The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

THE TEXTUAL TRADITION OF TARGUM RUTH
D.R.G. Beattie
The theme of 'Targums in their historical context' does not relate
easily to the Targums of the ktuvim, for which there is no agreement
as to what their historical context is. This is certainly true of the
Targum of Ruth which one opinion, long-established and perhaps still
widely held, holds to be a late composition which derived much of its
exegesis from the Talmud and Midrash, 1 while another opinion holds
it to be very ancient because it mentions crucifixion as an approved
form of capital punishment whereas the Mishnah prescribes
strangulation. 2
When I prepared my translation of Targum Ruth for the Michael
Glazier Targum project I was inclining cautiously in favour of an
early date. I quoted the Tosafists, who observed that the Targum of
the ktuvim was made in the time of the tannaim, 3 and I suggested that
this, the oldest known opinion on the origin of this Targum, might
very well be right. 4 I have ventured elsewhere 5 to suggest further
arguments in support of an early date, including one which proposed
that the mishnaic halaka of two graves for executed criminals
originated in a misreading of Targum Ruth.
1. E.Z. Melamed, rvn n'rao mnn 1 ?, Bar Ran, Annual of Bar Ilan University I
(1963), pp. 190-94; mpnn -enac (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975, repr. 1978), p. 341.
2. A. Schlesinger, D'lpno HHP'TO «3'pi> '3ro ,'nm TITH—mi iso 1 ? mnnn
13127*731 «TpD3 (Publications of the Israel Society for Biblical Research, 9; Jerusalem,
1962), pp. 12-17. J. Heinemann, rtnnpn ro^nm i ,33 moo mnn, Tarbiz 38
(1968-69), pp. 294-96.
3. Tosafot, b. Meg. 21b.
4. D.R.G. Beattie, The Targum of Ruth (The Aramaic Bible 19; Collegeville,
MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994), p. 12.
5. D.R.G. Beattie, 'The Targum of Ruth-A Sectarian Composition?', JJS 36
(1985), pp. 222-29; 'Ancient Elements in the Targum of Ruth', in Proceedings of
the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies Division A: The Period of the Bible
(Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986), pp. 159-65.