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Targum

Targum is the distinctive designation of the Aramaic translations or paraphrases of the Old Testament. After the return from exile Aramaic gradually won the ascendancy as the colloquial language over the slowly decaying Hebrew until, from probably the last century before the Christian era, Hebrew was hardly more than the language of the schools and of worship. As the majority of the population ceased to be conversant with the sacred language it became necessary to provide translations for the better understanding of the passages of the Bible read in Hebrew at the liturgical services.

Thus to meet this need it became customary to add to the portions of the Scriptures read on the Sabbath an explanatory oral translation — a Targum. At first this was probably done only for the more difficult passages, but as time went on, for the entire text. The "Mishna" gives more elaborate instructions as to the way in which this translating should be done. According to the "Megillah" (IV, 4), when the lesson to be read aloud was from the "Torah" only one verse was to be read to the translator (Methurgeman). When the lesson was from the "Nebi'im" it was permitted to read three to him, unless each verse formed a special division. The directions also 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 to free, palliative, allegorical, etc.

Another regulation was that the Targum was not to be written down ("Jer. Meg.", IV, i = fol. 74d). 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 Matthew 27:46, gives the Aramaic form of Ps., xxi, 2, the last utterance of the Saviour upon the Cross, this shows that even then the Psalms were current among the people in the Aramaic language; moreover, Ephes., iv, 8, has a closer connection with the Targum to Ps., lxvii, 19, than with the Masoretic text. In addition, the "Mishna Yadayim", IV, 5, and "Sabb.", XVI, also indicates the early existence of manuscripts of the Targum. These manuscripts, however, were only owned privately not officially as for a long period 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 Palestine, 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 century. Various indication, however, show the great antiquity of the main contents of many Targums, their theology among other things. That as early as 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 several Targums.

The form of language used in the Targums is called specifically "Targum dialect". It belongs to western Aramaic and more particularly to the Aramaic of Palestine. Its home in 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 Aramaic originally 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 misleading: a more certain basis was first offered by manuscripts from Southern Arabia in which the pointing for the vowels was placed above the line. In Arabia the old synagogal custom of reciting the Targum at the religious services had been retained, and consequently more interest was felt there in the pronunciation.

It must be acknowledged, however, that this cannot be regarded as a direct pronunciation of the Palestinian pronunciation; it may have sprung from a formal treatment of the Targum of Onkelos customary among the Babylonian scholars. As regards the method of translation all Targums in common strive to avoid as much as possible anthropomorphisms and anthropopathic terms, as well as other apparently undignified expressions concerning, and descriptive of God. The Targums are printed in the Rabbinical and Polyglot Bibles, although the two do not always contain the same Targums or an equal number of them.

The Targum, in its stage of oral transmission antedates the destruction of the second Temple, but it was not until the third or fourth century that some of the books were committed to writing, and certain versions received the sanction of the Synagogue. The time and place of the final redaction of the various versions in the several parts or books of the Scriptures, and their relation to one another, are still mooted questions. This much is certain, that the texts as they are to-day, bear in their content the impress of successive ages and traces of varying linguistic influences.

As regards age and linguistic character they may be divided into three classes: (1) Targum of Onkelos and Targum of Jonathan; (2) Jerusalem Targums; (3) Targum on the Hagiographa. The earliest official written Targum may probably be traced to Babylon, where the Onkelos T. was the first to receive the authority of the Rabbis. This Targum must have been written about the third century, since its Masorah dates from about this time. The official Targum on the Torah, called by the name of Onkelos, is Palestinian in origin and dialect, but its final redaction and authorization took place in Babylon about the third century, where, as some believe, its vocabulary and grammar were slightly influenced. Parallel to the Onkelos, is the unofficial Jerusalem Targum I, of a mixed Palestinian and Babylonian dialect, the nucleus of which originated in Palestine, probably earlier than the Christian era, but whose final redaction did not occur before the seventh century. This Targum also bears the name of Pseudo-Jonathan». It was not universally known during the early Middle Ages.

With the invention of systems of vocalization, the consonantal text of the Targum, as in the Hebrew original, was provided with symbols fixing the pronunciation in accordance with the tradition locally prevalent. Three distinct types of vocalization are now known to have existed ; (i) the so-called Tiberian system, or the sublinear, the only one known prior to 1839; (2) the Babylonian system, or the superlinear, discovered in 1839; and (3) the Palestinian system, also superlinear, which was discovered in 1894. The Tiberian system of punctuation, it seems, was not originally adaptable for Aramaic texts. Hence it is quite probable that in the earliest texts of the Targum supplied with vowels, the superlinear system was used, and that with the more universal usage of the sublinear system the former was transposed into the latter.

This transposition of the Targum vowels led naturally to inaccuracies and mistakes, which multiplied in proportion to the number of new manuscripts written and new editions published. Elias Levita, in his Introduction to the Meturgeman, laments the confused state of the Targum texts, and the multitudinous variations in vocalization which then existed. He, as well as Buxtorfand others, proposed to bring some order into the chaos by correcting these texts on the basis of Biblical Aramaic. This was done to some extent, but the method possessed no scientific value. Such was the state of Targumic texts until the discovery of the Yemen MSS. threw a flood of light upon this department of Semitic learning, and stimulated active research therein. These MSS. proved of invaluable aid in the reconstruction of the Targumic text and its grammar, which Levita had despaired of producing with the material then available.