The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

SHINAN The Aggadah of the Palestinian Targums 215
We could easily add to these examples, especially from the Targum
richest in traditions, that of Pseudo-Jonathan. A partial list of different
traditions unique to Pseudo-Jonathan has already been offered by
Ginsburger in his edition, 24 though Brayer ultimately exceeded him
by the breadth of his research into the matter. 25 In the Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan to the book of Genesis alone, Brayer notes some 120
'Midrashim and Aggadot, interpretations and translations of words'
without parallel 'in the literature of Talmud and Midrash and the rest
of the ancient sources'. 26 As for the rest of the Pentateuch, a systematic
effort has yet to be launched for listing all the traditions unique to
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Even so, the picture emerging from these
books seems identical in principle to that which Brayer drew on the
basis of Pseudo-Jonathan to the book of Genesis. Since the remaining
four books, Exodus through Deuteronomy, are replete with sections
of Halakha less quiescent by nature to traditions of Aggadah, it
becomes clear that we may venture a number of some 200 traditions
of Aggadah that have left nary a shadow in all our ancient literature. 27
Let us make do with two examples:
Genesis 2.21: vm^XD nn« np'i (= and He took one of his ribs).
Pseudo-Jonathan: we' iBO ]m rno'pn stf 1 ?'^ «vt 'ma^'aa »in ircm
(= and He took one of his ribs, the thirteenth rib from his right side).
Not only has the all-important rib been pinpointed to Adam's right
side, but it has even been given a serial number—two details without
parallels. 28
Similarly:
Deuteronomy 21.8: ma nr6 IDDJI (= And they will be absolved of
bloodguilt).
Pseudo-Jonathan:
(= And they shall be absolved of bloodguilt; but straight
(24b) permits a man apprehensive of 'enchantments' to marry a woman on Mondays
as well, even though Monday was not ordinarily the marrying kind of day.
24. M. Ginsburger, Pseudo Jonathan (Berlin, 1903), p. xxi.
25. See Brayer, 'Pentateuchal Targum', and esp. M.M. Brayer, 'Studies in
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan' (dissertation, New York, 1950), pp. 82-91 [Hebrew].
26. Brayer, 'Pentateuchal Targum', p. 102.
27. Cf. Shinan, Embroidered Targum, pp. 185-92.
28. Cf. A. Shinan, 'The Thirteenth Rib', Tarbit 57 (1988), pp. 119-20 [Hebrew].