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15. Targum as Scripture and Hidden Interpretation
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325 15 Targum as Scripture and Hidden Interpretation targum as scrIpture’s meanIng The prescriptive character of much of what we read concerning Targums in rabbinic literature in the previous chapter makes it difficult to deduce actual, historical practice in any detail. Attempts to delve beneath the surface of these prescriptions inevitably depend upon the applicability to real situations of general interpretive rules—and these rules are neither entirely compatible with one another nor commensurate with the synagogue practice that they presuppose. As a result, we could apply the common axiom that prescriptive rules are promulgated in order to prevent current practices—which by definition would be the opposite of that approved by the rule. So if the prescription is that the Torah Targum is given orally, then the interpretive conclusion would be that many or even most synagogues followed the practice of reading the Targum from a written text. Or perhaps a chronological interpretation should be followed, arguing that at the time of the Mishnah, people read the Torah Targum from a text but later, perhaps in the decades just prior to the Yerushalmi’s publication, they followed the rule by rendering the translation orally. If we stop trying to sift through the details of the prescriptions for a historical kernel, and instead look at the agreement among the passages about synagogue translation, one point stands out. It is that the reading of Scripture from the biblical text—especially the Torah and the Prophets —is accompanied by Targum translation. This is the case whether the Targum is given orally or read from a written translation. Scripture reading is paired with its translation. The debate over the treatment of the Esther Megillah, which raged from the Mishnah into the Bavli, essentially focused on whether one of the pair could be eliminated, be it the translation or the Hebrew text itself. 326 — The Targums: A Critical Introduction The goal of this chapter is to draw out the implications of the pairing of Scripture reading and its translation. If the reading of the biblical text is regularly accompanied by its translation, what further conclusions can we draw? While this chapter will deductively tease out a series of ideas, we wish to state the overall point at the outset: even though Targums were not Scripture, they became the meaning of Scripture within their congregations . In a linguistic and religious world where Aramaic Targums were necessary, their contents provided the vast majority of their hearers and readers with the meaning of Scripture. If we want to know what the average Jew of third-century Galilee or sixth-century Babylonia knew about Scripture’s meaning, we should look to the Targums, rather than to the Hebrew text of Scripture. To be sure, the rabbis’ scriptural knowledge was collated with the Hebrew, but that educated elite was quite small in comparison to the total Jewish population. And even they sometimes depended on the Targums for their understanding of Scripture, as Rav Joseph said about Zechariah 12:11, “Were it not for the Targum to this verse, I would not know what it means” (b. Meg. 3a). The claim that Targums provided Scripture’s meaning sounds somewhat shocking at first. But if there was a linguistic need for an Aramaic Targum because the synagogue members did not understand the original Hebrew (although another, more nuanced view, is discussed below), then no other conclusion is possible. When we consider the passages from rabbinic literature presented in chapter 14 concerning the oral rendering of the Targum, it is clear that for nearly half a millennium—during the period from the Mishnah through to the Babylonian Talmud—the rabbis thought there should be only one physical text (one scroll) in the synagogue service, namely, the Hebrew text of Scripture. Whether this Hebrew text was from the Torah or the Prophets, they consistently paired it with oral translation. They did not want a translated Targum text on display during worship. According to their prescription, there should be no Targum texts physically evident during the service. The usual explanation for this is that the prohibition prevents members of the synagogue from confusing the Targum with the original Scripture. This is certainly true in a literal sense. Toward the end of the rabbinic period, furthermore, the Bavli takes this one step further when it even outlaws the Torah reader from helping the translator formulate his translation, “So that they will not say, ‘The Targum is written in the Torah’” (b. Meg. 32a). The...