The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

54 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
of an Egyptian population. 11 If they had asked permission to rebuild
the Temple to Yaho (destroyed in 410 BCE by the priests of Hnum 12 ),
then why could they not also ask permission for an Aramaic translation
of the Bible (at least for the Pentateuch) as their later brethren
did with the Greek in Alexandria? We know that each Jewish community
was eager to have its own particular collection of scriptures,
an example being the Samaritan community. 13
2. In the Beginning There Were the Manuscripts
Mention is made about writing in very early times: the OT references
in writing in the time of Moses (Exod. 17.14; 24.4; 39.14, 30;
Deut. 27.3; 31.24; cf. Josh. 18.4-9) are not to be regarded as
anachronisms. An episode from the time of Gideon in the twelfth or
eleventh century bears witness to the knowledge of writing on the part
of a young man from a small town who was captured at random
(Judg. 8.14).
The Aramaic Manuscripts throughout the World.
At present there is no complete catalogue either of the Aramaic MSS,
or of the targumic MSS anywhere in the world. We have three ways
of trying to get an approximate idea of such MSS. (a) The direct study
of each MS: an impossible task for a single person, and very difficult
for a team, (b) The catalogue of each library published to date,
although there is a problem: commonly in such catalogues (especially
Documents of the Fifth Century BC (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957); E. Bresciani
and M. Kamil, 'Le Lettere aramaiche di Hermopoli', in Atti della Reale Accademia
del Lincei (Classe di Scienze Morali, Memorie, Ser. VIII, 12, 1966); B. Porten,
Archives from Elephantine (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968); J.B. Segal, 'New
Aramaic Texts from Saqqara: An Introduction', in Arameans, Aramaic and the
Aramaic Literary Tradition (ed. M. Sokoloff; Bar-Han: University Press, 1983),
idem, Aramaic Texts from North Saqqara (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982).
11. P. Leander, Laut- und Formenlehre des Agyptisch-Aramaischen (Hildesheim:
Olms, 1966 [1928]).
12. J.A. Larraya, art. 'Elefantina', Enciclopedia de la Biblia (ed. A. Dfez Macho
and S. Bartina; Barcelona: Garriga, 1963), II, col. 1198; Cowley, Aramaic Papyri,
p. 13 and p. 22 (pp. 65-75)—in a papyrus we read a list of names of contributors
to Temple funds.
13. Cf. Avraham and Ratson Sadaqa, Jewish Version—Samaritan Version of the
Pentateuch (Tel Aviv, 1862-1966).