The Targum of Ruth and the Targum of Chronicles Translated, with Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes By D. R. Beattie and J. S. McIvor Michael Glazier, 1994, 243 pages ISBN 0-8146-5455-X

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - August 8, 2010

My reviews of the two volumes Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis have details about this 19 volume series presenting an English translation of the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. This is the last book of the series.

The translators, as I pointed out in my prior reviews, made many changes in the biblical text for many reasons. One of them is to explain their view of the Bible passages. Two examples in the book of Ruth are: (1) Did Ruth and her mother in law discuss Ruth converting to Judaism in chapter 1 of the volume or is the Bible simply stating that Ruth was saying she wanted to become a citizen of Naomi's country? Granted she says that she will accept Naomi's God, but this could mean, as many scholars think, that she was willing, as the ancients did to accept whatever god was the god of the area. (2) When Ruth lay down in chapter 3 with Boaz, did she have sex with him?

The translator changes the text in these sections greatly to tell his readers that Ruth had a long conversation with Naomi about converting to Judaism and she did not have sex with Boaz. The translator tells us that Ruth says explicitly "I desire to be a proselyte." Naomi explained to her that Judaism requires that she keep the Sabbath and holidays and she may not walk on these days "beyond two thousand cubits." Naomi also says that Judaism commands "not to lodge with gentiles," Jews "are commanded to keep 613 precepts," "not engage in idolatry," there are death penalties for some violations, and Jews have a separate cemetery. Ruth agrees to all of this. The translator may have imagined some conversion ceremony, but he does not mention anything beyond this discussion. However, it is possible that he felt that Ruth's statements were sufficient to make her Jewish.

He tells us that Boaz "restrained his desire and did not approach" Ruth, just as Joseph did with the Egyptian woman, as just as Paltiel did when he placed a sword between himself and King David's wife (a story not mentioned in the Bible).

• The Two Targums of Esther, by Bernard Grossfeld.
  Translated, with Apparatus and Notes.
  
  
• Targum Jonathan of the Former Prophets, by Daniel J. Harrington and Anthony J. Saldarini.
  The Aramaic Bible, Volume 10 -Introduction, Translation and Notes.