The Targum
Ezra started the translation process, from the Sacred Text to Aramaic, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgements,” Ezra 7:10. This process gave birth to the Targum. As a result;
The Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Sacred Text.
Written in Aramaic, the Targum is not just an interpretation but also a paraphrased explanation of the Hebrew Scriptural text. These paraphrases or explanations are not meant to carry equal weight with the Word of God and initially it was forbidden to record them in writing, just to ensure that no one would equate them with the written Hebrew text.
But as time progressed, this rule was broken and the targumim were written down. In some instances where the wording in the Hebrew text are vague, the Targum offers an authoritative explanation.
Today many rabbis and their followers have considered the targumim as authoritative and in some cases they put them as the Word of God.
Example (1)
In Exodus 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (ben ha’arbayim). Most English Bibles translate this term ben ha’arbayim as “even, evening, sunset, twilight or dusk” taking the Samaritans view; but what is it?
The Targum says: You shall hold it in safekeeping until the fourteenth day of this month, they shall slaughter it—the entire community of Yisrael—between evenings [in the afternoon].
Rashi went on to explain what “in the afternoon” means:
in the afternoon: Heb. בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם From six hours [after sunrise] and onward is called בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם, literally, between the two evenings, for the sun is inclined toward the place where it sets to become darkened.
It seems to me that the expression בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם denotes those hours between the darkening of the day and the darkening of the night. The darkening of the day is at the beginning of the seventh hour, when the shadows of evening decline, and the darkening of the night at the beginning of the night.
Example (2)
In Leviticus 23:15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.
“The morrow after the sabbath” has often been interpreted as the day after the weekly Sabbath, but in Hebrew it could be the day after the Passover, a high holy day, a day of rest.
Hence the Targum interpretes or paraphrases it this way:
You shall count for yourselves, from the day after the day of rest (Pesach) from the day on which you will bring the omer waveuplifted-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be,
Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days, and you shall bring a new meal-offering to [before] Adonoy.
Hence God’s own church, which has incorporated many critical Samaritan concepts, has been describes as “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
Example (3)
In Isaiah 52:13, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”
This verse is the beginning or setting the context of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53; so who was he?
Jewish Orthodoxy says he is Israel, or Jacob; but the Targum says the servant was meant to be the Messiah:
Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper, he shall be exalted and extolled, and he shall be very strong.
Thus the blindness of the Jewish Orthodoxy (and most Christian Pretenders) remains blinded, deaf and dumb to this day!
“Hear, ye DEAF; and look, ye BLIND, that ye may see” Isaiah 42:18; “His watchmen are BLIND; they are all ignorant; they are all DUMB dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10
Example (4)
In Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
In this verse it is trying to convey that the Child, the Son, is “The everlasting Father” which is an imposibiity. By inserting “The everlasting Father” in the Masoretic text, the frauder tried to convery the message that this verse couldn’t be refering to Christ. The problem is obvious when it is compared to the Targum, which says:
The prophet said to the house of David, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and he has taken the law upon himself to keep it. His name is called from before Him who is wonderful in counsel, the mighty God who liveth to eternity — the Messiah whose peace shall be great upon us in his days.
But the Targum confirms the Child is the Messiah, prophesised to be born, and he is to live unto eternity, but nothing in the Targum says about ‘the Everlasting Father.’ This is obviously a case of the tampering of the Scriptures, a manifestation of “the lying pen of the scribes” Jeremiah 8:8.
The Orthodoxy believes this “Child” is refering to King Hezekiah, in the process this is trying to elevate a mere man to Divinity, “The mighty God,” which is an imposibility.
Hezekiah foolishly showed the men from Babylon the Temple treasures, gold and silver, who later came and looted them and carry them all to Babylon; hence it is foolish to assert that Hezekiah was a Wonderful Counsellor.
Finally, this is another case of the Othodoxy being blind: “Hear, ye DEAF; and look, ye BLIND, that ye may see” Isaiah 42:18; “His watchmen are BLIND; they are all ignorant; they are all DUMB dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10.
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 