Updated ed. of: Targum and Testament. 1972.

Targum Chronicles and Its Place Among the Late Targums heralds a paradigm shift in the understanding of many of the Jewish-Aramaic translations of individual biblical books and their origins. Leeor Gottlieb provides the most extensive study of Targum Chronicles to date, leading to conclusions that challenge long-accepted truisms with regard to the origin of Targums. This book’s trail of evidence convincingly points to the composition of Targums in a time and place that was heretofore not expected to be the provenance of these Aramaic gems of biblical interpretation. This study also offers detailed comparisons to other Targums and fascinating new explanations for dozens of aggadic expansions in Targum Chronicles, tying them to their rabbinic sources.

The value and significance of the targums—translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, the language of Palestinian Jews for centuries following the Babylonian Exile—lie in their approach to translation: within a typically literal rendering of a text, they incorporate extensive exegetical material, additions, and paraphrases that reveal important information about Second Temple Judaism, its interpretation of its bible, and its beliefs. This remarkable survey introduces critical knowledge and insights that have emerged over the past forty years, including targum manuscripts discovered this century and targums known in Aramaic but only recently translated into English. Prolific scholars Flesher and Chilton guide readers in understanding the development of the targums; their relationship to the Hebrew Bible; their dates, language, and place in the history of Christianity and Judaism; and their theologies and methods of interpretation. “With clear presentation of current research and the issues involved, including the Targums and the New Testament, and a rich bibliography, this is the most complete—and up-to-date—introduction to the Targums. An outstanding, highly recommended achievement.” Martin McNamara, Emeritus Professor of Scripture, Milltown Institute, Dublin, Ireland

Targum meaning translation references the various language transliterations of the original Hebrew Torah, which were commissioned created by Temple elders. The Aramaic and Palestinian versions printed here are acknowledged to be the oldest and most widely used renderings of the ancient language translations of the original Hebrew Torah. Though they are accepted to date back to at least the first century CE, I believe them to be half a millennia older as they first came into being to accommodate the Israelites assimilation of Aramaic when exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE. It was during the 70 years of that diaspora that Aramaic became the predominant colloquial language and accepted vernacular of use by the Hebraic peoples. During this 70 years of assimilation, the Israelite's use of Hebrew as lexicon dwindled from being the primary dialect of everyday conversation, to being one of mostly scholastic application utilized intellectually by the priestly class.