■^bzx '^x^ns' iT^b •,''bm ■'xi^m xn-'ri-'-ix,
"because the Hebrews eat the ahimals which are sacred to the Egyptians") (comp. Winer, De On- keloso, p. 41). Larger additions and deviations from the original text are foun<l mostly in the poetical parts of the Pentateuch (Gen. xlix, Numb, xxiv, Deut. xxxii and xxxiii ). In the multiplicity of words which is here employed, the original text almost disappears. Thus (ien. xlix, 11, 12, which is referred to the Mes- siah (the parallel being Numb, xxiv, 17), is rendered, "Israel shall dwell in tiie circuit of his city; the people shall build his temple; and there shall be the righteous in his circuit, and the makers of the law in his doc- trine; the best purple shall be his clothing; his cover- ing shall be silk dyed with purple and with various colors. His mountains shall be redder in their vine- yards; his hills shall drop wine; his fields shall be white with his grain and with flocks of slieep."
In passages relative to the Divine Being, we perceive the effect of a doctrinal bias in certain deviations from the Hebrew text. Anthropomorphic and anthropo- pathic expressions are avoided, lest human attributes should be assigned to the Deity. Thus, nTlbx and n'liT' are rendered "^"^T X"l^''"2, " the Word of God ;" or "iiT Xlp"^," the splendor of God;" or iin Xr:rT, "the Shechinah of God." Akin to this peculiarity is the avoidance of D^Plbx, when it is applied to men or idols, and theem|)loymentof m, X"3"'1, "l-w, "Sm. In cases where divine qualities or ornaments appear to be assigned to men, Onkelos modifies and smooths the meaning, and substitutes a different idea. Thus, '^-naTw "inni, i.e. "ye shall be as princes," is substituted for Cr"'in C-'nbX3, inGen.iii,5; or 157:12 inXD 111.1 DIXH 'p,
TARGUM
207
TARGUM
in ver. 22, is translated by Xrib>>2 iliH'' mn D1X !T^3'D, "behold Adam is the only one in the world of
himself."
Onkelos shows an apparent desire to present the great men of his nation in as favorable a light as pos- sible (comp. Gen. xvi, 12; xxv, 27 ; xlv, 27). Difficult words are not unfrequently retained, as in Gen. ii, 12 ; Exod. xii, 7; Lev. xiii, 30 ; and Dent, xxii, 12. Names of peoples, cities, and mountains are given as they were common in his time. Thus, in Gen. viii, 4, instead of ISTTX ■'"in, he has ITip illO, as in Syr. and Arab.; "irrj "j^-lS, in X, 10, becomes bna Xr"lX; QilinSD, in ver. 14, becomes •'XpUlSp ; D"^bX"'?2'I3'^, in xxxvii, 25, becomes "^X^l", etc. (see Winer, op. cit. p. 3',)). In perusing Onkelos as a source of emending the Hebrew te.xt, great caution is necessary, and the more so be- cause we have not as yet a critical edition of this Tar- gum. The only safe rule in emending tlie Hebrew text is when the same variety of readings which the Chaldee )iresents is found in several Hebrew MSS. Thus, e. g., in Exod. ix, 7, we read in the Hebrew 3X"i'iri n^'p^'Q, but in the Chaldee bxiTTi ijm XT^ra-O. The orig- inal reading was probably Pi<11!2i "^32 riDpiaia, which is found in several MSS. of Kennicott and De Kossi, and in most of the ancient versions. The Targum of Onkelos has always been held in high regard among the •Jews, who also composed a Masorah upon it. Such a Masorah has lately been published, from a very ancient codex, by Dr. Berliner, IHe Massorah zum Targvm Oii- I;eh>e, enihaltend Massorah Mafftia und Massorah Parva (Leips. 1877).
3. Manuscripts of Onkelos are extant in great num- bers. Oxford has live, London (British Museum) two, Vienna six, Augsburg one, Nuremberg two, Altdorf one, Carlsruhe three, Stuttgart two, Erfurt three, Dresden one, Leipsic one, Jena one, Dessau one, Helmstildt two, Berlin four, Breslau one, Brieg one, Ratisbon one, Hamburg seven, Copenhagen two, Upsala one, Atnster- dam one, Paris eight, Molsheim one, Venice six, Turin two, Milan four, Leghorn one. Sienna one, Geneva one, Florence live, Bulngna two, Padua one, Trieste two, Parma about forty, Rome eighteen, more or less com- jilete, etc., containing Onkelos. For a full description .of these MSS., see Winer, De Oiifceloso, p. 13 sq.
4. Editions. — The Targum of Onkelos was first pub- lished with Rashi's commentary on the Pentateuch (Bologna, 1482, fol.). It was subsequently reprinted quite frequently, and maj'^ be found in tlie Rabbinic and Polyglot Bibles. Buxtorf was the first to add the vowel-points to the Targum. As yet, we have no criti- cal edition of this Targum. Dr. Berliner purposes to publish a new and critical edition according to tliat of Sabioneta (1557). This Targum has been translated into Latin by Alphonso de Zamora in the Complutensian Polyglot, by Paul Fagius, and by John jMercier (1568). That of Fagius is the best. It was rendered into Eng- lish by Etheridge (Lond. 1862-65).
5. Literature.^J cs. Berlin (Pik), X^'^air, ij^n, or glosses and comments upon the Targum of Onkelos (Breslau, 1827); Luzzato, H3 'ZTl^H, Philoxe7ius, sire de Onkelosi Chalduica Pentateiichi Versione Dissertatio, etc. (Vienna, 1830), distributes the deviations from the Hebrew into thirty-two classes, and endeavors to emend tlie text from MSS., although the genius of the version is not well described in it (the writer of the art. " Tar- gum" in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, besides a great deal of useless ballast, thought it necessary to copy Luz- zato) ; Berkowitz, "I'X nz:"!", on the hermenoutics of Onkelos (Wilna, 1843); id. nibr':: niS'^bn (ibid. 1874); Levy, in Gciger's Zeitschrift, 1844, v, 175-198; Fiirst, Litfraturhlatt, 1845, p. 337 sq., 354; Smith, Diii- trihe de Chald. Paraphrastis eorumqiie Versiomnn (C)xf. 1G62); Winer, De Onkeloso ejnsqne Paraphrasi Chal-