Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf
Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf
Ecclesiastes - GA Barton - 1908.pdf
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1 6<br />
ECCLESIASTES<br />
by the people) were not written as early<br />
as the rest of the Bible.<br />
That on the Psalter was not made in its present form before the<br />
ninth century. No Targum of the Megilloth is mentioned in any<br />
work older than the Aruk (Dictionary) of Nathan ben Jehiel,<br />
which was completed in noi A.D. These Targumim are probably,<br />
therefore, in their present form, not earlier than the tenth<br />
century, though they may go back to oral interpretations which<br />
are much earlier.<br />
The Targum of Qoheleth is a free paraphrase combined with a<br />
midrashic interpretation. Occasionally the text is followed<br />
closely, but more often the interpretation freely departs from it,<br />
for the sake of covering up sceptical expressions which were ob-<br />
noxious to orthodox Jews. These expressions are often turned<br />
so as to commend the study of the law and support the most<br />
orthodox doctrines and devout course of life. Solomon is be-<br />
lieved to be the author of Qoheleth, and many allusions in it are<br />
interpreted to refer to events in his life and that of his son Rehoboam.<br />
Nevertheless, the Targum is frequently an important<br />
witness to the text, and helps us to correct MT. It is cited as OF.<br />
In addition to the publication of the Targum of Qoheleth accessible<br />
in the Polyglots a recension has recently been published from<br />
South Arabic MSS. by Alfred Levy, entitled Das Targum zu<br />
Koheleth nach sudarabischen Handschriften, Breslau, 1905. For<br />
a more complete account of the Targumim and the literature upon<br />
them, see Bacher's article " Targum," in JE., XIII, ff.<br />
(13).<br />
QUOTATIONS IN THE TALMUD.<br />
The Jewish writers of the first seven centuries of the Christian<br />
era frequently quoted the OT. These quotations ought to per-<br />
form for the text-criticism of the OT. the same service that patristic<br />
quotations perform for the NT. Euringer in his Masorah-<br />
text, already referred to, has collected these quotations for Qoheleth<br />
from the Mishna, and the parts of the Babylonian and Jerusalem<br />
Talmuds which were made up to the seventh century. Of the<br />
221 verses in Qoheleth, a part or all of 122 are quoted in these<br />
Jewish writings, and some of them many times. These quotations