Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/599

 TAPvARE if the fangs could be opened at an angle proper to pierce his skin. The great hairy spiders of the genus mygale are called tarantulas in the southwestern states, and are destroyed by the large red- winged wasp, pompilus formosus. TARARE, a town of France, in the depart- ment of the Rhone, on the Tardine, 21 m. K W. of Lyons ; pop. in 1872, 13,694. It is situated at the foot of Mount Tarare, and is celebrated for its muslin manufactures. TARASCON (anc. Tarasco), a town of France, in the department of Bouches-du-Rh6ne, on the left bank of the Rhdne, 10 m. N. of Aries and 50 m. K W. of Marseilles; pop. in 1872, 12,454. It is connected with Beaucaire, on the opposite side of the river, by one of the finest suspension bridges in France. It contains a magnificent castle of the counts of Provence, on a rock overhanging the river, built in the 15th century on the site of a temple of Jupi- ter, and now used as a prison. The church of St. Martha is a Gothic edifice commenced in the 15th century, with a richly sculptured entrance and a crypt with remarkable tombs and a marble statue of St. Martha. Silk, wool- len, and cotton goods are manufactured. TARBES, a town of France, capital of the de- partment of Hautes-Pyrenees, beautifully situ- ated on the left bank of the Adour, 23 m. E. S. E. of Pau; pop. in 1872, 16,565. It is the seat of a bishopric dating from about A. D. 400, and has a modern cathedral built on the site of the castle of Bigorre. It was injured during the middle ages by successive invaders, and was twice burned by the Huguenots in the 16th century. TARDIGRADES. See SLOTH. TARE. See VETCH. TARENTUM. See TAEANTO. TARGUMS (Ohal. targem, to translate), the general name given to the Chaldee, or more accurately Aramaic versions and paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures. On account of the many vicissitudes of the Jewish people in the course of their history, and more espe- cially on account of their long captivity in the Babylonian empire, the knowledge of the ancient Hebrew language had gradually de- clined, and Aramaic had become the language of the people. Hence after the time of Ezra, whenever the Scriptures were read in pub- lic by the priest, an interpreter (meturgemari) translated them into the Aramaic. This trans- lation it was forbidden to reduce to writing; but the rule was gradually violated, and by the end of the 2d century A. D. the practice of writing translations or " targums " had be- come fixed. The work of collecting and com- paring the versions of individual translators, and reducing them to one, was probably ac- complished about the end of the 3d centu- ry. The oldest and best of the targums is on the Pentateuch, usually called the " Targurn of Onkelos," or " of Onkelos the proselyte." The existence of Onkelos, and his name, have been fruitful themes of discussion among Bib- TAKGUMS 571 Heal scholars, but it is now pretty generally agreed that he had nothing whatever to do with the targum attributed to him. Its lan- guage is Chaldee, very similar to that of the book of Daniel, and as faithful to the original as its destination as a version for the people would permit. A principal feature is its care- ful avoidance of all anthropomorphic expres- sions. Its final redaction probably took place about A. D. 300, and in Babylonia. The tar- gum second in time and importance is that called the " Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel," or "Targum on the Prophets," embracing Jo- shua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. It probably originated in Palestine, and was com- pleted in Babylon about the middle of the 4th century. There is no evidence that Jonathan ben Uzziel ever had anything to do with it, and it was undoubtedly the work of many hands. The third and fourth targums are essentially one work. The former, embracing the whole Pentateuch, is the later, and is called like the second the " Targum of Jonathan ben Uz- ziel;" but as he could not possibly have had any connection with it, it is often called the " Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan." The fourth, called "Targum of Jerusalem," a name origi- nally common to both this and the third, em- braces portions of each of the books of the Pentateuch. The " Targum of Pseudo- Jona- than " is an emended and completed edition of the " Targum of Jerusalem," the latter being itself a collection of emendations, amplifica- tions, &c., to the Targum of Onkelos. They originated in Syria or Palestine in the latter half of the 7th century. The fifth class of targums are on the Hagiographa, and are usu- ally called "Targums of Joseph the Blind," who had undoubtedly been dead many centu- ries when they were written. They probably originated in Syria some time between the 9th and 12th centuries. They embrace: 1. Prov- erbs, Job, and Psalms. The targum of Prov- erbs is both faithful and complete ; those of Job and the Psalms are mere collections of fragments. 2. Targums on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, and Ecclesiastes. They appear to be all by one author, but their differences from the originals are so great that they can hardly be called versions. Their dia- lect is about equally related to East and West Aramaean. 3. Two targums on Esther. One of these, known as the second targum, is for the most part a collection of tales and legends. The sixth targum is on Chronicles, and ap- pears to have been made in Palestine at a very late period. The seventh targum, according to the enumeration of Deutsch, is on Daniel, has been known only within the last 30 years, and exists so far as known only in a transla- tion of a portion of it into Persian. It is not usually included in the list of targums. The eighth targum is on the apocryphal portions of Esther, and has no particular value. Many fragments of lost targums are scattered in va-