Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translation and Interpretation in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke.

• Author: Kaufman, Stephen A.
• Position: Book Review

Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translation and Interpretation in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke. Edited by PAUL V. M. FLESHER. Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture, vol. 2. Leiden; BRILL, 2002. Pp. xxv + 327. $115.

This volume consists primarily of papers delivered to the first conference of the International Organization for Targumic Studies (www.tulane.edu/~ntcs/IOTS/) at Cambridge, England in 1995. Inasmuch as the prime mover for the foundation of this organization, and its first presider, was the late Ernest G. Clarke of Victoria College at the University of Toronto, devoting this collection to his memory is entirely fitting.

The front matter contains a bibliography of Clarke's writings, a personal reflection by his student, Walter Aufrecht, and a review of "Targum Studies and Ernest G. Clarke" by the volume's editor. A bibliography of works cited anywhere in the volume, and various indices complete the book. The papers are organized into four major sections: Method and Theory in the History of the Targumim, The Pentateuchal Targumim, The Prophetic Targumim, and The Writings Targumim.

Overall, the essays well illustrate the still immature nature of this field, whose practitioners generally have come to it from several other disciplines. Not all the presentations are worth reading, I fear. Of those that are, the following are worthy of note:

Moshe J. Bernstein, "The Aramaic Versions of Deuteronomy 32: A Study in Comparative Targumic Theology." Comments on the theological concerns of the targumic renditions of the Biblical text are often...