Aramaic Targums

This term refers to ancient Jewish translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic.​—See ARAMAIC.

The Aramaic word targum means “interpretation” or “translation.” Targums were originally part of Jewish oral tradition and were later put into writing. The writers of the Targums added interpretive information in their translations of the original Hebrew text. For example, at Job 38:7, “the sons of God” is explained to mean “the bands of the angels.”

Targums exist for all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures except Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. The earliest known copies of the Targums are two fragments of Leviticus that were found at Qumran and that have been dated to the second or first century B.C.E.

At times, the Targums reveal how the early Jewish interpreters understood the Hebrew text. Therefore, modern Bible translators use the Targums to help them determine the meaning of difficult passages in the Hebrew Scriptures.​—See App. A3.