Einleitung in die Targume zum Pentateuch.

• Author: Chilton, Bruce

By UWE GLESSMER. Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum, 48. Tubingen: J. C. B. MOHR (PAUL SIEBECK), 1995. Pp. xv + 274. DM 138.

The author here presents two chapters of his doctoral dissertation, accepted at the University of Hamburg in 1988. His overall aim is to elucidate the reception history (Wirkungsgeschichte) of the Hebrew Bible by means of the Targumim (p. viii). While an Einleitung cannot fully deliver on that promise, a good introduction can and should orient readers to appreciate the nature and origins of the Targumim and to initiate them into the study of reception history. In this more limited objective, this book is successful.

The study is divided into three major parts: the development of the Aramaic language, the corpus of Pentateuchal Targumim, the available primary and secondary sources.

Confronting the diversity of theories regarding the origin and development of Pentateuchal Targumim, Glessmer permits the history of the language to illuminate the history of the texts. Still, Glessmer begins with an introduction to his Einleitung that concludes with a model of Targumic development, postulating a proto-Onqelos and a proto-Pseudo-Jonathan among continuous Targumim, a proto-Palestinian liturgical collection of Targumim, and various narrative interpretations (such as are found in intertestamental literature and in Midrashim) that were worked into the Targumim. These hypotheses are specified on a single page (p. 8), and are built into the presuppositions of the book. That they are not actually argued in any detail is unfortunate.

The discussion of the development of the Aramaic language is extensive and very helpful. Glessmer shows us how and why the terminology on dialects has shifted, and provides a clear exposition of how to relate older contributions to the new designations. For students in the field at the graduate level, this part of the book alone makes the publication worthwhile. Aramaicists will want to add more concrete examples during the course of teaching, but the exposition is exemplary. I missed reference to Zacharias Frankel's Zu den Targumen der Propheten (Breslau: Jahresbericht des judisch-theologischen Seminars, 1872), the seminal work of Pinkhos Churgin, Targum Jonathan to the Prophets (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1927), and by the present writer, The Glory of Israel: The Theology and Provenience of the Isaiah Targum (Sheffield: JSOT, 1982). The transition from Middle Aramaic to Late Aramaic would have...