The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

62 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
4. Other Targumim from Qumran. There have been proposals for the
identification of other Targumim, especially of the Prophets, in
Qumran, either of the Latter Prophets: Habakkuk, 24 Isaiah 25 or to the
Former Prophets: Samuel, 26 but to date no certain fragment belonging
to the Prophets' Targum in Qumran has been put forward. We must
also recall that almost half of the documents have not yet been
published.
Next comes the period from the date of the Qumran MSS (first
century CE) up to the Genizah findings. The Genizah texts cover the
period between 640 and 1100 CE, 27 and provide another source for
the Targums. The gap for the earlier period may yet be filled, but to
date no new evidence has been adduced. The first dated MS of Targum
Onqelos with the complete text, although some other fragments can be
dated earlier, we find in the Vatican MS 448 from 1084. 28 From the
thirteenth century we have new written sources for Targum
manuscripts and for the whole Aramaic Bible in the MS Urbinati I
(1294 CE) from the Vatican library.
Plural Tradition of the Targum
When researchers speak about Targums in general, they write and
speak without any specification; but we have to be aware that in
Targum transmission there are many traditions, and if we do not distinguish
them, we will be confused. We have to be clear that two
blocks of traditions exist, one referring to the contents, and the other
related to the linguistic form in which they are transmitted.
According to their content. The Targums can be considered in two
ways: if we attend to the narratives in which the text is transmitted, a
24. N. Wieder, The Habakkuk Scroll and the Targum', JJS 4 (1953), pp. 14-
18; W.H. Brownlee, The Dead Sea Habakkuk Midrash and the Targum of Jonathan
(Durham, NC, 1953).
25. J.A. Draper, 'A Targum of Isaiah in 1QS 3.2-3 (Isa. 9.4)', RevQ 11 (1983),
pp. 265-69.
26. J. Trebolle, 'El estudio de 4QSam (a): implicaciones exegdticas e hist6ricas',
EstBibW (1981), pp. 5-18.
27. C. Roth (ed.), The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv:
Massadah, 1966), col. 737.
28. A. Diez Macho, 'Onqelos Manuscript with Babylonian Transliterated
Vocalization in the Vatican Library (MS Eb. 448)', VI8 (1958) p. 114; although it
has another colophon with the date 1252, the most reliable date is 1084.