The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
REIF The Cairo Genizah and its Treasures 49 (= CD). Although Schechter and Louis Ginzberg both recognized the importance of the two Genizah manuscripts of this work and offered some explanations that have generally stood the test of time, no scholar was able to place it in its precise historical and theological context until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls exactly fifty years after the arrival of the Genizah pieces in Cambridge. Once fragments of the same work had been identified among the Qumran treasures, it became possible to trace the origin of CD. 49 What is still a matter of intense debate is how and where the texts survived that transmitted the work from Second Temple Judea to tenth-century Cairo and whether there were other non-rabbinic groups between the Dead Sea sect and the medieval Karaites that might have been responsible. 50 And now more material has come to the fore from among the Qumran manuscripts that show it to be a reliable copy of the earliest texts; a little less than half of an original work that constituted an admonition and corpus of Torah interpretation and sectarian rulings; and a composite work belonging to a Qumran legal corpus at times related to Sadducean and proto-rabbinic traditions. 51 Finally, it should be noted that neither Jesus nor Christian liturgy escape mention among the Genizah fragments. The rather uncomplimentary and folkloristic account of the life of Jesus known as Toledoth Yeshu is well represented and no doubt made the persecuted Jews of the middle ages feel a little better, 52 while no wholly satisfactory reason can be offered for 49. S. Schechter, Documents of Jewish Sectaries (Cambridge, 1910), I, reprinted by Ktav with a prolegomenon by J.A. Fitzmyer (New York, 1970); L. Ginzberg, Eine Unbekannte JUdische Sekte (New York, 1922), translated into English and expanded as An Unknown Jewish Sect (New York, 1976); S. Zeitlin, The Zadokite Fragments (Philadelphia, 1952); C. Rabin, The Zadokite Documents. I. The Admonition. II. The Laws (Oxford, 2nd edn, 1958). 50. Y. Erder, 'When did the Karaites first encounter Apocryphic Literature akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls?', and H. Ben-Shammai, 'Some Methodological Notes concerning the Relationship between the Karaites and Ancient Jewish Sects' (both in Hebrew) in 'Discussion: Karaism and Apocryphic Literature', Cathedra 42 (1987), pp. 54-86. 51. M. Broshi, The Damascus Document Reconsidered (Jerusalem, 1992) has useful essays on the current state of various aspects of research into CD by Broshi himself and by E. Qimron and J. Baumgarten, as well as an excellent bibliography by F. Garcia Martinez. 52. Of particular importance are the studies of E. Bammel and W. Horbury in The Trial of Jesus: Studies in Honour of C.F.D. Moule (London, 2nd edn, 1971)
50 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context the existence in the Cairo Jewish community of parts of a Nestorian Syriac hymn-book. Perhaps these thirteenth- or fourteenth-century texts belonging to a feast of the Virgin Mary were sold as scrap when the Nestorian community faded out of existence in Cairo at that time or shortly afterwards. 53 Such a surprising find should alert us to the fact, if it is not already patently obvious, that there is hardly any area of medieval Near Eastern studies that is not illuminated by the fragments from the Ben-Ezra Synagogue of medieval Fustat. 54 and the latter's doctoral dissertation 'A Critical Examination of the Toledoth Jeshu' (Cambridge, 1971), as well as the articles of Z. Falk and D. Boyarin in Tarbiz 46 (1977), pp. 319-22 and 47 (1978), pp. 249-52. The bibliography in R. Di Segni's Italian monograph // Vangelo del Ghetto (Rome, 1985) is particularly useful. See also ' "Toledoth Yeshu" Updated through New Discovery', Genizah Fragments 6 (October, 1983), p. 3. 53. S. Brock, 'East Syrian Liturgical Fragments from the Cairo Genizah', Or Chr 68 (1984), pp. 58-79, and 'Some Further East Syrian Liturgical Fragments from the Cairo Genizah', Or Chr 74 (1990), pp. 44-61. 54. An earlier and briefer treatment of the subject of this paper appeared in R.J. Coggins and J.L. Houlden (eds.), A Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (London and Philadelphia, 1990) and the writer is grateful to the organizers of the Dublin conference for inviting him to lecture and thereby encouraging him to expand on it.
- Page 2 and 3: JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TE
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- Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS Preface 9 Abbreviations 12
- Page 8 and 9: Contents 1 MICHAEL MAKER Targum Pse
- Page 10 and 11: PREFACE The essays here published r
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50 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Aramaic</strong> <strong>Bible</strong>: <strong>Targums</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>their</strong> <strong>Historical</strong> <strong>Context</strong><br />
the existence <strong>in</strong> the Cairo Jewish community of parts of a Nestorian<br />
Syriac hymn-book. Perhaps these thirteenth- or fourteenth-century<br />
texts belong<strong>in</strong>g to a feast of the Virg<strong>in</strong> Mary were sold as scrap when<br />
the Nestorian community faded out of existence <strong>in</strong> Cairo at that time<br />
or shortly afterwards. 53 Such a surpris<strong>in</strong>g f<strong>in</strong>d should alert us to the<br />
fact, if it is not already patently obvious, that there is hardly any area<br />
of medieval Near Eastern studies that is not illum<strong>in</strong>ated by the fragments<br />
from the Ben-Ezra Synagogue of medieval Fustat. 54<br />
and the latter's doctoral dissertation 'A Critical Exam<strong>in</strong>ation of the Toledoth Jeshu'<br />
(Cambridge, 1971), as well as the articles of Z. Falk and D. Boyar<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> Tarbiz 46<br />
(1977), pp. 319-22 and 47 (1978), pp. 249-52. <strong>The</strong> bibliography <strong>in</strong> R. Di Segni's<br />
Italian monograph // Vangelo del Ghetto (Rome, 1985) is particularly useful. See<br />
also ' "Toledoth Yeshu" Updated through New Discovery', Genizah Fragments 6<br />
(October, 1983), p. 3.<br />
53. S. Brock, 'East Syrian Liturgical Fragments from the Cairo Genizah', Or Chr<br />
68 (1984), pp. 58-79, and 'Some Further East Syrian Liturgical Fragments from the<br />
Cairo Genizah', Or Chr 74 (1990), pp. 44-61.<br />
54. An earlier and briefer treatment of the subject of this paper appeared <strong>in</strong><br />
R.J. Cogg<strong>in</strong>s and J.L. Houlden (eds.), A Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation<br />
(London and Philadelphia, 1990) and the writer is grateful to the organizers of the<br />
Dubl<strong>in</strong> conference for <strong>in</strong>vit<strong>in</strong>g him to lecture and thereby encourag<strong>in</strong>g him to expand<br />
on it.
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