Targum Onkelos: Facing Targum and Masoretic Text

Book 6 in Parallel Targums

This is a complete edition of Targum Onkelos. With the ubiquity of Hebrew in Israel today, one can forget there was a time when the Hebrew Bible had to be translated to be understood by Jews who no longer spoke Hebrew. The Septuagint served this purpose for the Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt, and also for many others in Palestine. For the Aramaic-speaking Jews from Babylonia to Palestine they instead turned to Aramaic translations, or targums/targumim. Targums existed at least from the late Second Temple period, for some targums were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QtgLev, 4QtgJob, 11QtgJob).

The translation philosophy of targums is generally to make the meaning of the Hebrew clear. Thus targums are not straightforward translations, but involve interpretation. Sometimes targums did not translate detrimental verses like David and Bathsheba. Targums can at times reduce interpretive options, and they can also iron out inconsistencies. This differs to the Septuagint which is generally straightforward phrase-for-phrase translation.