The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

130 The Aramaic Bible: Tar gums in their Historical Context
Onqelos necessarily reflect an Onqelos text closer to the original than
any of our extant Onqelos manuscripts themselves. Most of the
changes that Pseudo-Jonathan (like other LJLA texts) shows in the
direction of biblical Aramaic are precisely that—changes (as we have
seen in the Levi text).
In sum, then, a lot of work remains to be done; I have merely tried
to suggest some paths for exploration. I believe that when those paths
are fully explored they will lead us to the first century CE text of my
title—a proto-targum from which the Palestinian Targum and
Targum Onqelos are separately descended—a text perhaps never
committed to writing, but a real text nonetheless, one that reflects the
earliest stages of rabbinical biblical exegesis. I am afraid that I must,
for the time being, leave the search for such a text up to you, while I
busy myself with the production of tools to aid in your work. I hope
and believe that you will find those tools useful. I also hope that you
will choose to use them.