To the same Joseph "the blind" to whom the redaction of the foregoing Targum is. probably due, is further ascribed a Targum on the Hagiographa. But between him.
and the Hagiographical Targums lie, at the least, 000 years; their date being approxi mately given as about 1000 A.D. Certain distinctions between the different books must further be made. The Targums on Psalms, Job, and Proverbs were probably con temporaneous compositions due to Syria. The two former are made more paraphrastic than the last, which resembles closely the Syriac version. The paraphrase on the five "loth"—a very late production indeed—is principally a collection of more or less poetical fancies, traditions, and legends, to which the single verse in hand merely seems to furnish the keynote. There is, we need not add, but very little to be found in them of what originally must have formed the Targum on these books; nor is there the slightest hint to be found as to who was the real author or editor of their present form. That it. was one man's work, is probable enough, from a certain unity of design and style noticeable in all of them. Their dialect lies somewhat between the e. and w. Aramaic. The Targum on the book of Chronicles—almost unknown until the 17th c.—also belongs to a late period, and was probably composed in Palestine. There are some useful philological, historical, and chiefly geographical hints to be gleaned from it, but nothing more; least of all can it be used exegetically. A Persian version
of a Targum on Daniel (unedited) is all that has been discovered on that book as yet. It was probably composed in the 12th c., the influence of the early Crusades being plainly visible in it. On the paraphrase of the apocryphal pieces of Esther, we shall not dwell here, any more than on the scanty fragments of a " Palestinian Tar gum" that are found either interspersed in the general (Babylonian) Targum, or as inde pendent pieces. It seems probable that more of this Palestinian version will come to light some day, as authorities of a few centuries back still quote from it rather largely. At present, however, their quotations are nearly all that remains.
little—we might say, next to nothing—has been done as yet to utilize this most important branch of Aramaic literature; in fact, not even an attempt at anything like a critical edition has been made, although it would be difficult to find a more cor rupt text than that offered by the MSS. and single printed portions. Some parts have been done into Latin, English, German, etc. The ed. pr. of Onkelos is dated Bologna, 1482; that of the Targum on the Prophets, Leiria, 1494.