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05 Alexander [JSP 19 (1999) 103-128] FROM POETRY TO HISTORIOGRAPHY: THE IMAGE OF THE HASMONEANS IN TARGUM CANTICLES AND THE QUESTION OF THE TARGUM’S PROVENANCE AND DATE Philip S. Alexander Department of Religions and Theology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England The Structure and Argument of Targum Canticles Targum Canticles 6.7-121 offers an intriguing evaluation of the Has- monean period of Jewish history, which when analysed and placed in its historical and literary context may help us to date and localize the Targum, and to clarify its relationship to the rabbinic traditions of apoc- alyptic and historiography. In order to understand the full significance of this section of the Tar- gum it is necessary first to consider its function within the structure and argument of the Targum as a whole. Close readers of Targum Canticles have usually sensed a profound unity in the work. Indeed, as I have argued elsewhere, this unity—which is reflected in the almost total absence of any substantial textual variants in around 100 manuscripts from all over the Jewish world—is so profound that this Targum, un- usually, must have had a single author, and that it has not been tam- pered with to any significant degree since it left his hands.2 Yet the overall structure of the Targum has proved to be somewhat elusive. 1. For a translation of the text see Appendix A. 2. P.S. Alexander, ‘Tradition and Originality in the Targum of the Song of Songs’, in D.R.G. Beattie and M. McNamara (eds), The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context (JSOTSup, 166; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994), pp. 318-39 (336). 104 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 19 (1999) Loring3 analysed it into an ingenious schema organized around the recurrent themes of God’s choice of Israel, Israel’s apostasy and the means by which atonement was affected between God and Israel. Thus 1.4, the Exodus from Egypt, represents God’s choice of Israel; 1.5, the episode of the Golden Calf, represents Israel’s apostasy, which is fol- lowed immediately in the same verse by a reference to the construction of the Tabernacle, the instrument in this case by which Israel was reconciled to God. There can be no doubt that the Targumist detected a pattern of communion, estrangement and reconciliation running through the history of Israel’s relationship to God, and that this pattern, conse- quently, recurs fairly often in his text as he recounts Israel’s history. But the pattern is not repeated with the regularity that Loring supposes. His detailed schema breaks down: sometimes the element asserting God’s choice of Israel appears to be missing, or the means by which the atonement is achieved is not stated. And, at several points, he clearly forces the sense of the Targum to make it fit the pattern. Schneekloth,4 following a proposal of Leon Liebreich,5 attempted to show that the Targumist himself has actually indicated the structure of his work by his strategic placing of the rubrics ‘Solomon the prophet said’ and ‘King Solomon said’ (1.2; 1.17; 2.8; 7.2; 7.7; 8.5; 8.13). However, again the result is not entirely convincing: some of Schneek- loth’s sections extend over several chapters (Section 3 = 2.8–7.1), while others cover only a few verses (Section 4, a ‘Sermon’ = 7.2-6). A third attempt to clarify the structure of the Targum was offered by Raphael Loewe,6 who suggested that it should be seen, ‘without incongruity’, as having a ‘symphonic construction’. He divides it into five movements, the first running from 1.2 to 3.6, the second from 3.7 to 5.1, the third from 5.2 to 6.1, the fourth from 6.2 to 7.11 and the fifth from 7.12 to 8.14. The musical analogy is helpful in that it reminds us of the high 3. Richard T. Loring, The Christian Historical Exegesis of the Song of Songs and its Possible Jewish Antecedents: A Chapter in the History of Interpretation (ThD, General Theological Seminary: New York, 1967), chapter 2. 4. Larry G. Schneekloth, ‘The Targum of the Song of Songs: A Study of Rab- binic Bible Interpretation’ (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1977), pp. 284- 94. 5. L.J. Liebreich, ‘The Benedictory Formula in the Targum to the Song of Songs’, HUCA 18 (1944), pp. 177-98 (182). 6. Raphael Loewe, ‘Apologetic Motifs in the Targum of the Song of Songs’, in A. Altmann (ed.), Biblical Motifs: Origins and Transformations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), pp. 169-73. ALEXANDER From Poetry to Historiography 105 artistry of the Targum, and it allows us to play with its ‘anticipations’ (e.g. the messianic reference at 1.17) and its ‘flashbacks’ (e.g. the refer- ence to the division of the kingdom after Solomon’s death in 8.11-12) in aesthetic terms. But it rather falls down because Loewe fails to demonstrate that his individual movements have any kind of inner musi- cal structure, and consequently he fails to justify his division of the Targum as a whole into five movements. No rigid schema can or should be imposed on the Targum for two reasons. First, for all its freedom, the interpretation of the Targumist is constrained by the underlying biblical text. There had to be a more or less plausible correlation between the text and the interpretation: the Targumist is fastidious in this regard. He was further limited by the fact that he imposed upon his interpretation a broadly chronological frame- work. To a certain extent he had to get his correspondences between the text and history as best he could, and this may sometimes have forced him to take events somewhat out of sequence, or to omit elements that he might ideally have liked to include. Secondly, however, I doubt that the Targumist would have wanted to impose a rigid, repetitive schema on his work. He was too much of an artist to do so. The more pre- dictable the text the duller and less artistically pleasing it would have become. If we are to try to catch the elusive form of the Targum through a musical analogy, then I would suggest that the programmatic tone poem, rather than the classical symphony, would be the more appropriate comparison.7 The unity of the work is essentially deter- mined by the repetition of certain motifs and themes, rather than by a regular or formal structure. Only when we identify those motifs and clarify the Targum’s theological programme will we be able to discern its structure. The dominant theme of the Targum is the theme of exile. The Tar- gumist writes with an acute sense of the pain of exile and with a deep longing for redemption. Exile and redemption for him are not personal but national: it is the condition of his people and his nation that con- cerns him. Exile for him means the loss of statehood and the absence of the Shekhinah; redemption means the return to the ancient homeland, 7. The tone poem, also known as the symphonic poem, is a development of the classical symphony, in which the boundaries between the distinct movements have been dissolved, and the overall structure of the composition is looser and more impressionistic. 106 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 19 (1999) the rebuilding of national institutions—especially the Temple—and the restoration of the Shekhinah to the Temple.8 Time and again the Targumist specifically identifies idolatry as the cause of the exile, and the term clearly has a special significance for him. Thus in his account of the wilderness wanderings he stresses the sin of the Golden Calf. He represents Israel as saying to the nations: Do not despise me because I am darker than you, because I did what you did and bowed down to the sun and the moon. For it is the false prophets who have caused the fierceness of the Lord’s anger to be visited upon me. They taught me to serve your idols and to walk in your laws. But the Lord of the World, who is my own God, have I not served, nor followed his laws, nor kept the commandments of his Torah (1.6). Moses, foreseeing on the point of death the future exile of the people, says to God: It has been revealed before me that this people will sin and go into exile. Now tell me how they will be provided for and how they will settle among the nations whose decrees are as harsh as the scorching heat of the noonday sun at the summer solstice, and why they should wander among the flocks of Esau and Ishmael who associate with you their idols as [your] companions? (1.7). Idolatry is probably for him a code-word for assimilation in to the surrounding culture: he seems to be witnessing in his own milieu a loss of communal identity, a breaking down of the barriers between the Jew- ish community and the non-Jewish world, and perhaps widespread apos- tasy. His account of the Amalek incident is suggestive in this regard: After they had crossed the sea they murmured for water, and wicked Amalek came against them, who bore a grudge against them on account of the birthright and the blessing which Jacob had taken from Esau. He came to wage war against Israel because they had ceased to observe the words of Torah. And wicked Amalek was stealing from beneath the wings of the clouds of glory souls from the tribe of Dan, and was killing them, because they had in their hands the idol of Micah (2.15).
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