather the wheat into his garner, while the tares shall be con- sumed" (Balfour, Bot. and Relig. p. 251). — Fairbaim. See Kitto, I'id. Bible, ad loc. ; Hackett, Ilhistr. of Script. p. loO ; Calcott [Lady], Sci'ipt. Herbal, p. 475 sq. ; Tris- tram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 480; Bochelius, Be Zi- zuniis in Eccles. Dei Disseminutis (Arg. 1(501).
Target ("I'l"''?) kidon, 1 Sara, xvii, G, a spear, as usually rendered; nS^, tsinnah, 1 Kings x, IG; 2 Chron. ix, 15 ; xiv, 8, a large shield, as usually rendered). See
SHIKLI>.
Targum (D'5"iri, i. e. translation, interpretation^ is the name given to a Chaldee version or paraphrase of the Old Test., of which there are several extant.
I. Origin of the Targums. — The origin of the Chaldee paraphrase may be traced back to the time of Ezra. After the exile it became the practice to reail the law in public to the people, with tlie addition of an oral paraphrase in the Chaldee dialect. Thus we read in
Neh. viii, 8, Tr-nE72 ninbsn r^ira -ec3 iN"pii
tiSC D1^"1, which expression the Talmud, Bab. Megil- /t(^, fol. 3, col. 1, explains Ql:i~in IT ir"i?S^, i.e. "to ex- plain means Targum." This ecclesiastical usage, ren- dered necessary by the change of language consequent on the Captivity, was undoubtedly continued in after- times. It rose in inijiortance, especially when the syn- agogues and public schools began to flourish, the chief subject of occupation in which was the exp<isition of the Thorah. The office of the interpreter ("^Sliro, "iTIS'^lr, N-5T;X, less frequently "lUJII, comp. Zunz, Die goitesd. Vortrdge, p. 332) thus became one of the most important, and the canon of the Talnuid, that as the law was given by a mediator, so it can be read and expounded only by a mediator, became paramount (Je- ms. j\Iegillah, fol. 74). Tlic Talnuul contains, even in its oldest portions, precise injunctions concerning the manner of conducting these expositor}' prelections. Thus, "Neither the reader nor the interpreter is to raise his voice one above the other;" "They have to wait for each other until each have finished his verse;" "The methiirgcman is not to lean against a pillar or a beam, but to stand with fear and with reverence ;" " He is not to use a written Targum, but he is to deliver his translation riva voce ;" "No more than one verse in the Pentateuch and three in the prophets shall be read or translated at a time;" "That there should be not more than one reader and one interpreter for the law ; while for the prophets one reader and one interpreter, or two interpreters, are allowed" (IMishna, Megilkih, iv, 5, 10; Sopheriin, xi, 1). Again (Megillah, ibid., and Tosiphta, c. iii), certain passages liable to give offence to the multitude are specified, which may be read in the s)'na- gogue and translated; others which may be read but not translated; others, again, which may neither be read nor translated. To the first class belong the account of the creation — a subject not to be discussed publicly on account of its most vital bearing upon the relation between the Creator and the Cosinos, and the nature of both; the deed of Lot and his two daughters (Gen. xix, 31); of Judah and Tamar (ch. xxxviii); the first account of the making of the golden calf (Exod.xxxii); all the curses in the law; the deed of Amnon and Tatnar (2 Sam. xiii); of Absalom with his father's con- cubines (xvi, 22); the story of the woman of Gibeah
TARGUM
203
TARGUM
(Jiulg. xix). These are to be read and translated, or 'P_J'^n2'l "I'^X'lpJ. To be read but not translated, 'p'iJ'PO Kbi "pX^pS, are the deed of Reuben with Ills father's concubine (Gen. xxv, 22) ; the latter por- tion of the story of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii) ; and the deed of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam. xi, xii).
At what time these paraphrases were written down we cannot state; but it must certainly have been at an early period. Bearing in mind that the Hellenistic Jews had for a long time been in possession of the law translated into their language, and that in the 2d century not only had the Jews themselves issued Greek versions in opposition to the Alexandrian ver- sion, which were received with decided approbation even by tlie Talnnulists, as the repeated and honorable mention of Aquila in the Talmud proves, but that also the Syrians had been prompted to translate the Holy Scriptures, it would indeed be strange had not the Jews familiar with the Aramcean dialect also fol- lowed the practice at that time universally prevalent, and sought to profit by it. We have, in point of fact, certain traces of written Targums extant at least in the time of Christ. For even tlie IMishna seems to im- ply this in YaJaiin, iv, 5, where the subject treated is the language and style of character to be used in writing the Targums. Further, the Talmud, Shubbalh, fol. 115, col. 1, mentions a written Targum on Job of the middle of the 1st century (in the time of Gamaliel 1), which incurred the disa|iprobation of Gamaliel. Zunz here justly remarks, "Since it is not likely that a beginning should have been made with Job, a still higher antiq- uity as verv probably belonging to the tirst renderings of the law may be assumed" (loc. cit. p. 62). Grtitz, in his iMmiatsschriff, 1877, p. 84, believes that this Tar- gum of Job, mentioned four times in the Talmud, can only refer to a fjreek translation of that book ; and Derenbourg, in his Essai su>- C llistoire et la Geofjnvphie de Id Pali'sline, p. 242, accounts for the action of Gama- liel, because it was written avec des caract'eres non-he- bra'iques. But as Delitzsch, in Horce, llehr. et Talmud. {Zeitschrift fur die luth.Theologie u.Kirche [Leips. 1878], p. 211), remarks, •'C15~n ^PD means 'in Targum,' i.e. written in the Aramiuan, and refers not to the charac- ters with which, but to the language in which, it was written. Gamaliel acted according to old principle,