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Josephus: Henry Leeming: Josephus’ Jewish War and Its Slavonic Version: A Synoptic Comparison (2003) “This volume presents in English translation the Slavonic version of Josephus Flavius’ “Jewish War, long inaccessible to Anglophone readers, according to N.A. Materskej‘s scholarly edition, together with his erudite and wide-ranging study of literary, historical and philological aspects of the work, a textological apparatus and commentary. The synoptic layout of the Slavonic and Greek versions in parallel columns enables the reader to compare their content in detail. It will be seen that the divergences are far more extensive than those indicated hitherto.” |
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JEWISH SOURCES Agrippa II Apocalyptic Genre | Anti-Semitism Study Archive | Masada | The Month of Av | Scientific Date for Destruction of Herod’s Temple | Stone Piles that Memorialize Jerusalem’s Destruction | Map of The Siege of Jerusalem | The Jewish Struggle Against Roma | Differentiating Judaism from Christianity | The Books of Enoch | Second Destruction of Jerusalem // The Talmud CHURBAN HABAYIT
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Historical Jewish Sources Targums: Documents that comment and expand upon the Mishnah
Overview: About Targums The word “targum” refers to translations of the Bible into Jewish Aramaic. In the post-exilic period, Aramaic began to be widely spoken in the Jewish community alongside the native language, Hebrew. Eventually Aramaic replaced Hebrew for most purposes, and the Bible itself required translation into the more widely familiar vernacular language. Thus the Targum was born. The Mishnah, the codified form of Jewish oral tradition, set down detailed rules for the turgeman, the reciter of Targum, to follow in the synagogue service. The earliest known targums are texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, most notably the Job Targum from Cave 11, although these documents were probably not used in worship. The Targums that were used in rabbinic Judaism are the following: Targum Onkelos: Ascribed by tradition to the proselyte Onkelos, this translation, which covers the Torah or Pentateuch, is considered to be the oldest and it is the most widely used of all the Jewish targums. It most likely originated in Palestine in the first few centuries CE, but was transmitted and edited in the East, among the Jews of Babylonia. In the Babylonian Talmud it is referred to as “our Targum.” Targum Jonathan: As with Onkelos, some traditions ascribe this targum to Jonathan ben Uzziel, a pupil of Hillel, and, like Onkelos, it probably originated in Palestine in the early centuries CE. Targum Jonathan contains renderings of the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets). The Palestinian Targums: While Onkelos and Jonathan were used mainly in the East, a distinctively Palestinian targum, covering the Torah only, was composed and used in the West. The two complete versions of the Palestinian targum that survive are Targum Neofiti, a complete codex that was only discovered in 1956 in the Vatican Library; and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which is extant in only one manuscript from the British Museum. (This Targum is known as “Pseudo-Jonathan,” because a common abbreviation for it in the medieval period — TY, for Targum Yerushalmi, or Jerusalem Targum — was incorrectly read as “Targum Yonatan.”) Incomplete versions of the Palestinian Targum survive, known as the Fragment-Targum and other fragmentary witnesses have been discovered in the Cairo Geniza. Targums to the Writings: The latest of the rabbinic targums are those to the Writings, the third division of the Hebrew Bible. Judging by the dialect of Aramaic, they were composed at different times and places. The Targum of Job, Targum of Psalms, and Targum of Chronicles are all similar in language to the Pseudo-Jonathan Targum. The Targums to the Five Megilloth (Festival Scrolls) — Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs, Lamentations, and Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes) — all contain long interpretive additions. The Targum of Proverbs may be the latest of all; parts of it were copied from the translation of Proverbs found in the Syriac Peshitta. There are no targums of Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel. The targums are important to biblical scholars for several reasons. They are a witness to the Hebrew Bible text as it existed in the first few centuries CE, and references to them are frequent in the apparatus of the Biblia Hebraica. Since it was characteristic of their method sometimes to add interpretive or folkloric material to the translation or paraphrase, many of the targums preserve valuable information about Jewish theology, practice, and interpretation of Scripture from the early centuries of the Christian era. For linguists, the targums serve as an important source for the Aramaic dialects.
The Targumim of the Megillot “19 “When I was delivered into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,” Jerusalem said, “I called to my friends, sons of the nations, with whom I had made treaties, to come to my aid. But they deceived me and turned to destroy me. (These are the Romans who entered with Titus and the wicked Vespasian and they built siegeworks against Jerusalem.) My priests and my elders within the city perish from hunger, because they searched for sustenance for themselves to eat, in order to preserve their lives. ” (Targum Lamentations) Lamentations 4
Targum Jonathan (On Isaiah 53)
What do YOU think ? Submit Your Comments For Posting Here Date: 23 Jan 2006 Comments: The apocryphal Book of Judith refers to Nebuchadnezzer as “Lord of the whole and God.” This is a 2nd century b.c. work. In The Legends of the Jews by Ginzberg the Roman emperor, Titus, is being alluded to but the text states that the Palymrene archers fighting on the side of Rome in the seige of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. are giving their assistance to “Nebuchadnezzer.” In the Jewish Midrash Rabbah Ecclesiastes it states that the Roman emperor, Trajan, is “a descendant of Nebuchadnezzer.” First Peter 5:l3 states — “Greetings froml her who dwells in Babylon . . .” in lst century a.d. Imperial Rome. Is Nebuchadnezzer the intended solution to Revelation l3:l8 (666)? [Walter C. Cambra] Date: 29 Apr 2009 Your Comments: The following is a supplement to the entry by Walter C. Cambra for [23 Jan. 2006 — l7:27:l5]. Date: 21 Jan 2010 Your Comments: Chapter l3:l8 of The New Testament, Book of Revelation, cites the conundrum for the number 666 based upon the numerical values that were assigned to the ancient Greek alphabet. The components of the riddle are veiled in arcane symbolism in the form of a mathematical puzzle that requires not only knowledge, but wisdom as well! The riddle is somewhat complex but its components were so designed to show that once it was deciphered, the answer would not be a mere coincidence. The components of the riddle generate the number 666 simultaneously in two ways. The 7 headed sea-beast of Rev. l3:l is a cipher for the 7 strategic kingdoms of Nebekednesser’s neo-babylonian empire in the 6th century b.c. when the Jewish HOUSE OF YESHUA (translated in the Greek SEPTUAGINT, Ezra 2:36 as HOUSE OF JESUS) was captive/exiled in Babylon. These strateic kingdoms are: Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon. {Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon are found in a single cluster in the Book of Jeremiah 27:3.} The two horned land-beast mentioned at Rev. l3:ll is a cipher for the first and last kings of 6th century b.c. Babylon, namely, Nebekednesser and Balthasar. The numeical values for the Greek letters used in spelling NEBEKEDNESSER, namely, Nu, Eta, Beta, Eta, Kappa, Eta, Delta, Nu, Eta, Sigma, Sigma, Eta, Rho total 666. The numbers just BELOW the Greek letters, that is, their relative position in the Greek alphabet, for all 7 kingdoms and two kings names, will total 666 as well!! [The “e” in Nebekednesser is the Greek letter ETA.] No one has proposed a solution to Rev. l3:l8 (666) that generates this number simultaneously in two ways. Even though the canonical Book of Revelation is a product of the latter half of the lst century c.e. during the sovereignty of Imperial Rome, all the components of the riddles solution are based upon 6th century b.c. historical realities when the lst Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the armies of Nebekednesser under the command of Nebuzaradan. The Romans, under the comman! Date: 28 Jan 2010 Your Comments: REGARDING THE NUMERICAL VALUE TOTAL OF 888 … AND, 1697 found in book #l of THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES– IN THE 21 JAN 2010 ENTRY I MENTIONED THAT THE NUMERICAL VALUE TOTAL OF 888 FOR JESUS’ NAME SPELLED IN GREEK WASN’T FOUND ANYWHERE IN THE BIBLE. 888 IS BASED UPON THE GREEK SPELLING FOR JESUS, NAMELY, IOTA (10) + ETA (8) + SIGMA (200) + OMICRON (70) + UPSILON (400) + SIGMA (200) = 888. THERE IS ANOTHER NUMERICAL VALUE TOTAL IN THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES, BOOK #l, OF 1697 FOR SOME ARCANE/OCCULT NINE LETTERED NAME FOR THE HEAVENLY FATHER OF JESUS. THIS CONUNDRUM HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED!! THIS FACT GIVES TESTIMONY TO THE WORDS ATTRIBUTED TO JESUS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 8:54-56, NAMELY, “ALTHOUGH YOU CALL HIM GOD, YOU DON’T KNOW HIM.” I WISH TO PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING SOLUTION, NAMEY, “THEOCHRISTU”, THAT IS, THE GREEK LETTERS– |
Torah – Or “TaNaKh”, an acronym denoting these three sections: