The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

471 Pages·2009·22.71 MB·English

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
166
Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies
Executive Editor
John Jarick
Editorial Board
Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, Tamara C. Eskenazi,
J. Cheryl Exum, John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon,
Norman K. Gottwald, Andrew D.H. Mayes,
Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller
JSOT Press
Sheffield
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The Aramaic Bible
Targums in their
Historical Context
edited by
D.R.G. Beattie
and M.J. McNamara
Published in association with the Royal Irish Academy
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Supplement Series 166
Copyright © 1994 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by JSOT Press
JSOT Press is an imprint of
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
Mansion House
19 Kingfield Road
Sheffield SI 19AS
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
and
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain
by Bookcraft
Midsomer Norton, Somerset
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1-85075-454-3
CONTENTS
Preface 9
Abbreviations 12
List of Contributors 15
Parti
TARGUM TEXTS AND EDITIONS
MICHAEL L. KLEIN
Cairo Genizah Targum Texts: Old and New 18
STEFAN C. REIF
The Cairo Genizah and its Treasures with Special
Reference to Biblical Studies 30
Luis DIEZ MERINO
Targum Manuscripts and Critical Editions 51
ROBERT P. GORDON
Alexander Sperber and the Study of the Targums 92
MARTIN MCNAMARA, M.S.C.
The Michael Glazier-Liturgical Press Aramaic Bible
Project: Some Reflections 103
Part II
THE ARAMAIC LANGUAGE
STEPHEN A. KAUFMAN
Dating the Language of the Palestinian Targums and
their Use in the Study of First Century CE Texts 118
6 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
EDWARD M. COOK
A New Perspective on the Language of Onqelos
and Jonathan 142
Part III
THE TARGUMS AND JEWISH BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
MARTIN HENGEL
The Scriptures and their Interpretation in Second
Temple Judaism 158
OTTOBETZ
The Qumran Halakhah Text Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-T6rah
(4QMMT) and Sadducean, Essene, and Early
Pharisaic Tradition 176
AVIGDOR SHINAN
The Aggadah of the Palestinian Targums of the
Pentateuch and Rabbinic Aggadah: Some Methodological
Considerations 203
JOSEP RIBERA
The Targum: From Translation to Interpretation 218
Part IV
TARGUMS OF THE PENTATEUCH
BERNARD GROSSFELD
Targum Onqelos, Halakha and the Halakhic Midrashim 228
PAUL V.M. FLESHER
Mapping the Synoptic Palestinian Targums
of the Pentateuch 247
GABRIELE BOCCACCINI
Targum Neofiti as a Proto-Rabbinic Document:
A Systemic Analysis 254
Contents 1
MICHAEL MAKER
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of Deuteronomy 1.1-8 264
C.T.R. HAYWARD
A Portrait of the Wicked Esau in the
Targum of Codex Neofiti 1 291
ROGER SYREN
Ishmael and Esau in the Book of Jubilees and Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan 310
PartV
TARGUMS OF THE HAGIOGRAPHA
PHILIP S. ALEXANDER
Tradition and Originality in the Targum of
the Song of Songs 318
D.R.G. BEATTIE
The Textual Tradition of Targum Ruth 340
CELINE MANGAN
Some Similarities between Targum Job and
Targum Qohelet 349
BEATE EGO
Targumization as Theologization: Aggadic Additions in
the Targum Sheni of Esther 354
Part VI
TARGUM AND NEW TESTAMENT
MAX WILCOX
The Aramaic Background of the New Testament 362
BRUCE CHILTON
Aramaic and Targumic Antecedents of Pauline
'Justification' 379
8 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
Part VII
JEWISH TRADITIONS AND CHRISTIAN WRITINGS
GERARD J. NORTON
Jews, Greeks and the Hexapla of Origen 400
BENJAMIN KEDAR-KOPFSTEIN
Jewish Traditions in the Writings of Jerome 420
MICHAEL E. STONE
Jewish Tradition, the Pseudepigrapha and
the Christian West 431
Index of References 450
Index of Authors 466
PREFACE
The essays here published represent the papers read at the interna-
tional conference on 'The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical
Context' held at the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, July 1992.
The Targums have attracted the atttention of Christian European
scholars from the fifteenth century onwards. They were printed for
the first time in the Rabbinic Bibles, and then (accompanied by Latin
translations) in the great Polyglot Bibles of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. Christian interest in them was probably due to belief
that they antedated the Christian era and helped better understand the
New Testament writings. After a period of some neglect, interest in
them became keener with the chance find in the Vatican Library in
1949 of a complete copy of the Palestinian Targum of the Pentateuch.
The discovery of the Qumran scrolls from 1947 onwards, coupled
with a greater understanding of the development of the Aramaic lan-
guage, of Judaism itself, and a more refined methodology, cast serious
doubt on the early date sometimes assigned to the Targums and conse-
quently on their relevance for the study of the New Testament writings.
Despite all this, interest in the traditional Aramaic Targums has not
merely continued but has become keener. The Aramaic translations,
however, were now being studied for the information they contained
on Aramaic, on Jewish tradition and the possible interactions between
Judaism and Christianity. And on these and other topics the Targums
will continue to be of interest to scholars in a variety of disciplines.
The Aramaic language of the Targums takes us across time and space
from Babylon, through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt into Europe, and
from the turn of our era into mediaeval times and the Renaissance.
Questions about the origins and transmission of these texts do like-
wise. Examination of their content takes us into Jewish halakah and
haggadah, into the possible influence of Jewish traditions on Christian
texts and possibly the reverse of this—Jewish reaction to Christian
teaching. They take us beyond the New Testament era into patristic