The Origins of Interpreting in the Old Testament and the Meturgeman in the Synagogue

Abstract

Interpreting as a form of mediated interlingual communication can be traced back to the third millennium B.C. in the secular sphere. In the Bible Nehemiah 8 shows how Hebrew passages were rendered into Aramaic. Luther’s translation (1984) of Neh 8.8 is compared in the article with RSV (1952), NRSV (1989), and the Russian Tolkovaja Biblija (1904–1907/1987). The emergence of targumim can be attributed to the need to render Hebrew texts into Aramaic, especially in the synagogue service. The Babylonian Talmud acknowledges this as established practice and gives elaborate instructions as to the correct way of delivering the targumim. They are often interpretive to an extent that far exceeds the bounds of translation or even paraphrase because the interpreter ( meturgeman) had to transmit the teachings of the rabbi to the common people by placing the original text into a wider context or by amplifying and explaining it.

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