The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

10 The Aramaic Bible: Tar gums in their Historical Context
times. They open for us the question of the transmission of Jewish
traditions by Christians from Syria, Armenia and the East to Ireland.
These Targums reveal the history of the Jewish people in the East and
West, in Cairo, Italy, Spain, Germany and other countries.
Dr C.H.H. Wright (1836-1909), born in Dublin and educated at
Trinity College, Dublin, had a special interest in the Targum of Ruth
and edited the Aramaic text of this, together with the Hebrew, in
1864. Irish scholars have been actively involved in targumic studies
over the past decade. The first planned translation of all the extant
rabbinic Targums into English was undertaken by the Irishman,
Michael Glazier, whose publishing house was based in Wilmington,
Delaware. The Editorial Board is Irish. Nine of the eighteen translators
and commentators in this translation project are Irish, four of
these from Northern Ireland, three of them working in the sister
island of Britain. This is a project that has not only united Irish
scholars, but has brought together Jewish and Christian specialists in
this field from Ireland, Britain, the United States of America, Canada
and Australia.
While there are institutions and symbols that divide Irish men and
women, there are certain all-Ireland institutions with which all identify.
One of these is the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. One of the
many committees of this venerable body is the Consultative
Committee on Bible and Near Eastern Studies which was founded as
recently as 1983, but has already organized a number of colloquia,
and in 1988 a very successful international conference on 'The Role of
the Book in the Civilisation of the Near East'.
Three members of this Consultative Committee were actively
involved in the Michael Glazier Aramaic Bible project, which is now
nearing completion. To coincide with the completion of this project,
in which so many Irish scholars have been involved, the Consultative
Committee organized the 1992 international conference on the
'Aramaic Bible: The Targums in their Historical Context'. It was its
intention to have the variety in the papers read reflect the various
interests brought together by these Aramaic Targums, often differing
so much among themselves.
The Consultative Committee invited the leading scholars in the
various fields to come together and read papers to a larger audience.
The Committee and the Academy are very happy, and feel duly
honoured, that so many scholars accepted the invitation.