The Targums: A Critical Introduction

21. Targums in the Rabbinic World and Beyond

475 21 Targums in the Rabbinic World and Beyond Throughout this book we have focused on the earliest centuries of the Targums , trying to understand their composition and use, primarily during the rabbinic period. We looked at the earliest known Aramaic Bible translation —the Aramaic version of Job from Qumran. We examined the rise of the Pentateuchal and Prophetic Targums during the first to the fourth centuries CE and the further development of all Targums from then into the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, in both Palestine and Babylonia. While scholars still debate the date of composition for some later Targums —investigating whether they were composed as late as the eighth or ninth century—the heyday of the creation and early use of most Aramaic Targums seems roughly coextensive with the rabbinic era. Targums and the practice of translating did not disappear with the close of the rabbinic period, however. Aramaic Targums continued to be used in synagogue services from Babylonia to Spain for several more centuries. The Jewish authorities in Geonic Babylonia and later in early medieval Europe gave rulings about Targums that have shaped scholarly research to the present day. Manuscripts of Aramaic Targums continued to be copied and even found new life in the age of print. Furthermore, translations and Targums have been composed in most languages that Jews have spoken since the seventh century. In many of these, the targumic process remained alive and well, as Philip Alexander and others have pointed out. Alexander’s separation of the targumic process—which he terms “Targumism”—from its ancient, Aramaic context makes it evident that the targumic process was not irremovably linked to Aramaic—raising the possibility that the practice of Targum might be found in artistic arenas far removed from the Targums. One such area is modern film: biblical movies such as The Ten Commandments and The Passion of the Christ make significant use of techniques and perspectives found in the Targums. 476 — The Targums: A Critical Introduction Scholarly research into these aspects of Targum studies has been less extensive than into rabbinic-era Targums, but there has been some. This final chapter aims to provide a brief characterization of the research into these areas. It will briefly characterize each area of investigation, explain its importance, and point toward possible future exploration. This chapter will be divided into three sections. The first will address the Targums in the post-Talmudic period. The second will focus on the ongoing production of Targums and translations of Scripture into languages other than Aramaic down into the twentieth century. The third section will address the use of targumic techniques in films related to Scripture. targums In the geonIc anD meDIeval perIoDs The half-millennium following the publication of the Babylonian Talmud had an enormous impact on Judaism’s view of Targums. The writings of those centuries shaped attitudes toward and knowledge about the Targums that are still current. Much of that knowledge was not improved upon until the latter half of the twentieth century. Building upon the foundation laid by rabbinic literature, especially the Talmud, rabbinic authorities from Babylonia to Spain laid out their understanding of Targums in responses to halakhic questions in commentaries, and even in poetic and philosophic writings. Through the Middle Ages, these authors helped shape Judaism among the Jews in two of the world’s largest regions: the Islamic realm of the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Spain (Andalusia); and the Christian realm of Europe. The Geonic period (roughly 589 to 1038) continued the rabbinic-era rivalry between the Jewish centers of Palestine and Babylonia for leadership of the Jewish community. From their academies ( yeshivot) based in Baghdad, Babylonian geonim gained the upper hand over the Jerusalem academy in Palestine, probably during the tenth century.1 Ultimately, the form of Judaism promoted by the Babylonian leaders supplanted that of Palestinian Judaism, even in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. This established the Babylonian geonim as the arbiters of halakhah, and made the Babylonian Talmud the superior source of Jewish belief and practice—second only to Scripture itself. Accompanying this was the primacy of Targum Onqelos to the Pentateuch and Targum Jonathan to the Prophets. It was the Babylonian expertise in the halakhah of the Babylonian Talmud , distributed through their responsa (sg. responsum)—written answers to 1 This was helped along by the rise in Palestine of the Karaites who eschewed the validity of rabbinic Judaism and its Talmuds altogether. [18.188.20.56] Project MUSE (2024...