TARGŪM. — Aramaic paraphrase of the Old Testament. The term is a participle from the Aramaic root tirghēm (or rather rāgham), “to interpret, translate” (cf. Estd. 4, 7), from which the Italian «dragomanno» derives. After the Babylonian exile, the use of the Hebrew language declined, and in the synagogues it became necessary to explain the texts of the biblical readings to the people, who by then understood only Aramaic.
According to some, the first indication of such a custom is already found in the time of Ezra: mēghārāš (Noh. 8, 8) would mean “to translate,” whereas others, with greater justification, understand it in the sense of “distinctly, in passages or sections.” At first the translation was oral and took place after one or three verses. From the Palestinian Talmud (Mēghillāh, 4, 1; ed. M. Schwab, VI, p. 245) it appears that it was forbidden to set down a translation in writing in the new language. The first written form, therefore, does not seem to predate the 1st century A.D.
According to the division of the Hebrew Bible, one speaks of the T., or better, in the plural, of the Targāmin of the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. There are no fewer than four Targāmin of the Pentateuch. One, the most authoritative, is of Babylonian origin, while the others come from Palestine and are therefore called Jerusalemite or Palestinian.
The first is the celebrated T. 'Onkēlōs, generally assigned to the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. It is distinguished by its fidelity to the Hebrew text, which is essentially the Masoretic text; but it does not refrain from paraphrases in more difficult passages or from interpretations that accentuate the messianic character of certain texts. The name 'Onkēlōs is usually identified with the Greek 'Axōkac and the Latin Aquila. It is therefore possible that it derives from rabbinic tradition, which liked to attribute the work to the translator of the Bible into Greek (v. AQUILA). But this opinion is scarcely plausible. It claims that 'Onkēlōs was a contemporary of Rabbi Gamaliel the Elder and that he composed his work following the teachings of Rabbi 'Elī'ezer and Rabbi Joshua (cf. Mēghillāh 3a; ed. L. Goldschmidt, III, p. 536). But the first of those mentioned lived in the 1st century A.D., whereas the other two belong to the 2nd century. The attribution, therefore, has only the value of indicating as a characteristic of the version a greater fidelity, which also distinguishes the work of Aquila among the various Greek translations. The T. 'Onkēlōs achieved wide circulation; it was even furnished with its own masorah (v.), following the example of what had been done for the Bible.
The Palestinian T. is represented by a T. jērāšalmī I, often falsely called T. Jōnāthān, which in its present form does not seem to predate the 7th century; by a T. jērāšalmī II, or “of the fragments” (T. fragmentorum); and by a T. jērāšalmī III. Rather than different works, these are various recensions of a single translation, characterized by its great freedom and by quite a few absurd and superstitious elements. For this reason its authority is far inferior to that of the T. 'Onkēlōs.
For the Prophets, understood according to the division of the Hebrew canon—that is, for Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, as well as for the strictly prophetic books according to the Christians—there is the T. Jōnāthān. It displays almost the same fidelity as the work of 'Onkēlōs, to which it is also very close in language; but in the messianic prophecies an anti-Christian concern is evident. The translation dates from the 1st–2nd century A.D.; but it underwent various later revisions (in the 4th–5th centuries). Nothing is known about its author, Jōnāthān ben 'Uzzī'ēl. According to rabbinic tradition, he was a disciple of Hillēl (v.).
The third section of the Bible, that is, the Hagiographa, received an Aramaic paraphrase only later (6th–9th centuries), whose value varies from book to book. The Targāmin of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs are distinguished by their adherence to the letter. In the latter, dependence on the Syriac version Pēšittā is also evident. The T. of the five “scrolls” or mēghillāh, namely Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther, is exceedingly ex-
free. It is rather a midhrās (v.). The three books Daniel–Ezra–Nehemiah, which contain sections in Aramaic, never received a paraphrase in that language.
The study of the T. makes it possible to learn about the Aramaic language of the period, similar to that spoken by Jesus. Its contribution to textual criticism is rather modest, since it consists for the most part of paraphrases. From the exegetical standpoint, its importance concerns the history of exegesis, since it sometimes reveals the thought of the rabbis of that time.