My reviews of the two volumes Targum Neofiti 1: Genesis and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis offers details about this 19 volume series presenting an English translation of the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. This is half of the fifth volume, 5B, which translates Pseudo-Jonathan.
As seen in the previous reviews, the Pseudo-Jonathan translator used his translations to read ideas into the biblical text that a plain reading does not disclose. The following are some examples.
He expands the Ten Commandments in chapter 5 to explain them.
Chapter 6 contains the legend that when the patriarch Jacob, also called Israel, was dying he feared that there might be "a defect among his sons. He called them and asked them: ‘Is there any guile in your hearts?' All of them replied as one and said to him: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.'" The original does not suggest that "Israel" is Jacob, but the entire Israelite people.
In 7:10, the translator adds a concept that is not explicit in the Torah. If the people do good works, they will have life in the world to come. He also says that wicked people will be paid for their good deeds while they are alive, but will not have the world to come. This seems to explain why good things happen to bad people.
Although not revealed in the Bible, the translator gives us Moses' date of birth and date of death in the final chapter of Deuteronomy along with an extensive eulogy.
Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of seventeen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides. The Orthodox Union (OU) and Yeshiva University publish weekly chapters of Drazin and Wagner's book Let's Study Onkelos on www.ou.org/torah and on www.yutorah@yutorah.org. His website is http://booksnthoughts.com.
The views expressed in this review/article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jewish Eye.
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