Language:
English
Year of publication:
2023
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Jewish Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
74,2 (2023) 345-358
Keywords:
Bible. Versions
;
Authorship
;
Date of authorship
;
Bible. Language, style
;
Aramaic language
Abstract:
Targum Canticles is an allegorical interpretation of the biblical book of Canticles written in a special literary form of Aramaic, extant in over one hundred manuscripts dating from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. The majority of scholars have believed that the work was written in Palestine in the seventh or eighth century, but the linguistic evidence clearly indicates that the author was not an Aramaic or Arabic speaker and did not live in Palestine. In this article I try to show how the language of the Targum suggests that it was written in southern Italy in the eleventh century. This conclusion, based on in-depth analysis of the language of the Targum and comparison with numerous sources, is supported by direct and indirect textual witnesses of the work and has implications for the study of other late Targums.
DOI:
10.18647/3586/jjs-2023
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
