[Avodah] Targumim from Sinai

[Zev Sero]

Simon Montagu wrote:
> RSBA reminded me in an Areivim thread that the Targumim are from
> Sinai. This surprised me at first, because my memory was that at most
> they are described as "beRuahh hakodesh", but I was wrong: the Taz on
> SA OH 285 SK 2 explicitly says "hatargum yesh lo ma`ala she-nittan
> besinai".
> 
> I have a number of questions on this.
> 
> 1) Is there an earlier source?

The gemara in Megillah takes it back at least as far as Ezra.
Also see Rashi Devarim 1:5.


> 2) How can this be reconciled with the gemara in Megilla? I can
> imagine one possibility: the targum was given as part of TBSP and
> Onkelos was the first to write it down. IMHO this fits well with the
> phrasing "amaro mipi RE veRY", but does anyone say so?

What's the problem from the gemara in Megillah?  That gemara
explicitly says that the targum goes back *at least* as far as Ezra,
but doesn't say that Ezra invented it.


> 3) Does it include Yonatan BU and Yerushalmi, or only Onkelos?

If by Targum YBU you mean on Nevi'im, then quite possibly.  Targum
Yerushalmi, OTOH, including the version on the Torah that is published
under the false name of "YBU" ("pseudo-Jonathan"), seems to have been
unknown to the authors of this gemara in Megillah, so it probably
postdates them.

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