The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

326 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
(e) The botanical identity of the biblical tappuah is uncertain, as the
diverse equivalents in the ancient versions show. Targum Shir ha-
Shirim renders at Song 2.3 etroga, and at Song 7.9 and 8.5 tappuah
de-ginta de-eden. (At Song 8.5 tappuah is treated as allegorical.) Since
one strand of Jewish tradition identified the forbidden fruit of
paradise as the ethrog, the 'apple of the Garden of Eden' is almost
certainly another name for the ethrog. So the Targum's rendering is
consistent. In fact Rabbenu Tam appears to have had a text of the
Targum at Song 7.9 which read etroga de-gan eden.12 Tappuah occurs
only in two other places outside the Song of Songs, viz., Joel 1.12
(Targum: haroza), and Prov. 25.11, in the phrase tappuhei zahav
(Targum: hizzurei de-dahava). 13
(f) Since all these are examples of 'literal' translation, I shall conclude
the discussion of this topic with an example of an 'aggadic' rendering.
At Song 2.3 the Targum offers mal'akhayya as a translation of
the Hebrew ha-banim. This surprising equivalent betrays, I suspect, a
knowledge of the Old Palestinian Targum's translation of benei
elohim in Gen. 6.2 by mal'akhayya. Cf. also Job 38.7, 'All the sons of
God shouted for joy'; Targum: 'All the companies of the angels
shouted for joy'.
These few examples are not untypical. They indicate that no consistent
pattern emerges from an analysis of the translation equivalents in
the primary translation. The most that can be said is that the targumist
of Shir ha-Shirim was eclectic in his choice of vocabulary and drew
on a capacious knowledge of diverse traditions of translation.
Analysis of the secondary translations is more promising. To illustrate
I will take the Targum's rendering of Song 1.9:
MT: To a mare in the chariots of Pharaoh
Have I compared you, O my love.
TARGUM: (1) When Israel went out from Egypt. Pharaoh and his host
pursued after them with chariots and horsemen, and (2) the way was
barred to them on their four sides. To the right and to the left were (3)
deserts full of fiery serpents. Behind them was wicked Pharaoh and his
hosts, and in front of them was the Re(e)d Sea. What did the Holy One,
blessed be he, do? He revealed himself in the power of his might by the
sea and dried up the water, but the mud he did not dry up. The wicked,
12. See L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia, 1968), V, p. 97 n. 70.
13. See I. Low, Aramaische Pflanzennamen (Hildesheim, repr., 1973 [1881]),
p. 155, no. 109.