Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Thanks for that. I've had a look round and all the Targum MSS I can  
find seem to have been found outside of Isreal. A lot of them in Iraq.  
This would seem to suggest that the Aramaic translations were used by  
and large by Jewish communities outside of Isreal. Aramaic, being a  
lingua franca of the time, would seem to be the obvious choice of  
language to translate the Hebrew Tanakh into for these communities.

As regards dates, I haven't been able to find any particularly old MSS  
of Targumim. They all seem to be pretty late. It would seem that you  
are suggesting that the Aramaic translations predated the Greek LXX.  
This would indeed be something interesting to investigate.

If there is something you know that I'm missing here please help me  
out. I would be interested in finding:

a) the oldest Targum MSS

b) any ancient references to their usage

in order to get an approximate date and period of usage for these  
translations.

James Christian

Quoting "Joel C. Salomon" <joelcsalomon AT gmail.com>:

> James Read wrote:
> > I'm following what you are saying here Randall with one exception. You
> > have assumed that the Hebrews spoke and used Greek and Aramaic during
> > the second temple period up until the revolt of Bar Kochba.
> <snip>
> > So, just what are you basing this assumption on? (I am genuinely
> > interested as I have heard this stated many times but have yet to see
> > any form of evidence)
>
> How early is the use of a Targum recorded?  Onkelus’s seems to date to
> soon after the temple era; is that helpful?
>
> —Joel Salomon
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew



--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.