[Avodah] Targumim from Sinai

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 02:21:18PM -0400, Zev Sero answered R Simon
> Montague:
> : >1) Is there an earlier source?
> 
> : The gemara in Megillah takes it back at least as far as Ezra.
> 
> Isn't this an echoing of the shitah that the Torah was regiven in
> Ashuris and Aramis in the days of Ezra, but was originally given
> to Moshe in Ivri and LhQ (Sanhedrin 21b)?

I don't see any reason to suppose so.  The pasuk which is the basis
for the gemara in Megillah is not cited in Sanhedrin, so why should
they be related?   Moshe explained the Torah in 70 languages, and I
see no reason to suppose that Unkelus was not (at least based on)
the Aramaic version.  (I assume Aramaic evolved somewhat in the
1400-odd years between Moshe and Unkelus, and that Unkelus wrote in
contemporary language.  Being a prince, he would have had a good
education and would have spoken an "Oxford" Aramaic.)




> I also find a meta-issue interesting. When it comes to halakhah, we
> would assume it's a machloqes.

Not if we didn't have to.  It's a basic rule of interpreting gemara
that we don't multiply machlokes.   Sort of like Ockham's Law.


> :> 3) Does it include Yonatan BU and Yerushalmi, or only Onkelos?
> 
> : If by Targum YBU you mean on Nevi'im, then quite possibly..
> 
> Since Nakh is not miSinai, how can a targum on them be? 

Good point.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher