The Targum
Seven Cases where Targum is Superior
BACKGROUND: The Jewish captives, after seventy years in Babylon, could not speak the Hebrew language. They spoke Aramaic, the language of the captors, and had forgotten their original Hebrew.
Upon returning to their homeland they wanted to study the Sacred Scriptures, but they couldn’t understand Hebrew. Hence Ezra started the translation process, from the Hebrew 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.
But often the Hebrew incorporates metaphors and idioms which were difficult even for these returnees to understand. For example, the Sacred Text incorporates natural imagery—like cedars, cypresses, oaks, forests, and fire—as metaphors for political political and social structures, especially kings, rulers, governors, and wealthy elites.
Ezra was a righteous man, and he was determined to translate and share their true meaning. For God had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to follow it, and to teach the statutes and judgments in Israel.
In our English we have idioms; how are we to translate for foreigners to understand their true meanings. For example
A dark horse: someone who is not well known but has the potential to be successful.
A foot in the door: an initial advantage or opportunity that can lead to something more.
All bark and no bite: someone who talks a lot but doesn’t actually do anything.
Get cold feet: to become nervous or hesitant about something.
Hold your horses: wait, calm down.
Jekyll and Hyde: a person who has a dual personality, one good and one evil.
Hear it from the horses’ month: heard it from the person concern.
Putting lipstick on a pig: working on a fultile project.
Idioms of such imageries from the Sacred Text can be sweeping: forests laid waste, lions roaring as their habitat is destroyed, and power structures crumbling. Fire symbolizes divine punishment, sweeping through defenses and dismantling the very foundations of their power.
Written in Aramaic and inspired by Ezra, 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 later it was written down for our benefits.
The Targum is thus 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.
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 Targum as authoritative and in some cases they put them as the Word of God; yet in others, they refused to.
Example (1)
It is known that the Masoretic Text has an error in Exodus 12:40-41, where the text says Israel was in Egypt for 430 years.
40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:40-41
The Targum says the Israelites in Egypt were only 210 years; and in Exodus 12 the Targum Jonathan explains why this differs from the Masoretic version of 430 years:
And the days of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in Mizraim were thirty weeks of years, (thirty times seven years,) which is the sum of two hundred and ten years. But the number of four hundred and thirty years (had passed away since) the Lord spake to Abraham, in the hour that He spake with him on the fifteenth of Nisan, between the divided parts, until the day that they went out of Mizraim. Exodus 12:40 Jonathan
The Septuagint clarifies that this 430 years in Egypt include time in Canaan; “And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass after the four hundred and thirty years, all the forces of the Lord came forth out of the land of Egypt by night.” Exodus 12:40-41 Septuagint
Example (2)
In a significant revelation of His almighty power, the Lord Himself shall give us a sign, cause a miracle to happen which would have abiding significance.
Behold, an exclamation calling attention to the extraordinary prophecy now following, a virgin, literally, “the virgin,” that certain virgin whom the Lord had even now selected for this purpose, not merely an unwed or young woman of marriageable age as the Masoretic text says, but an undefiled maiden, Psalms 68:25; Matthew 1:25.
But the Masoretic Text says she is just a young woman:
Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 JPS
— but a young woman to give birth to a child doesn’t have much of a sign. The original Targum Jonathan identifies the woman as a VIRGIN;
“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and she shalt call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 Targum Jonathan (Pauli)
— Rabbinic Jews such as Jews for Judaism (and even Sefaria in this case where their online could easily be changed) and Rabbi Tovia Singer say this “virgin” is a young maiden as other Rabbinic Jews say;
— the Septuagint confirms or reaffirms the Targum:
“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin (παρθένος parthenos) shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.” Esaias 7:14 Septuagint
— shall conceive, without the carnal knowledge of man, and bear a son, the event being represented as happening now, in the everlasting present of the eternal God, and shall call His name Emmanuel, which is correctly interpreted by Matthew as meaning, “God with us.”
A young woman giving birth to a child has only a barren meaning; only if she is a virgin would it has any significance. This is an example of the lying pen of the scribes expressed in Jeremiah 8:8, “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.’”
The King James versions would have lots to loose if they follow strictly to the Masoretic Text, hence they adopted the Targum version at times:
“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin (5959 הָעַלְמָ֗ה hā·‘al·māh) shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14 KJ21
Example (3)
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, Counselor, 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 impossibility. By inserting “The everlasting Father” in the Masoretic text, the frauder tried to convey the message that this verse couldn’t be referring 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 eternity, Wonderful, the Mighty God, who liveth to eternity, the Messiah whose peace shall be great upon us in His days. Isaiah 9:6 Jonathan (Pauli) — there is no “everlasting Father”
And this is supported by the Septuagint:
“For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him.
“His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this” Isaiah 9:5-6 Septuagint
But the Targum confirms the Child is the Messiah, prophesied 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 referring to King Hezekiah, in the process this is trying to elevate a mere man to Divinity, “The mighty God,” which is an impossibility.
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 absurd to assert that Hezekiah was a Wonderful Counselor.
This is another case of the Orthodoxy 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.
Both the Pauli and Sefaria versions identify him as the Messiah
“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.
“The greatness of those who do the law shall be magnified, and to those, that preserve peace. There shall be no end to the throne of David, and of his kingdom, to establish it and to build it in judgment and in righteousness from henceforth, even for ever. By the Word of the Lord of hosts this shall be done” Isaiah 9:5-6 Sefaria
Example (4)
The Targum identifies the “suffering servant” in Isaiah 53 as the Messiah, only that the subject of the “suffering servant” starts two verses earlier in the previous chapter.
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, my servant, 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” Isaiah 52:13 Jonathan
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 (5)
More on the suffering servant:
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10 KJ21
— yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; the sufferings of Christ are signified by his being “bruised” as it was foretold he should have his heel bruised by the serpent, Genesis 3:15;
— but here it is ascribed to the Yeshua or Jesus: he was bruised in body when scourged and nailed to the cross; and was bruised and broken in spirit when the sins of his people were laid on him;
— “He shall see His seed” – opponents of Jesus being the description here point to this Being has seed, whereas Jesus hadn’t;
(a) it makes no sense that whether Jesus has seed is being dependent on us (or ‘thou’ as the verse says) making an offering for sin;
(b) this phase “for sin” imputes that Christ would sin, for we know that he didn’t sin, else he cannot save humanity with his own sacrifice;
(c) following the evidence presented above, this verse could be another example of the lying pen of the scribes, Isaiah 8:8; that is, some scribes could most probably had altered it;
— the Targum Jonathan has two versions:
“And it was the pleasure of the Lord to refine and to purify the remnant of His people, in order to cleanse their souls from sin, that they might see the kingdom of their messiah, that their sons and daughters might multiply, and prolong their days, and those that keep the law of the Lord shall prosper through His pleasure” Isaiah 53:10 Jonathan (Sefaria, online and could be changed)
“And He shall deliver the wicked into hell, and the riches of treasures which they got by violence into the death of Abaddon” Isaiah 53:10 Jonathan (Pauli, 1871)
Example (6)
And now on when the Passover lamb should be killed:
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 ancient English Bibles translate this term ben ha’arbayim as even, evening, some as sunset, twilight or dusk, taking the Samaritans or modern view; so what is it?
The Targum Onkelos 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, in further details, 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. Exodus 12:6 in Chabad
Example (7)
Now concerning the counting towards Shavuot (Pentecost):
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. Leviticus 23:15-16
“The morrow after the seventh 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 interprets 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. Leviticus 23:15-16 Onkelos
The counting is to start “from the day after the day of rest (Pesach).” That is, the counting is to commence from the First day of Unleavened Bread, a high holy day.
Hence, most of God’s own church, which has incorporated many critical Samaritan concepts, has been describes as “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” to count from the weekly Sabbath.
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