The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

ALEXANDER The Targum of the Song of Songs 339
A reappraisal of Targum Shir ha-Shirim is long overdue. The
assumption that it is simply a pastiche of rabbinic tradition can no
longer be allowed to go unchallenged. Rather, as I have tried to
demonstrate, it should be recognized for what it is—a work of a
single highly original mind, which established one of the classic
readings of the Song and had a significant influence on later Jewish
and Christian exegesis. 34
thesis that the historicizing exegesis of Canticles was introduced into the church in
the Middle Ages under the influence of Rashi, who derived it from the Targum,
would be in serious doubt. However, Ginsburg misleads. Aponius does not offer a
systematic historical exegesis of the Song (see his commentary in Patrologia Latina,
Supplement I [Paris 1958], cols 800-1031). Aponius is a shadowy figure who may
have lived as early as the fifth century, and may even have been a convert from
Judaism (H. Riedlinger, Lexikon fur Antike und Kirche, I [Freiburg, 1957],
col.771).
34. For further discussion of the Targum of Canticles see P.S. Alexander, The
Aramaic Version of the Song of Songs', in G. Contamine (ed.), Traduction et
Traducteurs au Moyen Age (Paris, 1989), pp. 119-32; Alexander, 'Jewish Aramaic
Translations of Hebrew Scriptures', in M.J. Mulder (ed.), Mikra (CRINT II. 1;
Assen/Maastricht, 1988), esp. pp. 234-37.