This brief introduction is adapted from material in Paul V. Flesher’s edited volume The Targums: A Critical Introduction, Charles T. Hayward’s volume Targums and the Transmission of Scripture into Judaism and Christianity and Martin McNamara’s series on Targum Neofiti. These sources are highly recommended for a more detailed and thorough introduction to this subject.
The Targums - from an Aramaic word that simply means “translation” - are translations and paraphrases of books of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic that were created by Jewish communities primarily during the late Second Temple period (515 BCE - 70 CE) and Rabbinic period (70 - 500 CE).
The Targums served several important purposes in early Judaism and some potentially surprising roles in early Christian traditions. As Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the primary spoken language of Jews in the land of Israel and Babylonia in the early centuries BCE, the Targums provided access to the texts of Judaism for those who did not know biblical Hebrew well. They were first used orally to translate the weekly Torah and prophetic lectionary readings in synagogue worship. The Torah was read verse by verse, followed by the translator (called the meturgeman) giving an oral rendering of each verse into Aramaic before the next Hebrew verse was read. Similarly, a passage from the prophets (haftarah) was read and then translated orally.
The origins of the Targums are unclear, but they seem to derive from oral translation practices in Second Temple period Jewish worship. Fragments of written Targums have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, indicating their early development. Targums were important because they made the Bible accessible when written and spoken Hebrew fell out of common use. In this usage, the Targums provide important details on Jewish interpretation of the Bible in late antiquity. They also provide context for understanding allusions to scripture in early Jewish and Christian literature in the New Testament.
Over time, written Targums were created to complement the oral practice and ensure more standardized transmission of the renderings. Dozens of Targums were composed for the Torah and each section of the Hebrew Bible. The major Targums that have survived from the rabbinic period include Targum Onkelos and Targum Neofiti on the five books of the Torah and Targum Jonathan on the Prophets. Unfortunately, in a confusing series of events in the medieval period, a later Targum on the Torah (perhaps originally known as the Jerusalem Targum) become commonly known as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan after a printing mistake erroneously attributed it to the well-known sage from antiquity Jonathan ben Uzziel. Other significant Targum families, such Targum Psalms and various Targums on the Megillot (Lamentations, Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther) round out the major collections.
One expected feature seen among all of these family of Targums is that the later the Targum was written, the more details and literary expansions are found in the text. Targum Neofiti, the earliest of the group, dated from the 1st through 4th centuries CE, contains fewer (but still significant) additions. In comparison, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, typically dated from the 9th to 11th centuries CE, often contains many more (in some instances several paragraphs) additions and interpretations inserted into well-known stories. In these cases, it’s helpful to think of the Targums as a direct mix of the text with contemporary commentaries.
The practice of reading Scripture in Hebrew with an accompanying oral Aramaic translation was well established by the early centuries of the Common Era. The Mishnah and Talmud contain discussions about rules for the meturgeman and procedures used in synagogue worship. They also mention the Targums by name as something familiar to them. Given their role in worship, the Targums were often considered authoritative scripture translations.
The Targums demonstrate some key characteristics that distinguish them from other types of biblical translation:
They are highly literal, representing nearly every word of the Hebrew text in Aramaic while still conforming to Aramaic idiom. This allows them to retain the form and syntax of the original.
They smoothly incorporate expansions and additions not found in the Hebrew text. These additions provide explanation, fill in gaps, or update the texts based on contemporary traditions and concerns. Sometimes they neutralize anthropomorphic (human-like) descriptions of God.
Taken together, this combination of literal translation and added materials makes the Targums interpretive translations that represent early Jewish biblical exegesis. The translations with their expansions create an Aramaic Bible for Jews of the time.
After the traditional closure of the biblical canon, new approaches to scripture like midrash and Talmud focused on close reading and exegesis of the sacred texts. The Targums fill an important gap between the end of biblical literature around 400 BCE and the full flowering of rabbinic modes of interpretation several centuries later. They represent a transitional stage of early interpretive translation in which new meanings began to be read out of scripture. The expansions in the Targums often include themes and traditions that later became part of rabbinic midrash. But the Targums tend to incorporate older traditions and interpret biblical texts fairly directly, in contrast to the frequent linguistic word play and intertextual references of rabbinic midrash.
Literary and intertextual elements of the Targums in relation to other relevant literature include:
Dead Sea Scrolls: The style of the targums is generally not found in Dead Sea Scroll texts like the Aramaic Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran. Fragments show early translations followed the Hebrew texts closely without expansions. However, some expansion does appear in a scroll designated 4Q156, a fragment of Leviticus that dates to the late first century BCE.
New Testament: When quoting the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament authors generally use the original Hebrew or the Greek Septuagint translation, not the Aramaic Targums. But some Targum themes may have influenced New Testament exegesis, especially through blended quotations dependent on Targum wording. For instance, more contemporary New Testament scholars are proposing some form of relationship with the introduction to the Gospel of John’s Logos with the Aramaic Memra found in the Targums.1 The Gospels and epistles also describe narrative and exegetical details which are only found in common with the Targums.
Rabbinic Midrash: The Targums anticipate the interpretive approach and many exegetical traditions found in rabbinic midrash, but are less extensive and systematic in their interpretations. They tend to incorporate older traditions rather than the frequent linguistic word play of midrash. The Targums also reflect a stronger connection to the literal meaning of the base text.
The Aramaic Targums hold a distinctive place in the history of Jewish biblical interpretation and the transmission of scripture into the life and language of these communities. Their origins likely lie in the practice of oral translation during public worship in synagogues, which was later supplemented by written Targums. Their lasting influence over centuries of Jewish worship and study testifies to their profound role in shaping the understanding of the Hebrew Bible. The Targums represent an early stage of interpretive translation that helped form a bridge between the biblical period and the rabbinic era along with providing compelling background details for New Testament studies.
Boyarin, Daniel The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John (pp. 243-284) The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 94, No. 3, 2001
Great write up!