thumb|275px|11th century Hebrew Bible with targum, perhaps from [[Tunisia, found in Iraq: part of the Schøyen Collection]]

A targum (, interpretation, translation, version; plural: targumim) was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ) that a professional translator ( mǝṯurgǝmān) would give in the common language of the listeners when that was not Biblical Hebrew. This had become necessary near the end of the first century BCE, as the common language was Aramaic, while Hebrew was used for little more than schooling and worship. The translator frequently expanded his translation with paraphrases, explanations and examples, so it became a kind of sermon.

Writing down the targum was initially prohibited; nevertheless, some targumitic writings appeared as early as the middle of the first century. Maimonides, for one, notes this often in The Guide for the Perplexed. That is true both for those targums that are fairly literal as well as for those that contain many midrashic expansions. In 1541, Elia Levita wrote and published the Sefer Meturgeman, explaining all the Aramaic words found in the Targums Onqelos, Jonathan, and pseudo-Jonathan.

Targumim are used today as sources in text-critical editions of the Bible (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia refers to them with the abbreviation 𝔗).

Etymology

The noun is derived from the early semitic root (), and the Akkadian term refers to "translator, interpreter". It occurs in Ezra 4:7 "a letter written in Aramaic and translated." Besides denoting the translations of the Bible, also denoted the oral rendering of Bible lections in synagogue,

  • Targum Onkelos on the Torah
  • Targum Jonathan on the Nevi'im

These two targumim are mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud as targum dilan ("our Targum"), giving them official status. In the synagogues of Talmudic times, Targum Onkelos was read alternately with the Torah, verse by verse, and Targum Jonathan was read alternately with the selection from Nevi'im (i.e., the haftara), though in the case of Nevi'im it was permitted to translate in units of up to three verses. This custom continues today in Yemenite Jewish synagogues.

Besides its public function in the synagogue, the Babylonian Talmud also mentions targum in the context of a personal study requirement: "A person should always review his portions of scripture along with the community, reading the scripture twice and the targum once" (Berakhot 8a–b). This, too, refers to Targum Onkelos on the public Torah reading and to Targum Jonathan on the haftarot from Nevi'im.

Medieval biblical manuscripts of the Masoretic Text sometimes contain the Hebrew text interpolated, verse-by-verse, with the targumim. This scribal practice is rooted in the public reading of the Targum and the requirement for private study. In these manuscripts, and in rabbinic Bibles up to and including the second printed Venice edition, Targumim were written or printed with cantillation marks.

The two "official" targumim are considered eastern (Mesopotamian, called "Babylonian"). Nevertheless, scholars believe they, too, originated in Syria Palestina because of a strong linguistic substratum of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. Though these targumim were later "orientalised", the substratum belying their origins remains.

When most Jewish communities ceased speaking Aramaic in the 10th century, the public reading of Targum, along with the Torah and Haftarah, was abandoned in most communities, Yemen being a well-known exception.

The private study requirement to review the Targum was never entirely relaxed, even when Jewish communities had largely ceased speaking Aramaic, and the Targum never ceased to be a major source for Jewish exegesis. For instance, it serves as a major source in Shlomo Yitzhaki's Torah commentary, "Rashi," and has always been the standard fare for Ashkenazi Jews onward.

For these reasons, Jewish editions of the Tanakh which include commentaries still almost always print the Targum alongside the text, in all Jewish communities. Nevertheless, later halakhic authorities argued that the requirement to privately review the targum might also be met by reading a translation in the current vernacular in place of the official Targum, or else by studying an important commentary containing midrashic interpretation (especially that of Rashi).

Targum Ketuvim

The Talmud explicitly states that no official targumim were composed besides these two on Torah and Nevi'im alone, and that there is no official targum to Ketuvim ("The Writings"). The Talmud stories state:

Nevertheless, most books of Ketuvim (with the exceptions of Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah, which both contain Aramaic portions) have targumim, whose origin is mostly Palestinian rather than Mesopotamian. But they were poorly preserved and less well known for lack of a fixed place in the liturgy. From Palestine, the tradition of targum to Ketuvim made its way to Italy, and from there to medieval Ashkenaz and Sepharad. The targumim of Psalms, Proverbs, and Job are generally treated as a unit, as are the targumim of the five scrolls (Esther has a longer "Second Targum" as well.) The targum of Chronicles is quite late, possibly medieval. It is traditionally attributed to "Rav Yosef" (meaning either Rav Yosef or Rav Yosef bar Hama). (The targum to Neviim is also sometimes referred to as the targum of Rav Yosef. Before this de Monte had censored it by deleting most references to idolatry. In 1602 Boncompagni's estate gave it to the College of the Neophytes, a college for converts from Judaism and Islam, until 1886, when the Holy See bought it along with other manuscripts when the Collegium closed (which is the reason for the manuscripts name and its designation). It was then mistitled as a manuscript of Targum Onkelos until 1949, when Alejandro Díez Macho noticed that it differed significantly from Targum Onkelos. It was translated and published during 1968–79, and has since been considered the most important of the Palestinian Targumim, as it is by far the most complete and, apparently, the earliest as well.

The Fragment Targums (formerly known as Targum Yerushalmi II) consist of fragments divided into ten manuscripts. Of these P, V and L were first published in 1899 by M Ginsburger, A, B, C, D, F and G in 1930 by P Kahle and E in 1955 by A Díez Macho. These manuscripts are all too fragmented to confirm what their purpose was, but they seem to be either the remains of a single complete targum or short variant readings of another targum. As a group, they often share theological views with Targum Neofiti, which has led to the belief that they could be variant readings of that targum.

Peshitta

The Peshitta is the traditional Bible of Syriac Christians, who speak several different dialects of Aramaic. The translation of the Peshitta is thought to be before the year 300.

See also

  • Aaron ben Mordecai of Rödelheim

References

Tadmor, H., 1991. "On the role of Aramaic in the Assyrian empire", in M. Mori, H. Ogawa and M. Yoshikawa (eds.), Near Eastern Studies Dedicated to H.I.H. Prince Takahito Mikasa on the Occasion of his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 419–426

English translations of targum

  • Ecclesiastes in The Song of Songs and Coheleth, Christian David Ginsburg (1857) pages 503–519.
  • Aramaic Targums—The Aramaic text of Targum Onkelos and Samaritan Targum with a new English translation for each version and critical apparatus.

Other sources on targum

  • —contains critical editions of all the targumim along with lexical tools and grammatical analysis.
  • , analyzing the status of the Targumim in Jewish law
  • Targum at the Oxford Bibliographies
  • Michael Klein on the Targums, Chapter Ninteen [sic] at Brill
  • The Aramaic Targums, at the Bible Research