The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

GORDON Alexander Sperber and the Study of the Targums 93
departure from Bonn in 1933. Moreover, the developments that were
responsible for his leaving Germany also interfered with his arrangements
for the publication of his editions there. 5 Because of the
prospect of a long delay in publication Sperber published specimens of
his work in article form in 1935 6 and again in 1945. 7 The first presents
what is essentially ch. VA in volume IVB of The Bible in
Aramaic ('The Hebrew Vorlage of the Targum: A. The Pentateuch'),
while the second gives a text and apparatus for the Targum of 1 Sam.
17, with Ms Or. 2210 of the British Library serving as basic text. We
know from Sperber's own comments that volumes I and II of The
Bible in Aramaic may have been ready as early as 1931, 8 and it is
likely that a draft of volume III was completed within a few years of
that date. Diez Macho reports that all the originals of Sperber's editions
were in existence in 1949 9 when Sperber paid a visit to
Barcelona. While there Sperber generously made his work available
to Diez Macho.
So the preparation of Sperber's targumic material was completed at
an early stage, and the years between completion and publication were
taken up largely with historical Hebrew grammar and, perhaps, some
of the laborious transcribing and retranscribing of Targum material
mentioned in the foreword to volume IVB. None of the newer developments
and none of the new gods of the targumic world found their
way into volumes I-IVA nor, except in the merest concessionary way,
into volume IVB. There is not so much as a mention, anywhere, of
Codex Neofiti 1, notes Diez Macho its chief sponsor. 10 Of course, as
Diez Macho informs us in volume 1 of the editio princeps, Sperber
did not believe in Neofiti: 'This ms Neofiti 1 contains NO genuine
5. This phase of Sperber's life is mentioned briefly in his article, 'The Targum
Onkelos in its Relation to the Masoretic Hebrew Text', PAAJR 6 (1934-35),
pp. 310-11.
6. "The Targum Onkelos', pp. 309-51 (315-51).
7. 'Specimen of a Targum Edition', in S. Lieberman et al. (eds.), Louis
Ginzberg Jubilee Volume (New York: American Academy for Jewish Research,
1945), pp. 293-303. He notes (p. 293 n. 1) that the prospects for the publication of
his Targum editions were improving ('as soon as the world returns to normalcy
again').
8. "The Targum Onkelos', p. 311.
9. JSJ 6 (1975), p. 217. Diez Macho indicates that most of what he saw was in
photocopy (sic).
10. 75/6(1975), p. 218.