Targum and Translation: A New Approach to a Classic Problem

Abstract

The targums to the Pentateuch have often been called a kind of translation literature. In part, this is due to the lexicography of the termtargum, according to which this literature is known. Although this association between targumic literature and the termtranslationhas been long-standing, “translation,” as it has been used in the field of targum studies, is greatly undertheorized. Within recent years, scholars have used the wordtranslationto describe the interlinguistic rendering of specific Hebrew Bible words and phrases. Some discussion has been given to the complexities of this dynamic in the targums, but the meaning of the termtranslationhas yet to be addressed explicitly. In this article, I propose that to usetranslationas a meaningful descriptive category for targumic literature, it is necessary to unpack it and examine its ambiguities and problematic status even within the context of discussions about translation studies. By exploring the contours of this term, I hope to indicate how a more nuanced understanding of “translation” can help describe the targumic genre, as well as the targums' underlying hermeneutic orientation toward the Hebrew Bible.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.