Targum Jonathan to the Prophets: Some notes

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

20 April 2010

Targum Jonathan to the prophets is a translation of the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition but in Aramaic. If variants are shared with Qumran, the other old versions like the Latin, Coptic, Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic then it is because they are based upon degenerative manuscripts of a Qumran kind. It is manuscripts that were intended to be accurate but due to slips and due to difficult times, could not give access to proper manuscripts.

The date of the composition of Targum Jonathan is not a simple matter. Pinkhos Churgin (1894-1957) wrote a dissertation on this matter and on pages 30, 42, 152. On page xxviii Churgin says that the document was nearly completed in 120 CE but then brought to Babylonia and in 600 CE redacted prior to the Arab invasion. That is why evidence of the Arab invasion can be found in Targum Jonathan Isaiah 49:24, 25; 66:5.

The nature of Targum Jonathan can be established when one compares it with the Word of God or consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition.

1. TJ (Targum Jonathan) "tends to smooth out or do away with differences between two versions of the same event in the Biblical text" (Churgin 53-54). There was a simple text but the later Midrashim superimposed ideas on the simple text. Despite deviations, Churgin feels that all the targumic texts may have a common source (Churgin 151).

2. TJ "converts the poetry of the Prophets into literal, detailed pedestrian prose" (Churgin 79).

a. TJ explains allegories of the biblical text.

b. TJ describe metaphors of the biblical text in their plain sense.

c. TJ makes explicit what appears to be implicit in prophetic language in the biblical text.

3. TJ distinguish between sacred and profane in Israelite religion in the biblical text.

4. TJ distinguish between religious Israelite and other nations in the biblical text.

5. TJ blunts the force of prophetic condemnations of Israel in the biblical text.

6. TJ sharpenes the attacks of the Prophets against Israel's enemies in the biblical text (Leivy Smolar and Moses Aberbach, "Studies in Targum Jonathan to the prophets," and "Targum Jonathan to the Prophets" Pinkhos Churgin [New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc; 1983]: xxvii one has the example in Isaiah 21:9 where the TJ reads the biblical text of Bavel or Babylon as Persia but Rabbinic literature reads Bavel or Babylon as Rome).

7. TJ sacrifice "historical accuracy ... for the sake of Halachic expediency and need" (xxix). Halacha describes in detail the life of religious Jew from the gradle to the grave with all customs and practices. The time of the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition is different than the time of the TJ and thus it is done homiletically with a focus on contemporary conditions and norms.

8. TJ has a "tendency to contemporaize the Biblical material" as one can see in the translation of place names which are usually identified with 'modern' (i.e. Talmudic) localities and translated accordingly.

9. TJ deviates from the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition or biblical text because the deviations "were designed with a view of elevating the religious understanding of the Jewish people" (xxxi).

10. TJ refashioned concepts of God: unity, incorporeality, eternity, omniscience, unlimited power of the Almighty.

God and man is apart in the TJ in contrast to the biblical text.

11. TJ suppressed complaints against divine injustice and any criticism voiced of the divine will. Divine justice is the same as appropriate reward. The wicked cannot prosper is placed next to the idea that the innocent cannot suffer.

12. TJ eliminates expressions on the reality of any other God.

13. TJ converts poetical devices and rhetorical questions which are difficult to understand in prosaic interpretations which even the most simple mind could not possibly misunderstand.

14. TJ rejects idolatry and the fear of God is emphasized.

15. TJ emphasize the "study of the Torah and performance of good deeds".

16. TJ places a value on prayer.

17. TJ indicates that intercessory prayer by a worthy man can help a man escape from troubles.

18. TJ indicates that the righteous is rewarded in paradise and the wicked consigned to Gehenna.

19. TJ insists that the antidote to sin and punishment is repentance "repentent sinners are generally welcomed back to the fold and their sins will be forgiven".

20. TJ has an interesting eschatology: "The Targumists were not contempt with the mere repetition of eschatological crecenda and they set themselves the more rewording task of encouraging the faithful, and of rallying the wavering to orthodoxy of belief and to rectitude of conduct" (R. P. Gordon, "The Targumists as Eschatologists," in Congress Volume, 1977 [Leiden: 1978 (SVT 29)], 130).

Some examples:

Joel 2:23a

Masoretic Text: "He has given you back the early rain".

Socalled LXX: "He has given you back food [bromata]".

TJ: "He has given you back your teachers".

Judges 5:10

Masoretic Text: "You who ride on asses, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way..."

TJ: "They who neglected their (private) business (or occupation) ... and were going through all the territory of the Land of Israel, and who join themselves to sit for judgement ..."

Zephaniah 3:15a

Masoretic Text: "The Lord has taken away the judgements against you" (events)

TJ: "The Lord has exiled false judges from your midst" (people)

Hosea 5:11b

Masoretic Text: "because he willingly walked after vanity/filth"

TJ: "Turn to go astray after the money of falsehood" (finance)

Isaiah 29:20

Masoretic Text: "The scoffer is destroyed and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off"

TJ: "The plunderer is destroyed and all those that seek to do violence have perished"

Ezechiel 26:17b

Masoretic Text: "Tyre ... that was mighty on the sea".

TJ: "A city ... that was dwelling in the fortress of the sea".

van wyk notes: They forgot that it was an island and since Alexander connected and with alluvial deposits connected.

TJ is archaeologically and geographically in this verse uninformed about the true situation of Tyre. So TJ changed the biblical text in an incorrect manner here.