The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

320 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
into German (by Riedel 4 ), Spanish (by Diez Merino 5 ), French
(by Vulliaud 6 ), Hungarian (by Schwartz 7 ), modern Hebrew (by
Rabbinowitz 8 ), and Dutch (by Mulder 9 ). Substantial studies of the
content of the Targum have also been written. The English divine
John Gill produced an astonishingly competent and pioneering commentary
on Targum Shir ha-Shirim as early as 1728. Since then there
have been major contributions by E. Silber, J.W. Riedel, Pinkhos
Churgin, Raphael Loewe, E.Z. Melamed, Joseph Heinemann and
Umberto Neri. 10 Yet despite all these laudable endeavours the nature
of this Targum, its originality and its true place within the tradition
have not, I believe, been adequately defined.
It is worth dwelling a little on the reasons for the failure to establish
the character of this Targum, because they highlight some fundamental
problems in the study of rabbinic literature in general, and
of the Targumim in particular. These problems are rooted in a
Cantici (Roma, 1975); U. Neri, // Cantico del Cantici: Targum e antiche interpretations
ebraiche (Roma, 2nd edn, 1987 [1976]). R. Loewe ('Apologetic Motifs in
the Targum to the Song of Songs', in A. Altmann [ed.], Biblical Motifs: Origins and
Transformations [Chicago, 1966], p. 195, n. 219) notes that a Judaeo-Italian version
of Targum Shir ha-Shirim may be found in the Roth ms. no. 532* (Corfu 1728),
apparently translated from the Spanish.
4. J.W. Riedel, Die Auslegung des Hohenliedes in der jiidischen Gemeinde und
der griechischen Kirche (Leipzig, 1898).
5. L. Diez Merino, Targum al cantar de los cantares', Annuario de Filologia,
Universidad de Barcelona, Facultad de Filologia (Barcelona, 1981).
6. P. Vulliaud, Le Cantique des cantiques d'apres la tradition juive (Paris,
1924).
7. M. Schwarz, 'Az Enekek Enekenek Targuma' (dissertation, Budapest, 1928).
8. E.Z. Rahinowitz (Tel-Aviv, 1928), referred to in Y. Komlosh, The Bible in
the Light of the Aramaic Translations (Tel-Aviv, 1977), p. 77 n. 49. Loewe,
'Apologetic Motifs', p. 195 n. 221 notes the Hebrew translation of Targum Shir ha-
Shirim contained in Cambridge University Library ms Dd. 10.4.3, fol.4a,f (Italian
cursive hand): see S.M. Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS preserved
in the University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1876), p. 219,
no. 68.
9. MJ. Mulder, De tar gum op het Hooglied (Amsterdam, 1975).
10. E. Silber, Sedeh Jerusalem (Czernowitz, 1883); Riedel, Die Auslegung des
Hohenliedes; P. Churgin, Targum Ketuvim (New York, 1945); Loewe, 'Apologetic
Motifs'; E.Z. Melamed, Targum of Canticles', Tarbis 40 (1971), pp. 201-15;
J. Heinemann, Targum Canticles and its Sources', Tarbis 41 (1971), pp. 126-29,
with Melamed's 'Rejoinder', p. 130; Neri, // Cantico del Cantici (see n. 3).