What is called the Magillat Esther (Scroll of Esther") is part of the biblical group of books in the Hagiographa known as the "Five Megillot" designating Esther, the Scrolls of Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes. These five scrolls play an integral part in Jewish liturgy next to the Pentateuch; and yet Esther (as well as others of these five) had difficulty being included in the Hebrew canon as sacred Scripture.

Professor Grossfeld provides a straightforward, idiomatic translation of the original Aramaic for the Targum Rishon and the Targum Sheni, with comments on the...

The attribution, by the Babylonian Talmud, of this Targum to Jonathan ben Uzziel is suspect on several counts: among others, the silence concerning Jonathan in the parallel passage in the Palestinian Talmud, and the fanciful suggestion that Onkelos=Aquila and Jonathan=Theodotion. The attribution, therefore, is not to be taken as historical fact. The Talmud may have been attempting to enhance the authority of the Targum by claiming authorship by a disciple of Hillel, which Jonathan was.

It is generally agreed that the author of the Targum Jonathan is unknown; in fact, it is preferable...

Designed for those who are beginning Targum study, this book also provides material for those who have already made some progress. Beginners will have recourse first of al to the Translation, and the Notes are intended to help orient them in the message conveyed by the Targum in its two levels. Students with recourse to Aramaic will perhaps require remarks of a linguistic and textual nature; these are given in the Apparatus. Additional material for more advanced students is also offered in the Notes, to help relate the exegesis of the Targum to the intertestamental document, Rabbinica, and...

The Targum of Ezekiel, when critically analyzed, offers a vivid insight into an area of Jewish theological speculation stretching far back into the history of Jewish religious thought. The complexity of the document, however, compounded by a difficult Masoretic text, abundant grammatical and syntactical problems, and an infusion of strange language and linguistic peculiarities, challenges the most incisive biblical analysts. Like the Book of Ezekiel, it poses literary, exegetical, and theological problems.

The Targum belongs to the same genre as the other official Targumim,...

The first translation into English of all the extant Targums, together with introductions and annotations. Each volume examines the place of a particular Targum or group of Targums in Jewish life, liturgy and biblical interpretation. Each Targum is evaluated in the light of Jewish tradition and of modern linguistic and biblical research. The notes point to parallel passages in other Jewish and Christian biblical and liturgical texts. Each translated Targum has its own apparatus indicating the relationship between the English translation and the Aramaic original and every volume has a...

This Targum offers to the reader Jeremiah's words among the Jewish people. Perhaps more than any other prophet, he communicates the majesty and excellence of the God of Israel, presenting the mysterious history, compounded of glory and tragedy, of his Chosen People. Here we have one of the most moving interpretations of one of the great figures of the ancient world.

The longest biblical book in the original Hebrew, Jeremiah became longer still in its translation into Aramaic because the translator(s), in trying to convey the precise meaning, often offered more than one translation of...