The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

DlEZ MERINO Targum Manuscripts and Critical Editions 87
curiously enough the first five volumes offer nothing, because at the
very beginning Diez Macho thought that Targum Onqelos would be
published in synoptical presentation with all the other Pentateuchal
Targums (otherwise neither Targum Onqelos nor Pseudo-Jonathan
would have a presentation in this Polyglot). The following volumes
were part of a programme going from vol. 6 up to 36; 6 Jos; 7 Judg;
8 I Sam; 9 II Sam; 10 I Kings; 11 II Kings; 12 Isa; 13 Jer; 14 Ez; 15
Os; 16 Joel; 17 Am; 18 Obad; 19 Jon; 20 Mich.; 21 Nah; 22 Hab; 23
Zeph; 24 Ag; 25 Zech; 26 Mai; 28 Pss; 28 Job; 29 Prov; 30 Ruth; 31
Cant; 32 Eccles; 33 Lam; 34 Esth; 35 I Chron; 36 II Chron.
The achievement: This programme had to cover the whole Aramaic
Bible, but in the course of the years many things had to change, especially
because of the new discoveries in the field of the Targums made
by Diez Macho. Although the results at the death of its prime mover
(A. Diez Macho died in 1984) were not at a final stage, what had been
produced was already a great achievement: eleven volumes (six for
Codex Neofiti 1 and five for the Palestinian Targums) were a splendid
gift to Targum research, and I think that they will be a valuable
instrument for many years. These eleven volumes are contributing
more to Targum studies than the Rabbinic Bibles and the Polyglot
Bibles, although without these two witnesses this last task could never
have been achieved.
A. Diez Macho personally directed the doctoral dissertations of
F.J. Fernandez Vallina (Job) and of C. Alonso Fontela (Canticles) as
part of the future publication within this Polyglot Bible, and seventeen
other doctoral dissertations on targumic themes. Moreover the path is
open for the publication of the Babylonian tradition (at the beginning
not an obvious possibility), and for the other texts that could be
offered in the future.
4. At the End There Were Critical Editions
Although under the label of critical editions we can present only
the most modern achievements in Targum editions, these have been
editions in the past, certainly without critical apparatus, but with a
very reliable text; this is the case of the Sabbioneta edition of
Onqelos (1557) (reprinted with many mistakes by A. Berliner,
Targum Onkelos [Herausgegeben und erlautert, Erster Theil. Text,
nach editio Sabioneta v. J. 1557, Berlin: Gorzelanczyk & Co., 1884]),