Updated ed. of: Targum and Testament. 1972.

The relevance of the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible) for the understanding of the New Testament has been a matter of dispute over the past three hundred years, principally by reason of the late date of the Targum manuscripts and the nature of the Aramaic. The debate has become more focused by reason of the Qumran finds of pre-Christian Aramaic documents (1947) and the identification of a complete text of the Palestinian Targum of the Pentateuch in the Vatican Library (Codex Neofiti, 1956). Martin McNamara traces the history of the debate down to our own day and the annotated translation of all the Targums into English. He studies the language situation (Aramaic and Greek) in New Testament Palestine and the interpretation of the Scriptures in the Targums, with concepts and language similar to the New Testament. Against this background relationships between the Targums and the New Testament are examined. A way forward is suggested by regarding the tell-like structure of the Targums (with layers from different ages) and a continuum running through for certain texts.

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.

This book explores how the ancient Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible known as Targums are in part designed to guide readers to see the messianism of the biblical text. The interpreters who produced the Targums were careful readers of Scripture and were in many cases prompted by the finer details of the biblical text itself to produce their messianic renderings. The Targums have been an important part of the history of messianic interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and they continue to have something to say to readers today.

This collection of previously unpublished essays by outstanding international scholars in honour of Robert P. Gordon, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University, covers a wide range of topics, from accuracy, anachronism, and incongruity in the books of Samuel, through the theology of Psalms, ancient Near eastern historiography, and the ideology of the Septuagint, to philology and grammar in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Targum, Josephus, and medieval sources. It should interest readers concerned with inner-biblical exegesis and the Hebrew Bible in relation to its parallels, translations, and versions, as well as with big questions about the classification of the Bible and its antecedents as books, the social context of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Christian attitudes towards ‘original Hebrew'.

Ancient Literature for New Testament Studies is a multivolume series that seeks to introduce key ancient texts that form the cultural, historical, and literary context for the study of the New Testament. Each volume will feature introductory essays to the corpus, followed by articles on the relevant texts. Each article will address introductory matters, provenance, summary of content, interpretive issues, key passages for New Testament studies and their significance. Neither too technical to be used by students nor too thin on interpretive information to be useful for serious study of the New Testament, this series provides a much-needed resource for understanding the New Testament in its first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman context. Produced by an international team of leading experts in each corpus, Ancient Literature for New Testament Studies stands to become the standard resource for both scholars and students. Volumes include: Apocrypha and the Septuagint Old Testament Pseudepigrapha The Dead Sea Scrolls The Apostolic Fathers Philo and Josephus Greco-Roman Literature Targums and Early Rabbinic Literature Gnostic Literature New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha