John Frederick Stenning

“ Every endeavour is made to gloss over, or modify, expressions which seemed derogatory to the ancestors of Israel, and to amplify everything which redounded to their credit. On the other hand, pseudo-Jonathan shows a tendency to condense those additions which it has in common with the Fragmentary Targum: in particular he omits all quotations from Scripture.
In regard to the source of the two Palestinian Targums to the Pentateuch, we must accept the conclusion of Bassfreund [19] that they both derived their variants from a complete Targum Jerushalmi. ”

“ On the linguistic side, therefore, wemay regard Onkelos " as a faithful representative of a Targum which had its rise in Judaea, the old seat of Palestinian literary activity." It is not, however, to be regarded as a reproduction in written form of a Palestinian trans- lation, but rather as an official translation of the Law, in the Judaean dialect, which was carried out in Babylon, probably about the 4th century a.d.: in its final form, according to Dalman (/.c.) it cannot be earlier than the 5th century. ”

“ Of these the former contains only portions of the Pentateuch, [16] and is therefore usually designated the Fragmentary (Jerusalem) Targum. In a large number of cases this Targum gives merely a variant rendering cf single words: where longer passages are given it presents a very paraphrastic translation, and bears all the marks of a late Haggadic composition. Its fragmentary character arises from the fact that it is simply a collection of variae lectiones and additions to the version of Onkelos, intended possibly for use at public services. ”

“ In the same Mishnic passage it is forbidden to render Lev. xviii. 7 as if the text had " his father " and " his mother." [10] Yet another translation (that of Lev. xxii. 28) is mentioned with disapproval in the Jerusalem Talmud, [11] though it has been preserved in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ad loc* A definite rule for guidance in translating is apparently preserved in the Tosefta, [12] where it is stated that " he who translates quite literally is a liar, while he who adds anything is a blasphemer," Exod. ”

“ Of the latter only one manuscript (Brit. Museum Add. 27031) is known to exist, and this has been utilized by Ginsburger in his Pseudo-Jonathan (Berlin, 1903) . The same scholar has also edited the Paris manuscript (110) of the Fragmentary Targum (Das Fragmententkargum, Berlin, 1899) , to which he has added the variants from Cod. Vat. 440 and the manuscripts at Nuremberg and Leipzig. In the same edition are collected the various fragments of the Targum Jerushalmi, which are to be found in the early editions of the Pentateuch and in part also in various manuscripts. ”

“ Elsewhere, [8] we only find references to certain passages of Scripture, viz., the stories of Reuben and Tamar (Gen. xxxv. 22 and xxxviii.) , the two accounts of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii.) , the blessing of the priests (Num. vi. 22 f.) , the stories of David and Amnon (2 Sam. xi., xii. and xiii.) , which might be either read and translated, or only read and not translated, or (according to a different tradition) neither read nor translated. ”

“ I, where the meaning is given as — " He who marries an Aramean woman and raiseth up children by her raiseth up enemies to God "; for another explanation, see Ginsburger, M.G.W.J., xliv. 5 f. ↑ Cf. Berliner, Targum Onkelos, ii. ”