The Vocabulary of Targum Onkelos, the Oldest Extant Jewish Aramaic Translation of the Pentateuch, Has Been an Object of Study for Centuries

INTRODUCTION The vocabulary of Targum Onkelos, the oldest extant Jewish Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch, has been an object of study for centuries. The Babylonian Talmud contains observations on particular words and passages, and in the medieval period luminaries such as Maimonides and Rashi used the targum extensively and made comments on its wording. During the Renaissance, Elias Levita’s Meturgeman (1541) inaugurated a more systematic approach to Targumic Aramaic lexicography and included a large part of Onkelos’s vocabulary, with exemplification. He was followed by others, including Johannes Buxtorf’s Lexicon chaldaicum, talmudicum et rabbinicum (1639-40), which, in various editions, served scholars for several generations.1 In the modern period, the vocabulary of Onkelos has been treated by J. Levy,2 Marcus Jastrow,3 and Gustav Dalman.4 Levy’s work was devoted solely to the targumim, and included, besides Onkelos, the vocabulary of Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, the Palestinian Targums known to him (i.e., Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the Fragment-Targum), and the Targums to the Writings. Jastrow and Dalman, in the tradition of Buxtorf, attempted to treat all the vocabulary found in rabbinic literature, both Hebrew and Aramaic. Dalman evinced an awareness of the importance of using reliable manuscripts, although he did not always do this consistently; and, unlike his predecessors, Dalman cited his sources. For Onkelos, he used Ms. Socin 84, in the possession of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft.5 Still, although targum studies and Aramaic lexicography have made great strides since the time of Dalman and Jastrow, no dictionary has ever 1 The most recent edition is Joannis Buxtorfii Lexicon chaldaicum, talmudicum et rabbinicum, ed. B. Fischer (London: Asher, 1875). 2 J. Levy, Chaldäisches Wörterbuch über die Targumim, 2 vols. (1881; repr. Köln: Joseph Melzer, 1959). [ChW] 3 Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York: Putnam, 1903). 4 G. H. Dalman, Aramäisch-neuhebräisches Handwörterbuch zu Targum, Talmud und Midrasch (Frankfurt: J. Kauffmann, 1901). [ANHW] 5 This manuscript appears in Sperber’s apparatus as v. x EDWARD COOK been solely dedicated to the vocabulary of Targum Onkelos. The monumental dictionaries of Michael Sokoloff6 have, in the main, treated Jewish Aramaic dialects from a later time, while the more inclusive works of Klaus Beyer7 and of Hoftijzer & Jongeling8 treat earlier dialects. The still-evolving Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon is the first dictionary since Jastrow in 1903 to include the vocabulary of Onkelos, but it is included there within the general rubric of “Jewish Literary Aramaic.” Hence, a lexical picture of this targum, the most widely used of all the targums in Jewish history, still remains to be drawn. There is, however, one main barrier to executing a complete scientific lexicon of Targum Onkelos: the lack of a true critical edition. Although Alexander Sperber’s text and apparatus9 was a great improvement on the editions available up to that time, even he acknowledged that it was based on a “fraction”10 of the extant manuscripts. In particular, he called the reader’s attention to the important Ms. Ebr. 448 of the Vatican Library, not employed by him in the text or apparatus, but which many scholars now feel should be the basis of any future scientific edition of Onkelos, along with the numerous fragments of Onkelos from the Cairo Geniza. There also exists a masora to Onkelos, which should form part of such a work.11 An exhaustively accurate picture of the grammar and vocabulary of Onkelos can emerge only on the basis of such a critical edition. Nevertheless, as an interim survey of the targum’s vocabulary, I have chosen to issue this glossary to Targum Onkelos according to Sperber’s edition, which uses British Museum Ms. Or. 2363 as base text. Although 6 A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period (Ramat-Gan: Bar- Ilan Univ. Press, 1990) [DJPA]; A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan Univ. Press, 2002) [DJBA]; A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan Univ. Press, 2003). [DJA] 7 Klaus Beyer, Die aramäischen Texte vom Toten Meer (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984; Band 2, 2004). [ATTM] 8 J. Hoftijzer and K. Jongeling, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1995). [DNWSI] 9 Alexander Sperber, The Bible in Aramaic: Based on Old Manuscripts and Printed Texts. Volume I, The Pentateuch According to Targum Onkelos (Leiden: Brill, 1959). 10 Sperber, p. XVI. 11 See Bernard Grossfeld, The Targum Onqelos to Genesis: Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes (Aramaic Bible 6; Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, 1988), 8–10; Michael Klein, The Masorah to Targum Onqelos (Targum studies, new ser., v. 1. Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications, Binghamton University, 2000). .

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