TAllGUAI. 



As tlie Jews, during llicir long captivity in Babylon, had 

 forgot their ancient language, the Hebrew ; and now under- 

 llood nothing but the language of thoir maftcrs, the ChaJ- 

 deans; there was a nccclfity of explaining the prophets in 

 that language ; and to this nocclTity is o-.vi:!g the firft begin- 

 ning of the Chaldec paraphiafc. 



To make the fenfe of the text underftood, each doftor 

 made a paraphrafc of feme pari of it in tlie vulgar tongue ; 

 and as thefc feveral interpretation-?, in time, became very 

 voluminous, certain rabbins undertook to coUeft them to- 

 gether ; and this colledion they called The Targum. 



The Jewifli doftors do not agree about the antiquity of 

 tlie Targum ; for the more modern Jews having blended 

 tiieir own comments with thofe of the ancients, no certain 

 ao^e or era can be fixed for the whole work. 



It is commonly believed, that R. Jonathan, who Uved 

 under the reign of Herod the Great, made the firft Chaldee 

 verfion of the prophets ; and with this verfion mixed the 

 interpretations borrowed from tradition. Onkelos, it is 

 certain, tranflatcd the Pentateuch almoft word for word ; 

 and without any paraphrafe ; and another verfion of the 

 Pentateuch is akribed to Jonathan, but that without much 

 certainty. 



Dr. Prideaux thinks, that the verfion or Targum of 

 Onkelos is the moft ancient of all that are now extant : and 

 'the principal reafon of his adopting this opinion is, that 

 the ftyle in which it is written approaches nearer to the 

 ftyle of that part of Daniel and Ezra, which is written in 

 the Chaldee language, and which may be corifidered as a 

 ftandard of its punty, more than any other. This Tar- 

 gum has been held in higher efteem among the Jews than all 

 the other Targums, and being fet to the fame mufical notes 

 with the Hebrew text, it is thereby made capable of be- 

 ing read in the fame tone in their public affembhes. The 

 r.ext to this in the purity of its ftyle, is the Targum of 

 R. Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the prophets ; that is, on 

 Jofhua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books 

 of Kings, ifaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor 

 prophets. The Targum of Onkelos is a ftrift verfion, 

 rendering the Hebrew word for word ; v/hereas Jonathan 

 takes the liberty of a paraphraft, by enlargements and addi- 

 tions to the text. The third Targum, or that on the law, 

 afcribed to Jonathan, is not his, bcca'^fe the ftyle of it is 

 wholly different from that of his true Targum on the pro- 

 phets, and feveral things are mentioned in it, which had no 

 being, or at leaft no name, till after Jonathan's time. The 

 fourth Targum is on the law, written by an unknown au- 

 thor, and at an unknown period. It is called the JerufaJem 

 Targum, probably becaufe it was written in the Jerufalem 

 dialeiS, which was fpoken by the Jews after their return 

 from Babylon, and which contains a mixture of Hebrew 

 v/ords vrith the Chaldee. This Jerufalem Targum is not a 

 continued paraphrafe, as all the reft are, but confined to 

 feleft palTages, as the author feems to have thought the text 

 moft wanted an explication. In many places it is taken 

 word for word from the Targum, faid to be Jonathan's on 

 the law : and contains feveral things, which are delivered in 

 the fame words in the New Teftament by Chrift and his 

 apoftles. Dr. Prideaux accounts for this circumftance, by 

 fuppofing that thefe were fayings and phrafcologies, which 

 had obtained among the Jews in the time of our Saviour, 

 and continued among them long after : and hence Chrift and 

 his apoftles, and afterward the author of this Targum, de- 

 rived them from the fame fource. The fifth Targum, which 

 is that on the Megilloth, «. <•. Ruth, Efthcr, Ecclefiaftes, 

 Solomon's Song, and Jeremiah's Lamentations ; the fixth, 

 which is the fcrond Targum on Efther ; and the fcventh, 



which is that on Job, tJbe Pfahns, and the Proverbs, are all 



written in the moft corrupt Chaldee of the Jerufalem diaieft. 

 Of the two former, no author is named ; but the author of the 

 third is faid to be Jofeph the one-eyed, but who he was, or 

 when he lived, we are not told : that on the Megilloth, 

 which mentions the Mifchna and the Talmud with the expli- 

 cation, muft have been written after the Babylonifti Talmud, 

 or the year of Chrift 500. The eighth and laft of thefe 

 Targums, is that on the two books of Chronicles ; pub- 

 lifhed by Beckius at Augft)urg in Germany, that on the 

 firft book in i68o, and that on the fecond in 1683. On 

 Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, there is no targum. 



That the Targum of Onkelias on the law, and that of 

 Jonathan on the prophets, are as ancient as our Saviour's 

 time, if not more ancient, is the general opinion of both 

 Jews and Chriftians. As to all the other Targums befides 

 thefe two, they are certainly of a much later date ; the ftyle 

 of every one of them is more baibarous and impure than 

 that of the Jerufalem Talmud, and they muft, therefore, 

 have been written after the compofure of that work, ;". e. 

 after the beginning of the fourth century after Chrift ; and 

 if the Talmudic fables, with which they abound, were 

 taken out of the Babylonifii Talmud, this will bring their 

 date ftill lower, and prove them to have been written after 

 that Talmud, or after the beginning of the fixth century 

 after Chrift. • 



The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are in fuch great 

 efteem among the Jews, that they hold them to be ot tlie 

 fame authority with the original facred text, and for the fup- 

 port of this opinion, they feign them to be derived from 

 the fame fountain. The Chaldee paraphrafe of Onkelos, 

 they fay, was delivered in the fame manner with the real 

 law, when God gave the written law unto Mofes at Mount 

 Sinai ; and %vhen by his holy Spirit he diftated to the pro- 

 phets the prophetical books, he delivered feverally to them 

 upon each bock the Targum of Jonathan at the lame time. 

 Thefe were delivered by faithful hands, the firft Iroui 

 Mofes, and the other from the prophets, till they came 

 down to Onktlos and Jonathan, who only put them into 

 writing. 



Agreeably to the high opinion that was entertained of 

 them, they were read every Sabbath-day in their fynagogues, 

 in the fame manner as the original facred word itfelf, of 

 which they were verfions ; and this ufe of them was con- 

 tinued to late times. Whether the Targums of Onkelos 

 and Jonathan were received for this ufe fo early as our 

 Saviour's time is not certain ; however, it feems that thefe, 

 or fome others, were ufed for the inftruftion of the peof>le, 

 and were read among them in private as well as in public. 

 Agreeably to this purpofe, they had fome of their bibles 

 written out in Hebrew and Chaldee together ; that is, each 

 verfe firft in Hebrew, and then in Chaldee ; and thus from 

 verfe to verfe through the whole volume. In thefe bibles, 

 the Targum of Onkelos was the Chaldee verfion for the 

 law ; and that of Jonathan for the prophets ; and for the 

 Hagiographa, the other Targums that were written on 

 them. One of thefe bibles, thus written, Buxtorf tells us 

 he had feen at Strafburg : and biftiop Walton acquaints us, 

 that he had the perufal of two others of the fame fort, one 

 in the public Hbrary of the church of Weftminfter, and the 

 ether in the private ftudy of Mr. Thomas Gataker. The 

 other Targums are all of a much later date than thofe of 

 Onkelos and Jonathan, and of far lefs authority : however, 

 biftiop Walton has introduced moft of them into his Poly- 

 glot. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are of great 

 ufe for the better underftanding not only of the Old Tefta- 

 ment, on which they are written, but alfo of the New. As to 



the 



