Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jim West <jwest AT Highland.Net>]

At 06:38 PM 5/14/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I was wondering if
>what is called the 'targums' are generally trustworthy?

They reflect a particular reading of the Hebrew text for a particular group-
and meeting that groups needs they are indeed "trustworthy".

>
>What I mean is, I have read where they are Aramaic paraphrases for the
>Hebrew scriptures.

They are not "mere" paraphrases.  Instead, they are an attempt to deal with
the text as it is for folk who had no facility (or little) with Hebrew.

> Are they 'too' parapharsical to get a sense of Jewish
>thought at the time or do they generally present an accurate rendition of
>the Hebrew thought, just perhaps stated differently?

They are reliable, expansionistic, and great for seeing how one segment of
Judaism saw its traditions.

In short, they were the "Living Bible" of their time and place.

>
>Dan Ebert

Best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest AT highland.net
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest