TARGUMS, or CHALDEE PARAPHRASES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. During the Babylonish captivity, the language of the Jews was affected by the Chaldee dialect spoken at Babylon, to such an extent, that upon their return they could not understand the pure Hebrew of their sacred books ; and therefore, when Ezra and the Levites read the law to the people, they found themselves obliged to add an explanation of it, undoubtedly in Chaldee. (Neheni. viii. 8.) [1 I EMIEW LANGUAGE; ARAM.EAN LANGUAGE.] In course of time such explanations were committed to writing, and from their being not simple versions, but explanatory paraphrases, they were called by the Chaldee word Targunt, which signifies "an explanation." There are ten Targums extant :— 1. 7'he Targunt of Onkelos, on the Pentateuch, is the most ancient. Onkelos is supposed to have lived at Babylon. The Babylonish Talmud makes him a contemporary of Gamaliel, at the very beginning of the Christian era. No critics place him lower than the 2nd century. His language approaches nearer than that of the other Targums to the pure Chaldee of the books of Daniel and Ezra. He follows the Hebrew text so closely, that his work is less a paraphrase than a version, and he is free from the fables which prevailed among the later Jews.
2. The Targunt of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, on the Prophets, is by many ascribed to an author contemporary with Onkelos, or even a little older, namely, Jonathan the son of Uzziel, a disciple of the elder lintel. The mention of his name in the Talmuds proves him to have lived earlier than the 4th and 5th centuries. But Jahn point* out certain internal marks, from which he concludes that this Targum was compiled, towards the end of the 3rd century after Christ, from other paraphrases, some of which at least were considerably older. The Jews make Jonathan contemporary with the prophets Malachi, Zechariah, and Haggai, and relate marvellous stories respecting the composition of his TalimuL This Tustin' is more paraphrastic than that of Onkelos; its dialect is not so pure; the version is not so accu rate, but it is free from the fabulous stories of the later Talmud& It comprises the books of Joshua, Judgea, Samuel, Kings, latish, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets.
3. The Turguns of the portsdo-JonatAaa, on the Pentateuch, is so called from its having been erroneously ascribed to Jonathan Ben Utile]. In purity of dialect, in its general style, and in its mode of exposition, it is far inferior to the Targumn of Jonathan. It abounds in silly fables, and displays great ignorance of Hebrew on the part of its author. From internal evidence, much as its mention of the Turks and 1.otubarda, it is evident that it could not have been written earlier than the 7th, or perhaps the Sth, century.
4. The Jerusalem Targusts, on the Pentateuch, of which however it omits large portions, and sometimes explains only single words, is evidently later than that of the pseudo-Jonathan, which it generally follows closely, occasionally departing from It for the worse. its dialect is very impure, abounding in Greek, Latin, and Persian words.
The other Targums scarcely deserve a separate notice. An account of them, and lists of the editions and Latin versions of the Targuma, will be found in the works quoted at the end of this article. Taken together, the Targuma form a paraphrase of the whole of the Old Testament, except the books of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, which called the leas for such an exposition, as they are to a great extent written In Chaldeo.
(Pridcaux, Glonnection, part ii., book viii.; the Introductions of Home and Jahn.)