Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf

1 6
ECCLESIASTES
by the people) were not written as early
as the rest of the Bible.
That on the Psalter was not made in its present form before the
ninth century. No Targum of the Megilloth is mentioned in any
work older than the Aruk (Dictionary) of Nathan ben Jehiel,
which was completed in noi A.D. These Targumim are probably,
therefore, in their present form, not earlier than the tenth
century, though they may go back to oral interpretations which
are much earlier.
The Targum of Qoheleth is a free paraphrase combined with a
midrashic interpretation. Occasionally the text is followed
closely, but more often the interpretation freely departs from it,
for the sake of covering up sceptical expressions which were ob-
noxious to orthodox Jews. These expressions are often turned
so as to commend the study of the law and support the most
orthodox doctrines and devout course of life. Solomon is be-
lieved to be the author of Qoheleth, and many allusions in it are
interpreted to refer to events in his life and that of his son Rehoboam.
Nevertheless, the Targum is frequently an important
witness to the text, and helps us to correct MT. It is cited as OF.
In addition to the publication of the Targum of Qoheleth accessible
in the Polyglots a recension has recently been published from
South Arabic MSS. by Alfred Levy, entitled Das Targum zu
Koheleth nach sudarabischen Handschriften, Breslau, 1905. For
a more complete account of the Targumim and the literature upon
them, see Bacher's article " Targum," in JE., XIII, ff.
(13).
QUOTATIONS IN THE TALMUD.
The Jewish writers of the first seven centuries of the Christian
era frequently quoted the OT. These quotations ought to per-
form for the text-criticism of the OT. the same service that patristic
quotations perform for the NT. Euringer in his Masorah-
text, already referred to, has collected these quotations for Qoheleth
from the Mishna, and the parts of the Babylonian and Jerusalem
Talmuds which were made up to the seventh century. Of the
221 verses in Qoheleth, a part or all of 122 are quoted in these
Jewish writings, and some of them many times. These quotations