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The Targum Sheni to the Book of Esther: a Critical Edition Based on MS

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The Targum Sheni to the Book of Esther: a Critical Edition Based on MS BOOK REVIEWS 139 Antiquities,since his literaryanalysis presupposesa certaintheology in the work and draws some theologicalconclusions. Murphy's style throughoutis lucid, but his use of "human(s)"as a noun was distracting. The bibliographyis a comprehensiveone on Pseudo-Philoand includes some related works on the Pseudepigraphaas well as recent majorworks in literaryand narrativecriticism. Murphy also providesa "Concordanceof ProperNames" and a "GeneralConcordance," both based on Harrington's criticalwork, as well as an index of modemauthors and a generalindex. The concordanceswill prove useful for futurestudies of BiblicalAntiquities. Murphyis to be congratulatedfor providinga good introductionand companion to Pseudo-Philo'sBiblical Antiquities.His commentaryis an intelligent exposition of its major themes. His narrativeconclusions are solidly rooted in a close familiaritywith the text in all its partsand in the whole. His literaryanalysis comprehensivelydemonstrates the unity of plot, character,and themesof the individualepisodes and the narrativeas a whole, while offering an excellent understandingof how Pseudo-Philorewrote the Bible. Murphy'scommentary is a significantcontribution to theunderstanding of Biblical Antiquitiesas a consistentand connectednarrative. SusanF. Mathews Universityof Scranton Scranton,Pa. Bernard Grossfeld. The Targum Sheni to the Book of Esther: A Critical Edition Based on MS. Sassoon 282 with Critical Apparatus. New York: Sepher-HermonPress, 1994. xvii, 314 pp. BernardGrossfeld's critical edition of TargumSheni to Estherrepresents a prodigiousamount of useful and importantwork. Nearly everythingthe interestedscholar would desirefor the studyof this ancienttext is includedin this volume. Grossfeldused as his basic text MS Sassoon282, datedto 1189 in Germany;in additionthe manuscriptcollection of the Instituteof Hebrew Microfilmsat the Jewish National Libraryin Jerusalem"was exhaustively consulted"(p. ix) to identifyan additionaltwenty-nine manuscripts of Targum Sheni. M. David's earlier critical edition, Das TargumScheni zum Buche Esther: Nach Handschriften Herausgegeben (Cracow, 1898), also utilized MS Sassoon 282, but comparedit to only two othermanuscripts in German libraries.A still earliercritical edition, L. Munk'sTargum Sheni zum Buche EstherNebst VariaeLectiones (Berlin, 1876), producedan eclectic text based 140 BOOKREVIEWS on threemanuscripts, again from Germanlibraries, though not MS Sassoon 282. This brief review of scholarshipindicates the remarkableprogress made in our times in the study of ancienttexts. WhereasMunk and David about a centuryago were limited to a few manuscriptsin their native Germany, today a scholar from the United States can avail himself of the microfilm collection in Israel to view Yemenitemanuscripts housed in London, an Algerianmanuscript housed in Paris,a Moroccanmanuscript housed in Parma, additionalmanuscripts housed in Sydney,Moscow, Budapest,Copenhagen, etc., and so on. And while we cannotbe surethat an additionalmanuscript of TargumSheni is not lurkingsomewhere in the worldawaiting discovery, we can be sure thatGrossfeld has includedin this workevery manuscriptknown to scholarshiptoday. Thus, even thoughGrossfeld's basic text is the same as thatof Davidalmost a hundredyears ago, the comparisonto twenty-nineother manuscriptsinstead of only two othermanuscripts affords a more complete pictureof this ancientcomposition. In addition,Grossfeld's volume includes much more. The volume contains brief discussions on the language, provenance, and date, and on the manuscriptgroups; a presentationof variantreadings among the manuscripts;the text with complete critical apparatus;several useful appendices;a complete concordanceof MS Sassoon 282; and the full manuscriptin clearly printedand easily legible plates.Comparison with Grossfeld's previous work, The First Targum to Esther, According to the MS Paris Hebrew 110 of the Bibliotheque Nationale (New York, 1983), revealsthat the currentwork on TargumSheni containsmuch more than the earlierwork on TargumRishon (note, most importantly,the presenceof a concordancein the new book). In addition,the Hebrewand English fonts utilizedby the (same) publisherare greatlyimproved. Grossfeld'sintroduction in this volume is very brief, but the readeris referredto the same author'streatment in The AramaicBible series (The Two Targumsto Esther: Translated, with Apparatus and Notes [Collegeville, Minn., 1991]) for furtherdetails. A crucial issue in the study of Targum Sheni is its date and provenance.On the basis of the text's WesternAramaic dialect, the provenanceappears to be without doubt Eretz-Israel.But the date of TargumSheni remainsa debatedquestion; opinions range from as early as the fourthcentury C.E. to as late as the eleventhcentury. Grossfeld does not enter into the debate with any fervor, though clearly he leans towardthe earlier date; that is, he wishes to place the compositionwithin BOOK REVIEWS 141 the Byzantineperiod. One can only agreewith Grossfeld'sconclusion that to establisha definitiveanswer "would require an exhaustivegrammatical and lexicographicalanalysis of the total text. It is hopedthat with the publication of this criticaledition of TargumSheni this taskhas been facilitated"(p. xi). Let us for a momentimagine that a detailedanalysis reveals that the text definitely is from Eretz-Israeland that it dates to the Byzantineperiod. If such were the case, then considerablemore fodder would be availablefor the lexicon of Jewish PalestinianAramaic. Michael Sokoloff's recentdictionary is a monumentalachievement,1 and one hardlycould have thoughtthat it would be necessaryto supplementit so soon. But if we carrythe above lines of thoughtto theirlogical extension-and I emphasizethat I am only musing, becauseany conclusionsat this time are premature-thenyes indeed,it may be necessaryto supplementthe databasewith the informationforthcoming fromTargum Sheni. Once more,for any scholarwho wishes to undertakethe task, Grossfeldhas providedthe meansto facilitatesuch work,especially by providinga completeconcordance of the text. Grossfeld classifies the various manuscriptsinto four differentgroups based on textual type. The largest group, sixteen manuscriptsplus MS Sassoon 282, represents the "MainstreamTradition," whereas the other groups "representtextual traditionsthat are uniquein linguisticas well as Aggadic content"(p. 2). An appendixpresents the statisticalcollations to allow the readerto check the percentageof equivalenciesamong the differ- ent manuscripts.Understandably, Grossfeld omitted from his classification scheme a handful of manuscriptsthat are fragmentaryor illegible; but he does not mentionthis directly,and it took me some time beforeI determined this. Among such manuscriptsare the recentlypublished Geniza materials.2 The concordancecomprises 195 pages, andis dividedinto small sections of Greek loanwords,personal names, and place names, and then the large sectionof generalconcordance. The Greekloanwords and the generalentries are all translated.The concordancewas preparedby EdwardCook of the ComprehensiveAramaic Lexicon Project and utilizes the keyword-in-context formatthat is becoming more and more familiar.These pages are printedin landscapeformat, but each page faces the centerof the book. Thus, as one turs the book sidewaysto view a particularpage, the otherpage beforeone's 1. A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period (Ramat-Gan, 1990). 2. See R. Kasherand M. L. Klein, "New Fragmentsof Targumto Estherfrom the Cairo Geniza," Hebrew Union College Annual 61 (1990): 89-124. 142 BOOK REVIEWS eyes is upside-down.In the future,I would hope that publisherswill take this into account and correctthe layout. It would be much betterif all the pages faced the same direction,so thatone could readand utilize them as the computerprintouts that they originallywere. A criticaledition of a classical text is always painstakingand typically unexciting.But it is the most basic workthat a humanistcan do, andall other advancesemanate from such toil. Grossfeldhas put us in his debt with this carefulproduct and clear presentation. GaryA. Rendsburg CornellUniversity Ithaca,N.Y. Hannah K. Harrington. The Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbis: Biblical Foundations.SBL DissertationSeries 143. Atlanta:Scholars Press, 1993. xv, 313 pp. This dissertation,produced under the directionof Jacob Milgromand DanielBoyarin, compares the hermeneuticalperspectives on Scripturewhich yield the contrastingcontamination systems of the Qumrancommunity and the early rabbinicliterature. The authorproposes "to uncoverthe motives of the sectariansand the Rabbisin developingtheir impurity systems in the mannerin whichthey do"(p. 1). Herconclusion is "thatmuch of whatappears to be innovationin contrastto biblical principlesis actuallya valid, astute readingof Scriptureitself' (p. 1). As a result,Hannah K. Harringtonurges the readerto view "the sectariansand the Rabbis[as] carefulexegetes who had a sacredregard for the divinely appointedTorah. Their concepts of impurity grow out of Scripturalroots rather than out of differentstock" (p. 1-2). After an introductoryreview of researchon the issue (pp. 1-43), the bookis divided between the Qumranmaterial (pp. 47-110) and the rabbinicmaterial (pp. 113-260). A brief summaryof conclusionsis followed by appendiceson the role of purityin Pharisaictable fellowship (pp. 267-281) anda synopticchart of scriptural,sectarian, and rabbinicperspectives on purity(pp. 283-291). The bibliographyis excellent. Lackingis an index of citationsfrom primary sources. In light of the flood of new texts and materialsin Qumranstudies, Harringtonhas chosen an opportunemoment to review the legal traditions of the communityon cultic contamination.She has industriouslycollected the various sources, old and recent, and has done a fine job of drawing .
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