CHAPTER THREE
QUOTATIONS OF TARGUMIC PASSAGES FROM THE PROPHETS IN RABBINIC AND MEDIEVAL SOURCES
A. S P R T Q Quotations of targumic passages can be found in various sources: in the Targums themselves, in Talmudim and Midrashim, in medieval dictionaries, biblical and talmudic commentaries, in magical texts, and in liturgical and mystical literature. As has been noted already in the sixteenth century by Azariah de Rossi, most of these quota- tions are not identical to the extant ad locum targums. e rst criti- cal investigations of these ‘lost targums’ were made by several repre- sentatives of the Wissenscha des Judentums. In Leopold Zunz published in his Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge a list of citations of targumic passages from the Prophets in the Babylonian and Palestin- ian Talmud, in midrashic works, and among medieval authors such as Yehuda of Paris, Abudarham, Ephraim of Bonn, David Kimi, Rashi, and Abraham Farissol, and also in the Codex Reuchlin. Zunz seemed to realize that with the study of these targumic fragments one is tread- ing on dangerous ground, for he writes with reference to what he calls ‘Targum jeruschalmi’: Diese Targums haben den Gelehrten schon grosses Herzleid zugefügt, so dass Mancher, wenn vom hierosolymitanischen Targum die Rede ist, seine Leser nur mit einigen Schimpfworten abfertigt. His own study of the material led him to the conclusion that there once existed a complete Palestinian Targum to the Torah and the Prophets.
See J. Weinberg, e Light of the Eyes: Azariah de’ Rossi. Translated from the Hebrew with an Introduction and Annotations, New Haven & London , – (’Imre Bina, section one, ch. IX). An expression coined by Moshe Goshen-Gottstein. See the English introduction & Vols, Ramat-Gan ,שקיעים מתרגומי המקרא הארמיים ,of M. Goshen-Gottstein , I.XII. L. Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden historisch entwickelt, Frank- furt am Main ( ), repr. Hildesheim . Zunz, Vorträge, –. Zunz, Vorträge, ‘die Aussagen der alten Autoren lauten so, als hätten sie Targumim zu vollständigen Büchern der Schri gesehen’.
is topic has provoked continuing discussion among scholars and Zunz’ position has had its supporters and its opponents. e Italian scholar Samuel David Luzzatto was the rst, in , to argue against such a theory. His arguments, however, were not based on targumic quotations but on the Tosea Targums (which he called ‘Zusatzthar- gumim’) discussed in the previous chapter. In his important study on the history of Targum Jonathan ( ) Zacharias Frankel only brief- ly touched on the subject and, although admitting that apart from Jonathan there existed another Targum of the Prophets, he doubted whether this could have been a Palestinian Targum. In the same year Paul de Lagarde published the text of Targum Jonathan according to Codex Reuchlin, including its marginalia. e marginal readings and their sigla were thoroughly investigated by Wilhelm Bacher ( ). Bacher distinguished between aggadic read- that were ,ספר אחר and תרגום אחר ,תרגום ירושלמי ings with the sigla taken from another source, and non-aggadic readings with the sigla that were variants within the targum ,ואית דמתרגמין ,פליג ,לישנא אחרינא text itself. In his view, the readings labelled as jeruschalmi are oen strongly related to the Babylonian Talmud and to later Midrashim,
See the survey of R.P. Gordon, Studies in the Targum to the Twelve Prophets: From Nahum to Malachi, Leiden [etc.] , – ; cf. P.S. Alexander, ‘Jewish-Ara- maic Translations of Hebrew Scriptures’, in: M.J. Mulder & H. Sysling (eds), Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, Assen [etc.] (repr. Peabody, Mass. ), –; W.F. Smelik, e Targum of Judges, Leiden [etc.] , – . S.D. Luzzatto, ‘Nachträgliches über die argumim’, WZJT ( ), – , esp. . See above, pp. – , esp. . Z. Frankel, Zu dem Targum der Propheten, Breslau , cf. : ‘Zunz (…) schliesst aus mehrfachen bei Aruch, Raschi, Kimchi u. A. angeführten Stellen, dass es ein jeru- salemisches Targum zu den propheten gegeben habe; die doppelten Uebersetzungen düren ebenfalls darauf hinweisen, dass es noch ein anderes Targum — wenn auch nicht jerusalemisch; sämtliche Uebersetzungen sind im babyl. Dialekt verfasst — zu den Propheten gegeben habe’. P. de Lagarde, Prophetae Chaldaice, Göttingen , repr. Osnabrück, ; on the marginalia, see the introduction, VI–XLII. W. Bacher, ‘Kritische Untersuchungen zum Propheten-targum’, ZDMG ( ), –. Bacher, ‘Kritische Untersuchungen’, : ‘ ) Die vorwiegend agadische Gruppe …, bei welcher schon die Benennungen auf eine von der gewöhnlichen verschiedene Version schliessen lassen. ) Die nichtagadische Gruppe … deren bezeichnungen ebenfalls darauf hinweisen, dass wir es mit Varianten innerhalb eines und desselben Targum zu thun haben’.