Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/511

 TARGUM

455

TARGUM

state which portions are to be read aloud but not translated (cf. for instance "Meg.", IV, 10), and a warning is given against translations that are either too free, palliative, allegorical etc.

Another regulation was that the Targum was not to be written down ("Jer. Meg.", IV, i=fol. 74 d). This prohibition, however, probably referred only to the interpretation given in the synagogue and did not apply to private use or to its) employment in study. In any case, written Targums must have existed at an early date. Thus, for instance, one on the Book of Job is mentioned in the era of Gamaliel I (middle of the first century A. D.), which he, however, was not willing to recognize ("Sabb.", 115a; cf. "Tos. Sabb.", 13, 2=p. 128, ed. Zuckermandel). If Matt., xxvii, 46, gives the Aramaic form of Ps., xxi, 2, the la.st utterance of the Saviour upon the Cross, this shows that even then the Psalms were current among the people in the .\ramaic language; moreover, Ephcs., iv, 8, has a closer connexion with the Targum to Ps., Ixvii, 19, than with the Masoretic text. In addition, the "MishnaYadayim", IV, 5, and "Sabb.", XVI, also indicates the early existence of MSS. of the Targum. These MSS., however, were only owned privately not officially as for alongjperiod the Targums were without authoritative and official importance in Palestine. This authoritative position was first gained among the Babylonian Jews and through their influence the Targums were also more highly esteemed in Pale.stine, at least the two older ones. In the form in which they exist at present no Targum that has been preserved goes back further than the fifth cen- tury. Various indications, however, show the great antiquity of the main contents of many Targums, their theology among other things. That as early i^s the third century the text, for instance, of the Targum on the Pentateuch was regarded by the synagogue as traditionally settled is evident from the "Mishna Meg.", IV, 10, "Jer. Meg.", 74d, "Hab. Kidd.", 49d, "Tos. Meg.", IV, 41. There are Targums to all the canonical books excepting Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah; for some books of the Bible there are sev- eral Targums. As regards age and linguistic character they may be divided into three cla.s.ses: (1) Targum of Onkclos and Targum of Jonathan; (2) Jerusalem Targums; (3) Targum on the Hagiographa.

The form of language used in the Targums is called specifically the "Targum dialect". It belongs to western .\ramaic and more jjart icularly to the Aramaic of Palestine. Its home is to be sought in Judea, the ancient seat of the learning of the scribes. It should be borne in mind that this Targumic language does not represent the spoken Aramaic, but is the result of the labours of scholars. Consequently the point under discussion turns on a literary .\ramaic orig- inally formed in Judea. This is particularly true of the two earlier Targums; the later ones show generally an artificially mixed type of language. The traditional pointing of the texts is valueless and mis- leading : a more certain basis w;vs first offered by MSS. from Southern Ar.abia in which the pointing for the vowels was placed above the line. In .\rabia the old synagogal custom of reciting the Targum at the re- ligious services had been retained, and con.sequently more interest was felt there in the pronunciation. It must be acknowledged, however, that this caimot be regarded as a direct reproduction of the Palestinian pronunciation; it may have sprung from a formal treatment of the Targum of Onkelos customary among the Babylonian scholars. As regards tlic method of translation all Targums in common strive to avoid as much as po.ssible anthroponir[)hisms and anthropopathic terms, as well as other apparently undignified expressions ciineerning, and descriptive of Ciod. The Targums are printed in the Rabbinical and Polyglot Bibles, although th(- two do not always contain the same Targums or an equal number of

them. See below for particulars as to individual editions.

ZuNz, Die goUe&dienstlickcn Vortrdge dcT Juden (Berlin, 1832), 61-83; Hausdorff, Zur Gesch. der Targumim nach talmiidischen Quellen in Monatschr. fiir Gesch. u. Wissensch. des JudentumSt XXXVIII (1894), 203 aqq., 241 sqq.. 289 .sqq.; Maybaum, Die Anthropomorphien u. Anlhropopathien bei Onkelos u. in den spdteTCn Targumim (Brealau, 1878); Ginsburgeb, Die Anthropo^ morphismen in den Thargumim in Jahrbilcher fiir prot. Theol. (Brunswick, 1891), 202 sqq.. 430 sqq. A,s regarda the language: Dai.man. Grammatik des jildisch-paldstinischen Aramtiiffch (2nd ed., Leipzig. 1905); Idem, Aramdisch-neuhebr. Wdrterbuch (Frank- fort, 1897-1901).

I. The Targum of Onkelos.— The official Tar- gum to the Pentateuch (.Ti",."! bi'.'alJ"!;!) is designated by the name of Onkelos (Cl^pjX). In the Babylonian Talmud and in the Tosephta, Onkelos is the name of a proselyte who is mentioned as a contemporary of the elder Gamaliel ("Aboda zara", 11a; cf. "Tos. sabb.", 8=p. 119, ed. Zuckermandel). The labours of Onkelos are referred to in "Meg.", 3a, in the fol- lowing words: "Rab .Jcremiya, according to others Rab Hiya bar Abba says: 'According to the state- ment ("2^) of Rab Eliezer and Rab Josua, Onkelos the proselyte has said, n?;X that is, has orally formu- Kated, the Targum of the Torah ' ". Gaon Sar Shalon (d. 859) was the first who, taking this passage as a basis, called the Pentateuch-Targum the Targum of Onkelos. This he did in an opinion concerning the Targum which he evidently had before him at the time in a WTitten copy. The designation that thus arose became customary through its acceptance by Rashi and others. It is evident, however, that in the passage mentioned ("Meg.", 3a) there has been a confusion with the name of Aquila, the translator of the Bible, for the older parallel passage of the Palestinian T.almud ("Meg.", I, 11 = fol. 71c) says the same of Aquila and his Greek translation of the Bible. Compare also Midrash, Tanchuma, Mishpa- tim, 91, 92 (ed. Mantua, 1863, fol. 36b). Thus it seems that in Babylonia the old and correct knowl- edge of the Greek translation of the proselyte Aquila was erroneously transferred to the anonymovis Ara- maic translation, that consequently Onkelos (instead of Akylas) is a corrupted form or a provincial modi- fication of Aquila (D^'pl)), as, for in.stance, the To- sephta has D^pJX always (five times) for cb'piJ. It is not necessary to discuss here earlier views concern- ing this point. The effort to prove the existence of an Onkelos distinct from Aquila is still made by Fried- mann ("Onkelos und Akylas" in "Jahresber. der Israelit. -theol. Lehnanstalt in Wien", 1896), but the proof adduced is not convincing (cf. Blau in "Jewish Quarterly Review," IX, 1897, p. 727 sqq.).

Thus it is not known who wrote<the Targum named after Onkelos. In any ca.se the Targum, at leiist the greater part of it, is old, a fact indicated by the con- nexion with Rab Eliezer and Rab Josua, and belongs probably to the second, or it may be to the first cen- tury of our era. It arose, a.s the idiom shows, in Judea, but it received official recognition first from the Babylonian Rabbis, and is therefore called by them ';-,"T Cm^.I (our Targum), or is quoted with the formula P''^2;!1."l^n3 (iis wc translate). Rab Natronay (d. 869) in speaking of this pSI") .T says, that it is not permitted to replace it. in the ser- vices of the synagogue by any other translation of the Pentateuch. The high reputation of this authorized translation isshowTi by the fac^t tli:it it h.xs a M,a.sorah of its own. The fixing i>f the written forni, :i,nd thereby the fin;d settlement of the text tis well, should not be assigned ti> a d:ite before the fifth I'cntnrv. The lan- guage is, in genenil, :in artificial form of speech closely connectcil with the Hiblic;il .■\r:iiniiic. It is probably not, the spok<-n .Ar;iMi:iic used as :i (li:ilect by the Jew- ish peo])le, but ;i copy iii;i(le by scholars of the Hebraic origmal, of which the Targum claims to give the most