Targum

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the general term for the As a version this Targum is of small im- Aramaic versions often paraphrasesportance; but it is valuable as a storeof the Old Testament, which became house of allegories, parables, sagas, and necessary when, after and perhaps durthe like popular poetry of its time. Its ing the Babylonian Exile, Hebrew began general use lies more in the direction of to die out as the popular language, and Jewish literature itself, as well as of archæology and antiquities of the early The origin of the Targum itself is Christian centuries, than in that of a shrouded in mystery. The first signs of mere direct interpretation of the Bible it-as an already fixed institution-have been found by some in Neh. viii: 8, and text. The Targum on the Prophets is according to tradition Ezra and his coascribed to one R. Joseph, president of adjutors were its original founders. At the Babylonian academy of Sora about first, and indeed for many centuries, the 322. This Targum, while tolerably lit- Targum was not committed to writing, eral in the first-the historical-books, for the same reason that the "Oral Law" gradually becomes a frame for Hagor Halakhah itself was not at first ingada, which it introduces at every turn tended ever to become fixed as a code for and at great lengths. all times. In the course of time, how- Joseph the Blind, to whom the foreever, both had to yield to circumstances, going mg Targum is ascribed, is the reand their being written down was conputed author of Targums on the Hagiosidered preferable to their being utterly grapha. Several centuries lie between forgotten, of which there was no small him and them, their date being approxidanger. Yet a small portion only of the mately 800 and 1,000. Certain distincimmense mass of oral Targums that tions between the different books must must have been produced has survived. further be made. The Targums on All that is now extant are three distinct Psalms, Job, and Proverbs were probably Targums on the Pentateuch, a Targum contemporaneous compositions due to on the Prophets, Targums on the Hagioprivate enterprise in Syria. The two grapha-viz. on Psalms, Job, Proverbs, former are made more paraphrastic than the five "Megilloth" (Song of Songs, Lamentations, Esther, Ecclesi- the last, which resembles closely the Syriac version. The paraphrase on the astes), another Targum on Esther, five "Megilloth" mentions the Mohammeone on Chronicles, one on Daniel, dans, and is of later date, probably one and one on the apocryphal pieces of man's work. It is principally a collection Esther. The most important of the of more or less poetical fancies, tradithree Pentateuch Targums is the tions, and legends to which the single one named after Onkelos, probably a verse in hand merely seems to furnish corruption of Akylas (Aquila, a prothe keynote. Its dialect lies somewhat selyte, one of Gamaliel's pupils), whose between the East and West Aramaic. Greek version had become so popular The Targum on the Book of Chronicles -almost unknown till it was printed in the 17th century -also belongs to a late period, and was probably composed in Palestine. A Persian version of a Targum on Daniel (unedited) is all that has been discovered on that book as yet. It was probably composed in the 12th century, the influence of the early Crusades being plainly visible in it. By 900 in Africa and Spain the Targum had begun to be disused in public, Arabic, or the national language being substituted. In Yemen the Aramaic Targum is still used in the ancient manner, the meturgeman standing beside the reader and rendering verse by verse.