Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible: A Light on the New Testament, Second Edition (Biblical Resource)

368 Pages·2010·5.68 MB·English

TARGUM AND TESTAMENT REVISITED

Targum and Testament Revisited
Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible:
A Light on the New Testament
SECOND EDITION
Martin McNamara
WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
© 2010 Martin McNamara
All rights reserved
Published 2010 by
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 495°5 /
P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 7 6 5 4 3 21
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McNamara, Martin.
Targum and Testament revisited: Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible:
a light on the New Testament / Martin McNamara.
p. cm.
Updated ed. of: Targum and Testament. 1972.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8028-6275-4 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T Aramaic — Versions, Palestinian.
2. Bible. N.T. — Relation to the Old Testament.
I. McNamara, Martin. Targum and Testament. II. Title.
BS709.4M34 2010
221.4'2 — dc22
2010023310
www.eerdmans.com
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: Historical Overview 1
1. Ancient Jewish Writings 17
Part One: Formation of Targumic Tradition
2. Development of Doctrine in Judaism 41
3. The Synagogue and Synagogue Worship 63
4. Aramaic as the Language of the Jews 85
5. Early Written Targums 93
6. Some Characteristics of Targumic Renderings 101
7. Origin and Transmission of the Palestinian Targum 120
8. Date of the Palestinian Targum 129
Part Two: Palestinian Targum and New Testament Studies
9. Reverential Manner of Speaking of God 141
10. God and Creation 146
11. The Holy Spirit 167
v
CONTENTS
12. Father in Heaven 177
13. Sin and Virtue 187
14. Eschatology 200
15. The Targums and Johannine Literature 213
16. Other Passages and Concluding Remarks 228
Appendix: Introduction to All Extant Targums
17. Targums of the Pentateuch 255
18. Geography of the Palestinian Targums of the Pentateuch 284
19. Targums of the Prophets 310
20. Targums of the Hagiographa 316
Appendix: The Aramaic Bible Project 330
Index of Authors 332
Index of Subjects and Persons 337
Index to Citations and References 342
vi
Preface
Revisiting Targum and Testament: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bi­
ble: A Light on the New Testament, basically completed in 1968 but pub­
lished in 1972, must take account of the changed situation since it was first
completed and published. The work was compiled after the author had
published his doctoral dissertation, The New Testament and the Palestinian
Targum to the Pentateuch (1966). This factor indicated that material
treated in the dissertation should be omitted, if possible. Targum and Tes­
tament dealt mainly with material not included in the earlier work. It was
intended to accompany a planned English translation of the Palestinian
Targums of the Pentateuch (Neofiti and Pseudo-Jonathan, and possibly the
Fragment Targums and the glosses to Neofiti). The present writer, and his
colleague Michael Maher, were then nearing completion of the English
translation of the Aramaic text of Neofiti, with its glosses, for publication
in the editio princeps of Codex Neofiti (published 1968-1978). The pro­
jected English translation envisaged, to which Targum and Testament was
to serve as an introduction, never materialised. Since then however, due to
the initiative and resourcefulness of Michael Glazier, a full translation of
all the traditional rabbinic targums has been published, together with ap­
paratuses, extensive introductions and notes in the series The Aramaic Bi­
ble (1978-2007), 19 planned volumes in 22 volumes.
Since 1972 the scholarly attitude towards the usefulness of the Ara­
maic Targums for an understanding of the New Testament has also radi­
cally changed, and even the admissibility of targumic evidence in this field
of research is often seriously questioned. All this needs to be taken into ac­
count in any new presentation of the 1972 edition.
vii
PREFACE
The original edition served the purpose of bringing the targums and
their message to a broad readership, a fact witnessed to by a request for a
reprint or a new edition of the work.
In this new presentation I intend to remain as close as possible to the
plan of the original edition, while taking the developments in the interven­
ing period into account. I introduce this new presentation with an over­
view of history of the use of the targums in New Testament studies over
five centuries or so.
viii
INTRODUCTION
Historical Overview
i. The Beginnings
Targums, that is Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible, came to the
attention of Christian scholars in the West in the early Renaissance pe­
riod.1 They were used, among other works, in anti-Jewish polemic by
Raymundus Martinus (died 1290) in his Pugio fidei aduersus Mauros et
Judaeos. The advent of printing made the targums more easily available
to students. Onqelos was printed in 1492 at Bologna, the Fragment
Targums in 1517-1518; Pseudo-Jonathan in 1591. In whole or in part their
texts were incorporated into the great Polyglot Bibles: the Compluten-
sian Polyglot 1514-1517; the Antwerp Polyglot or Biblia Polyglotta Regia
1569-1572; the Paris Polyglot 1618-1645, and finally the London Polyglot
1655-1657, under the editorship of Brian Walton. Editions and Latin
translations of individual targums were also made. During the sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries scholars examined the importance
of the targums, or rather individual targum texts, for theological and
exegetical purposes, in efforts to elucidate New Testament texts. The
dangers inherent in use of such texts were also adverted to, by reason of
their generally presumed post-New Testament date of origin. Onqelos
and the Targum of the Prophets were presumed to be the earliest; the
1. For a more detailed overview of the question see Martin McNamara, The New Tes­
tament and the Palestinian Targum of the Pentateuch (Analecta Biblica 27 and 27A; Rome:
Biblical Institute Press, 1966; 2nd printing with supplement 1978), pp. 5-33; Martin
McNamara, "Targumic Studies," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 28 (1966): 1-19.
1