The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

GORDON Alexander Sperber and the Study of the Targums 101
If we bring Sperber's apparatuses into play this difference between the
two halves of the Targum of the Prophets is underlined. In none of
the thirty-plus places in the Latter Prophets where nws is translated by
'rq is there a manuscript variant involving 'pk. In the Former
Prophets, on the other hand, 'pk in Sperber's basic text has 'rq as a
variant at eight places (Josh. 7.4; 10.11; Judg. 1.6; 1 Sam. 17.24, 51;
1 Kgs 12.18; 20.30; 2 Kgs 3.24), while 'rq in the main text has 'pk as
a variant at 1 Sam. 4.16. Sperber's apparatus therefore seems to show
the translation of nws in the Targum of the Former Prophets in a
transitional phase when the rendering by 'rq survives in some references
and has not been altogether obliterated in others. Given the
extent to which the gezerah shavah principle operates in the Targums,
the number of such clear-cut variations may be very limited, but they
would be all the more important on that account.
Sperber's collations include his Testimonia'—'Targum Quotations
in the Works of Early Authors'—culled from the Aruch, the
commentaries of Rashi and Kimchi and the like. These too have an
important contribution to make and are clearly only representative of
a much larger number of alternative readings in mediaeval sources;
but at the least Sperber should be given credit for having seen their
importance. In a sense his collation of this material may be seen
as anticipating the Lost Targumim project initiated by the late
M.H. Goshen-Gottstein. 37 But again the problem of incompleteness
and inaccuracy has to be faced.
V
Perhaps the greatest desideratum so far as the Targum of the Prophets
is concerned is the production of a concordance. Happily, our colleagues
at the Theological University in Kampen are well on the way
to supplying our need. In Vetus Testamentum 1989 the preparation of
a 'Concordance to Targum Jonathan to the Prophets' was announced, 38
and details were given in a paper read by Professor J.C. de Moor at
a seminar held in Amsterdam in March 1991. 39 The team have
37. Fragments of Lost Targumim [Hebrew], 1 and 2 (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Han
University Press, 1983, 1989).
38. 'Announcement: A Concordance to Targum Jonathan to the Prophets', VT 39
(1989), p. 242.
39. 'A Bilingual Concordance to the Targum of the Prophets' (paper read at a