The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

290 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
considerable freedom, creativity, and originality. Thus, for example,
we noticed that the midrash on Tophel and Laban is better presented
in Pseudo-Jonathan than in either Sifre or the other Targums. His
incorporation of the Sifre interpretation of the words 'you have stayed
long enough on this mountain' in v. 6 is not a slavish copying of his
source but a creative reworking of the material. Similarly in v. 8
Pseudo-Jonathan shows himself to have been a conscious literary artist
when, as we saw, he divides a Sifre comment into two parts and places
the parts in two appropriate places in his rendering of the verse. His
repetition in Deut. 1.1 of the tradition about the twelve paths which
the Lord made through the sea for his escaping people is an example
of his tendency to repeat traditions at different places in his work.
This kind of repetition gives a certain consistency to the Targum and
is an indication that it is a conscious literary creation rather than a
translation that took place in the synagogue. By adding the words 'of
rebuke' at the beginning of v. 1 Pseudo-Jonathan was alluding to a
tradition which associated Deut. 1.1 with words of rebuke. Pseudo-
Jonathan is often satisfied with merely alluding to traditions that
would be well known to his audience. When dealing with Pseudo-
Jonathan's mention of the month of Shevat in v. 3 we noted that this
Targum frequently names months or seasons that are nameless in the
Bible, just as it often names people who are anonymous in the biblical
text. In the course of this study we noted on several occasions that
Pseudo-Jonathan often agrees with Onqelos in his choice of
vocabulary. On the other hand we have seen that on occasion he can
agree with the Palestinian Targums against Onqelos, and we have had
examples of translations where Pseudo-Jonathan agrees with neither
Onqelos nor the Palestinian Targums but goes his own independent
way. In short, then, our study of Pseudo-Jonathan's version of this
opening passage of Deuteronomy allows us to see this author at work,
and it confirms the view that he was a creative literary artist who was
able to choose his lexicon and to rework his sources in such a way as
to create a Targum that has its own character and individuality.