The name for a translation of the Hebrew Bible, or parts thereof, into Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew and spoken widely throughout the ancient Middle East from the eighth century b.c.e. onward. Targums are not only interpretations in the sense that all translations involve interpretive decisions; some targums, notably Targum Neophyti, the Fragment Targum, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (all targums of the Pentateuch), contain frequent exegetical expansions of the biblical text, from a few words to entire paragraphs, not found in the original.

Despite the extensive research conducted over the last half century in particular, scholars have still not reached consensus as to either the dating or interrelationship of the targums. Virtually all agree, however, that the process of translating biblical texts into Aramaic must have begun long before any of our extant targums was composed; such translation began perhaps as early as the time of the return from Babylonian exile. If so, then the various individual targum texts—Onkelos, Neophyti, and so forth—most likely do not represent the work of isolated translators “starting from scratch”: their translations probably contain within them many translation traditions inherited from ages long past. In that sense, at least, any dating of a targum is likely to be misleading from the standpoint of ancient biblical interpretation, since at least some of the interpretations contained within that targum may go back to a period far earlier than the targum’s own composition.

A particular affinity exists among the so-called Palestinian targums Neophyti, Pseudo-Jonathan, and the Fragment Targums, along with various snippets of targum texts discovered in the Cairo Geniza, all of which arguably go back to a “proto-Palestinian targum.” If, as some scholars have suggested, these various targums basically took shape late in the first or in the second century c.e., then their common ancestor should certainly be dated still earlier.

Fragment Targum

A series of targums to the Torah that are preserved only in fragmentary form. Also known as Jerusalem Targum (Targum Yerushalmi).

Samaritan Targum

This targum exists in widely divergent forms produced and revised over many centuries. The oldest form goes back to before the fourth century c.e. (its Aramaic is similar to that found in the Palestinian targums), but greater precision as to the date is impossible, at least on linguistic grounds.