ELECTRONIC TEXTS

The book makes use of a number of electronic texts made available by the Comprehensive Lexicon Project (CAL) at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, USA. Preparation of this electronic database was made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The CAL electronic texts were initially prepared under the direction of Dr Michael Sokoloff during the preparation of A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period (Bar Ilan, 1990). Details concerning the CAL electronic texts, which are used in this book, are set forth below.

Targum Neofiti to the Pentateuch Neofiti was completely collated against the microfilm of the manuscript, and re-read again for marginalia by M. Abegg and S. Kaufman.

Targum Onqelos to the Pentateuch The main text is that which was prepared by M. Cohen for his new multi-volume publication Mikraot Gedolot HaKeter (Bar Ilan University Press, 1992–).

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch The CAL1 text is based on that prepared by E. Clarke et al. for the publication of their Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch: Text and

1 Fragment Targum, recension VNL agrees with Fragment Targum, recension P and Neofiti 1 in the rendering of Gen. 1:27 and therefore does

xxiii xxiv A REDACTION HISTORY

Concordance (Ktav, 1984) based on an independent reading of the London ms.

Fragment Targum, recension P, MS Paris 110 Fragment comprise a Palestinian Aramaic version of deliberately selected portions of the Pentateuch from the files of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project (CAL). The texts of the Fragment Targums come from Michael Klein, The Fragment- Targums of the Pentateuch, Analecta Biblica 76, (Biblical Institute Press, Rome 1980). There are four recensions of Fragment Targums, of which only Fragment Targum recension P (MS Paris 110) contains the full text of Genesis 1:26–27 and Fragment Targum, recension VNL (MSS Vatican Ebr. 440, Nuernberg and Leipzig B.H. Fol. 1.) has Genesis 1:27. The remaining two fragments do not have the text.

not influence the research. J. Bowker notes in regard of the Geniza Fragments that they ‘not only represent the Palestinian Targum in different recension, but they also differ among themselves: where the same verse has survived in two fragments, the two fragments may well represent the verse differently. This again bears witness to the extreme fluid state of the Palestinian Targum’ (1969: 21).