The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

DlEZ MERINO Targum Manuscripts and Critical Editions 63
clear classification can be made although it also depends on the different
parts of the Aramaic Bible. We know three blocks in the Hebrew
Bible, and this threefold division can be accepted in the Aramaic
Bible: Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographa. In the written tradition
of the Aramaic Bible we have many MSS for the Pentateuch, fewer
for the Prophets, and very few for the Hagiographa (although it
depends: for Psalms, Proverbs and Job very few MSS, for the Five
Megillot some more, for Chronicles only three MSS).
Eastern tradition. If we try a synoptic comparison of the three parts
of the Bible, we immediately observe that the narratives in one tradition
are shorter, and in the other are longer; the language in each one
of the two traditions has its own vocabulary.
If we go further in applying these principles to some of the books,
or even to the entire traditions (Targum Onqelos against Palestinian
Targum [Neofiti 1, Pseudo-Jonathan, Fragmentary Targums]; Targum
Jonathan in the common editions [Rabbinical and Polyglot Bibles]
against the Palestinian tradition as it is represented in the marginal
notes of the Reuchlin MS; the common editions of the Hagiographa
[Rabbinical and Polyglot Bibles] against the Yemenite editions), we see
that two currents appear; two editorial works clearly defined can be
expanded. If we want a modern edition of a book in the two traditions
(even the authors do not acknowledge this phenomenon), we can compare
the Targum of Lamentations in the Yemenite tradition against
Urbinati's I reproduction. 29 From this comparison we can see that
there are some characteristic features in their content and in their way
of linguistic expression.
We could try an exposition of the whole tradition, but it is enough
to make a comparison among the exemplars of each tradition, and
what we are saying will appear clearly. Just for the Yemenite tradition
on the Hagiographa we have tried to present the most important witnesses,
30 and the comparison can be extended to the three parts of the
Aramaic Bible, although we are aware that in some cases, as in the
Esther Targum, this task can be hard to prove because of its particular
29. A. van der Heide, The Yemenite Tradition of the Targum of Lamentations,
Critical Texts and Analysis of the Variant Readings (Leiden: Brill, 1981); E. Levine,
The Aramaic Version of Lamentations (New York: Hermon Press, 1976).
30. Cf. L. Diez Merino, 'La tradici6n yemeni del Targum de Hagiografos',
EstBib 42 (1984), pp. 269-314.