What Are The Aramaic Targums?This series of web pages provides free lessons to help you learn about the Aramaic Targums.
The Targums (or Targumim in Hebrew) are the Aramaic translations of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. When Hebrew started to decline as a spoken language in favour of Aramaic, Jews translated books of the Tanakh into Aramaic for wider availability in their everyday spoken language (Aramaic). These ancient Targums, or translations, are still available today. They are still used by Jews, yet are almost entirely ignored by other Bible students. As we see in our lesson Importance of the Aramaic Targums, the Aramaic Targums have a huge amount to offer Bible students, yet remain hugely under-utilized and under-valued. The origins of the Aramaic Targums go back to Nehemiah's time, where we read in the Tanakh: Nehemiah 8:1-8 And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; . . . . And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground. . . . . and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. Thus, seventy years after the exile to Babylon, the Jews returned to the Land of Israel. Forced to speak Aramaic in Babylon, they were by now much more familiar with Aramaic than Hebrew. The above passage records how the Law (Torah) was read in public in Hebrew, but that the people were made to understand the sense, i.e. the Hebrew was translated for them into Aramaic to make sure they understood. Over time, these oral Aramaic translations became written down, forming the Aramaic Targums that we have today. It is important to realize that the Aramaic Targums arose according to need, i.e. the books of the Tanakh were translated into Aramaic as and when required, at different times, and by different people. The Targums are therefore not a single translation of the whole Tanakh. Instead, there are different Aramaic translations of different books of the Hebrew Bible. Some have gained an authoritative status, and some have not. The full list of Targums is provided in the lesson List of Aramaic Targums. The history of the Targums is therefore different to the Peshitta Tanakh (Aramaic Old Testament). Although the Peshitta Tanakh is still an Aramaic translation of the Tanakh, unlike the Targums, the Peshitta Tanakh is a single coherent translation of the whole Tanakh, done at a single point in time. Finally, a word on Targums vs. Targumim. Targum is singular, meaning translation. English has adopted the Hebrew word. The plural of Targum is Targums in English, but Targumim is Hebrew. Some people insist that Targumim is the correct term, and that Targums is wrong. In our view both are acceptable, but one is English and the other Hebrew. As this web site is written in English, we use the term Targums. We apologise to those who insist that Targumim be used. We like the word Targumim, and use it when speaking Hebrew. |
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