JONATHAN B. UZZIEL (5;41111/ p the celebrated translator of the Pentateuch and Prophets into Chaldee, was the distinguished disciple of If illel I., and therefore flourished about 30 B.C. [EDUCATION]. He was the first of those thirty disciples of Hillel who, in the language of the Talmud, were worthy to possess the power of stopping the sun like Joshua,' and when he sat studying the Scriptures, every bird which happened to fly over his head was burned or converted into a Seraph' (Succa 28, a ; Baba Bathra [34, a). His expositions were those of the three last prophets, viz., Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, which had been orally transmitted, and the high esteem in which they were held by the nation may be gathered from the following description in the Talmud :—` When the illuminating sun arose upon the dark passages of the Prophets, through this translation, the length and breadth of Palestine were agitated, and everywhere the voice of God (5? 1-12) or the voice of the people (vox popidi vox del) was heard asking, 'Who has disclosed these mysteries to the sons of men?' With great humil ity and becoming modesty, Jonathan b. Uzziel answered, I have disclosed thy mysteries ; but thou, 0 Lord, knowest that I have not done it to get glory for myself or for the house of my father; but for thy glory's sake, that discussion might not increase in Israel" (Ilfegilla 3, a). From these notices in the Talmud, it will be seen that he is only described as the Chaldee translator of the Prophets; and, indeed, it is distinctly declared in the last quoted passage that when Jonathan wanted also to translate the Hagiographa (trmnz), the same voice from Heaven 61p nz) emphatically for bade it (V1) because of the great Messianic mysteries contained therein rtrvn rp rvz:41), especially in the book of Daniel (comp. Rashi toca). But as tradition has also ascribed to him the pamphrase of the Pentateuch which is known by the name of Pseurio-yonathan, and the Targum of the Five Megilloth, and as the student will naturally look for an account of the editions of, and the litemture on these paraphrases under the name which they bear, it is deemed best to describe them here.
The (reputed) paraphrase of 7.mathan on the Pentateuch (rrillIn nrin), as has been shewn with great learning and reason in a Prize , Essay by Seligsohn and Traub (Frankel's llIonat I schrift, vol. vi., Leipzig 1857, pp. 96-t 14, 138-149), was made in the middle of the 7th century, by some one who was anxious to make a complete version of what is called the yerusalem or Pales tine Targzem (46:11' 1:313111), which in reality is nothing but desultory glosses on Onkelos' para phrase. The Targum thus based upon the ancient Jerusalem fragments was at first called Targum 7,rusalenz, and afterwards obtained the name of Targum lone:than, by erroneously resolving the abreviation ouln into purr 011111.
This so-called paraphrase of Jonathan b. Uzziel on the Pentateuch, was first published in Venice 159o-91, with the Hebrew text of the Pentateuth, the paraphrase of Onkelos, the fragments of the Jerusalem glosses, the commentaries of Rashi and Jacob b. Asher, then in Basle 16o7, Hanau 1614, Amsterdam 1640, Prague 1646, etc., etc., and has lately been printed, with a commentary, in the beautiful edition of the Pentateuch with the Rab binic commentaries, Vienna 1859. Explanations of this Targum were also written by David b. Jacob, Prague 1609 ; Feiwel b. David Secharja, Hanau 1614 ; Mordecai ICremsier, Amsterdam 1671. It was translated into Latin by Chevallier in Walton's Polyglott. The first volume of an English translation, containing Genesis and Exodus, has just been published by Etheridge (Longman 1862) ; but the masterly treatises on this Pseudo Jonathan are by Seligsohn and Traub, already quoted, and by Frankel, Zeitschrift fzir die reli giose Interesse d. 7:dent/sums, 1846, p. too, etc. Comp. also Wiener, De 'mat/lam:3. in Penta teuchutn paraphrasi chaldaica, Erlangen 1823 ; Petermann, De duabus Pentateuchi paraphrasibm chaldaicis, Berlin 1829.