Targumic Aramaic (arc-x-targum)

The literary Aramaic of the two "official" targums of the Babylonian Jewish tradition: Targum Onkelos to the Torah and Targum Jonathan to the Prophets. It is the Aramaic most Jews have read most often, because Onkelos is printed beside the Hebrew in every rabbinic Bible (Miqraot Gedolot) and the Talmud requires that the weekly portion be read "twice in Scripture and once in targum" (b. Berakhot 8a–b, shnayim miqra ve-eḥad targum). It is still read aloud in the synagogue in Yemen and by Yemenite communities.

The code arc-x-targum is Mova's private-use extension of arc (Aramaic of the Jewish texts — overview and Biblical Aramaic). In the corpus registry it also covers the late targums to the Writings (Psalms, Job, Proverbs, the five Scrolls, Chronicles), which are linguistically mixed and described here only briefly (§5). The Palestinian targums (Neofiti, the Fragment targums, the Geniza targums) and Pseudo-Jonathan are filed under jpa (languages/jpa).

Conventions (transliteration, glossing, citing) are those of Aramaic of the Jewish texts — overview and Biblical Aramaic. This folder describes how Targumic Aramaic differs from Biblical Aramaic (languages/arc) and from the other varieties.

1. What it is

• A translation language. Onkelos renders the Hebrew Torah verse by verse and mostly word by word, with Aramaic words in the Hebrew order, and departs from the Hebrew where theology, law, clarity or the poetry require. Jonathan to the Prophets is freer and often expands into midrash (Translation technique and syntax of the targums).
• A standard literary dialect, not a vernacular. Its grammar continues the "Standard Literary Aramaic" of the late Second Temple period, the language of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls (Genesis Apocryphon, 11Q Targum of Job), with Western (Palestinian) roots and an Eastern (Babylonian) final editing (Kutscher 1958; Tal 1975; Kaufman 1985; Cook 1986; Fassberg 2012). It is therefore close to Biblical Aramaic in morphology, and different from both spoken dialects of the Talmudic period (JPA and JBA).
• Dates. The consensus places the formation of Onkelos and Jonathan in Palestine in the 1st–3rd c. CE and their final redaction, and canonisation, in Babylonia in the 3rd–5th c. (Alexander 1992; Flesher and Chilton 2011, ch. 4–5). Both were provided with a Babylonian Masorah and a Babylonian vocalisation (Berliner 1877, Die Massorah zum Targum Onkelos).
• Names and tradition. The Bavli attributes the targum of the Torah to Onkelos the proselyte "from the mouth of R. Eliezer and R. Joshua" and the targum of the Prophets to Jonathan ben Uzziel "from the mouth of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi" (b. Megillah 3a). The Yerushalmi tells a parallel story of the Greek translation of Aquila (עֲקִילַס) (y. Megillah 1:9, 71c; numbered 1:11 in some editions), and most scholars think the name "Onkelos" is a Babylonian form of "Aquila" transferred to the Aramaic version (Alexander 1992). The Bavli calls Onkelos "our targum" (תַּרְגּוּם דִּידַן, b. Kiddushin 49a).

2. What marks it

Against Biblical Aramaic (arc):

Against the spoken dialects of the Talmudic period:

Against Hebrew: the whole Aramaic grammar (The Aramaic family and the Jewish varieties §4), and the translational features: מֵימְרָא, יְקָרָא, שְׁכִינְתָּא and קֳדָם for God's presence and action (Translation technique and syntax of the targums §3).

3. Editions and reading traditions

The printed Tiberian vocalisation is late and not consistent; for grammar, the Babylonian-Yemenite tradition is the authority (Dalman 1905, introduction; Morag 1988; Fassberg 2012). Our quotations use the public-domain Sefaria texts as they are printed, and say so.

4. The files of this folder

5. The targums to the Writings

The Aramaic versions of Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther (two: Rishon and Sheni) and Chronicles are later (perhaps 5th–8th c. CE, some later), Palestinian in origin, and mixed in language: their base is Targumic (Onkelos-like), with many JPA forms, and in Proverbs even Syriac features (Targum Proverbs is close to the Peshitta). They are full of midrashic expansion: Targum Ruth 1:1 lists "ten famines" that came upon the world; Targum Song of Songs reads the book as the history of Israel (Flesher and Chilton 2011, ch. 12–14; Alexander 1992). In the registry they are arc-x-targum; a Mova classifier should expect JPA features in them (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (jpa)).

Aramaic:   וַאֲמָרַת רוּת … אֲרוּם תְּאִיבָא אֲנָא לְאִתְגַּיָּרָא
Translit.: wa-ʾămāraṯ rūṯ … ʾărūm təʾīḇā ʾănā lə-ʾiṯgayyārā
Gloss:     and-say.PEAL.PF.3FS Ruth … because desiring.F I to-convert.ITHPA.INF
English:   And Ruth said: "… for I want to become a proselyte"
Source:    Targum Ruth 1:16 (Mikraot Gedolot, Sefaria, public domain)

Note the JPA/late conjunction אֲרוּם "because" (Onkelos has אֲרֵי) and the rabbinic term "to convert" (ithpaal of גיר).

The Elamur team

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/arc-x-targum/