The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

FLESHER Mapping the Synoptic Palestinian Targums 251
appearing in no other Targum. Pseudo-Jonathan contains 689 unique
expansions, making up 59 per cent of all the Targum's expansions.
This amounts to over two hundred more unique expansions than
shared ones. Furthermore, Pseudo-Jonathan most frequently violates
Shinan's first observation, namely, if Targums have an expansion in
the same verse, that expansion is parallel. Thirty-nine of Pseudo-
Jonathan's expansions appear in verses where Neofiti has an expansion,
but its expansion does not parallel Neofiti's at all. These features
of Pseudo-Jonathan show that although it clearly belongs among the
Palestinian Pentateuchal Targums, its material goes far beyond the
other Targums.
Finally, let me observe that Pseudo-Jonathan is not the only Targum
with a large number of unique expansions. Neofiti likewise contains a
significant number. In fact, Neofiti has 134 expansions distinctive to it.
That makes more than one fifth—21 per cent—of Neofiti's expansions
unique. So while the unique material appears largely in Pseudo-
Jonathan, it makes up a significant portion of Neofiti as well.
The synoptic map of the Palestinian Targums also reveals information
about the character of individual Targums. To illustrate just how
an analysis of several Targums indicates the character of a single one,
let me draw on a sample study I did of Genesis 28-50, which will
appear in the first volume of Targum Studies. 5 This example sheds
light on Pseudo-Jonathan's nature, through a comparison with the
make-up of both Neofiti and the Fragmentary Targums.
In Genesis 28-50 to Neofiti, the expansions appear in two different
patterns. In 28-48 and in 50, the expansions appear at a rate of 1-5
expansions per chapter, with an average of 2.73 expansions. In Gen.
49, however, 26 expansions appear. This difference provides an angle
for investigating how other Targums engage the shared material.
The Fragmentary Targums treat the two types of chapters differently.
Both the Vatican and Paris Targums share a higher percentage
of the expansions in Genesis 49 than those in the other chapters. This
tendency is most pronounced in Vatican, which contains 54 expansions
that parallel Neofiti over these 23 chapters. A full 46 per cent of
5. P.V.M. Flesher, 'Exploring the Sources of the Synoptic Targums to the
Pentateuch', in P.V.M. Flesher (ed.), Targum Studies: Textual and Contextual
Studies in the Pentateuchal Targums, I (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1992). This
article provides all the citations for the verses and expansions mentioned in the
following paragraphs.