Aramaic Studies Aramaic Studies 9.1 (2011) 65–82 www.brill.nl/arst
Excerpt from: Database of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature of Antiquity, c. 200BCE to c. 700CE,ed. A. Samely, R. Bernasconi, P. Alexander, and R. Hayward
Researcher: Robert Hayward
Editions, translations and selected studies Editions: P.de Lagarde, Hagiographa Chaldaice (Leipzig: Teubner, 1873), which reproduces the text of the first Rabbinic Bible of Felix Pratensis (Venice, 1517); The Second Rabbinic Bible of Jacob ben Hayyim published by Daniel Bomberg (Venice, 1524–1525); A. Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic, A. The Hagiographa (Leiden: Brill, 1968), pp. 171–205, which is based on British Library MS Or. 2375, a text combining the Aramaic of Targum Rishon and Targum Sheni, along with citation from another, unrelated Targum, the different Targumim being signalled by Sperber by means of marginal notations. B. Grossfeld, The Targum Sheni to the Book of Esther. A Critical Edition based on MS. Sassoon 282 with Critical Apparatus (New York: Sepher Hermon Press, 1994). Online Text of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, based on ed. Grossfeld: http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/ (accessed 23/02/11). Translations:German:A.Sulzbach,Targum Scheni zum Buch Esther. Ueber- setzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kauffmann, 1920); B. Ego, Targum Scheni zu Esther. Uebersetzung, Kommentar und theologische Deutung (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1996); Ego’s translation owes much to the English translation of B. Grossfeld, The Two Targums of Esther, Translated with Apparatus and Notes, The Aramaic Bible 18 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1991); B. Grossfeld, TheTargumsoftheFiveMegillot(New York: Hermon Press, 1973). Studies:P.Churgin,Ta r gum Ket ub im (New York: Horeb, 1945), pp. 214–235 [in Hebrew]; B. Ego, ‘God as the Ruler of History: Main Thematic Motives of the Interpretation of Megillat Esther in Targum Sheni’, JAB 2 (2000), pp. 189–201;
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/147783511X594852 66 Robert Hayward / Aramaic Studies 9.1 (2011) 65–82
‘All Kingdoms and Kings Trembled before Him: The Image of King Solomon in Targum Sheni on Megillat Esther’, JAB 3 (2001), pp. 57–73;A.Houtmanand H. Sysling, Alternative Targum Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. 172–180. The sign # is used for entries which the Targum would share with the entry for the biblical book ‘Esther’, that is, points which, while important for the structure of Targum Sheni, are created directly from the original Hebrew text by producing very largely the same sentences in the same sequence.
1. Self-Presentation of the text
1.1.5. Important text witnesses attest to a heading which is not integrated with the body of the text or with any introductory frame, implying one or more of the kinds of infor- mation under 1.1.1–4. The title Targum Sheni is found as a heading of this text in the First Rabbinic Bible (Bomberg, Venice, 1517); and from the same period we hear of a Targum Jerushalmi of Esther, also dubbed Sheni, from the Meturgeman of Elias Levita. The Targum Jerushalmi of Megillat Esther is quoted by Rashi in his commentary on Deut. 3.4, where he cites what is the text of Targum Sheni Est. 1.11; and he seems to refer to the same Esther Targum again in commenting on 1Kgs. 10.19, where he speaks of it as Aggadat Megillat Esther. It would seem that this same text is designated by Tosafot bMe g 12b as ‘Midrash’, whereas Tosafot bHag 11a speak of Targum to Megillat Esther. Reference to individual words and phrases of the Targum which we now know as TargumSheniistobefoundinthe "Arukh of Nathan b. Yehiel, a contemporary of Rashi, who quotes it often. Of the manuscript witnesses to the text, MS Nürnberg, Municipal Library Solg. MS 1. 7. 20 places this text immediately following the First Targum of Esther: it is introduced by an abbreviation of the words Targum Aher, ‘Another Targum’. 1.6. The approximate word count or other indication of comparative size is: c. 15,200 words, determined by copying and pasting the CAL electronic text (following Grossfeld’s critical edition) into an OpenOffice document and using word count. 1.7. The text’s Inventory Profile should be seen in the light of the following further information on completeness, thematic progression, aesthetic effects, etc. The end of the text in all MSS and prints presents the closing words of Est. 10.3, ‘and spoke peace to all his descendants’, translated into Aramaic, the translation remaining very close to the Hebrew text. Only three witnesses add anything to this, namely the Paris and first Parma MSS which add ‘of the house of Israel’; and the British Library MS 2375, which adds ‘in his prophecy for/to them’. The beginning of the Hebrew text of Esther, ‘And it came to pass in the days of Ahashverosh’, in all witnesses is translated into Aramaic only after a preceding meta-linguistic discussion of five instances of the phrase ‘and it came to pass in the days of …’, all of which are held to portend trouble. This meta-linguistic discourse continues, and is discussed further in this section, below. The text signals, by the means described here, that its principal concern is the narrative of Esther as given by the Hebrew Bible. All MSS witnesses, except only British Library MS 2375 and Paris Hebrew 110, set the Hebrew text of Esther along with the Aramaic Targum, the latter either interlined or alternating with the Hebrew text, or set in a column parallel with the Hebrew. The Copenhagen MS