The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

388 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
composed by a meturgeman who flourished between AD 70 and AD
135. 31 That work was completed by another meturgeman, associated
with Rabbi Joseph bar Hiyya of Pumbeditha, who died in AD 333. 32
Throughout the process, however, the communal nature of the interpretative
work of the meturgeman was acknowledged; insofar as
individuals were involved, they spoke as the voice of synagogues and
of schools. My analysis of the phases of development of the Targum as
exegetical frameworks within the document, manifested in characteristic
theologoumena, has been a matter for some discussion, but it is
gratifying to see that the pattern of phases which I identified in the
Targum of Isaiah has been confirmed in the cases of the Targums of
Former Prophets, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets. 33
The emphasis within the fourteenth chapter of the Targum of
Zechariah upon the inclusion of the nations in eschatological worship,
and that within the tannaitic framework (or phase) of the document,
demonstrates that the motif which the Hebrew text and the Septuagint
represent translated well within the concerns of the meturgemanin.
The Targum of Zechariah need not be dated as its editors suggest
for Paul to have invoked its theme. That theme is present in the biblical
text independently of Zechariah, within the book of Tobit (13.8-11
in Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, and Venetus):
31. Within that early framework, material was incorporated which reflects the
interpretations of earlier periods, including the period of Jesus, cf. B.D. Chilton, A
Galilean Rabbi and His Bible: Jesus' Use of the Interpreted Scripture of His Time
(Good News Studies 8; Wilmington: Glazier, 1986; London: SPCK, 1984).
32. The Glory of Israel, pp. 2, 3; The Isaiah Targum, p. xxi. For the sections of
the Targum most representative of each meturgeman; cf. The Isaiah Targum, p. xxiv.
33. The model I developed for the Targum of Isaiah is applied in D.J. Harrington
and A.J. Saldarini, Targum Jonathan of the Former Prophets (The Aramaic Bible 10;
Wilmington: Glazier; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1987), p. 3; R. Hayward, The
Targum of Jeremiah (The Aramaic Bible 12; Wilmington, DE: Glazier and
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, p. 38; S.H. Levey, The Targum of Ezekiel (The Aramaic
Bible 13; Wilmington: Glazier; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1987), pp. 3, 4; Cathcart
and Gordon, Minor Prophets, pp. 12-14. Levey's acceptance of the paradigm is
especially noteworthy, in that he had argued previously that Targum Jonathan
(especially Isaiah) should be placed within the period of the ascendancy of Islam, cf.
The Date of Targum Jonathan to the Prophets', VT21 (1971), pp. 186-96.