Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Søren Holst <sh AT teol.ku.dk>]

Can I tap into the bibliographic expertise of the Jewish sages on the list?

We're trying to upgrade the rabbinica corner of our library. Whether I like
it or not, we're a European theology department, so interest in the rabbinic
literature is a side effect of interest in the Bible, New Testament as well
as HB. This means that we can't expect everybody to be fluent in Aramaic, or
even in Mishnaic Hebrew. Students are strongly encouraged to read the actual
text, but more people will do this, if they have a translation to lean on.
No value judgment implied, but that's just the way the cookie (and the
curriculum) crumbles.

So here goes:

MIDRASHIM:

Are there decent translations of the following available? (English is
preferred, German is perfectly OK, French will turn some students off, but
it sure is better than nothing):

We have the Hebrew texts of them all in print as well as Responsa CD-ROM
format

-Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yisma'el
(we actually have Lauterbach, but if anything is vastly better, I might as
well hear it)

-Mekhilta d'Rabbi Shim'on ben Yochai
(does any tranlation exist?)

-Sifra
(the Neusner translation is only partial? And the German 1938 J Winter one
possibly not in print anymore?)

-Sifre Numbers
(somebody seems to have stolen our copy of the 1959 G Kuhn
translation/commentary. Is the last volume of the Neusner/Green tranlation
out, I wonder?)

-Sifre Deuteronomy
(I've found references to three translations done in the 1980'es by R.
Hammer, J. Neusner and H. Bietenhard - any recommendations?)

TARGUMIM:

If the bursar will be persuaded, I assume we ought to fork out the price of
the McNamara edition, right? On the other hand, the bursar might NOT be
persuaded, and we'll have to make do with the Sperber textual edition for
Onqelos, the E.G. Clarke for Pseudo-Jonathan and the A. Diez Macho for
Neophyti 1. That leaves us with the issue of translations again:

Diez Macho has translations of Neophyti, I'm told. But are there dependable
translations of Onqelos and Pseudo-Jonathan to be had?

thanks for your patience
Soren, Copenhagen