JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

(1975); W. McKane. Selected Christian Hebraists (1989); E. Ulrich, The
Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (1999).
[Franklin T. Harkins and Angela Kim Harkins (2nd ed.)]
Samaritan
The Samaritan Bible contains only the *Pentateuch. In many
Pentateuch manuscripts the Samaritan Hebrew text is accompanied
by a targum into Samaritan, a western Aramaic dialect.
Sometimes the targum was copied separately. Tal, who provided
the first reliable critical edition, dates the production of
the Samaritan targum to the middle of the third century. No
manuscripts survive from the time that Samaritan Aramaic
was a spoken language. As a result much of the ancient text
was corrupted by the penetration of Arabic, which replaced
Aramaic as the spoken language, and by Hebrew. Nonetheless,
several manuscripts preserve the older Samaritan Aramaic,
which is very close to that of the Palestinian targums.
The Samaritan targum is more literal than the Jewish targums
and usually has one Aramaic word for each Hebrew word.
Tal (1988) has shown, nonetheless, that subtle midrashic and
paraphrastic interpretations are to be found, especially when
it comes to apologizing for the actions of biblical heroes and
defaming unpopular characters like Esau and Nimrod, a penchant
it shares with Jewish midrash. The younger manuscripts
tend to be more paraphrastic than the older. Similarities between
the Samaritan targum and Onkelos are probably due the
late activity of learned Samaritan scribes (Tal 1989).
Bibliography: A. Tal, The Samaritan Targum of the Pentateuch,
3 vols. (1980–83); idem, in: Rabin (ed.) Bible Translation
(1984), 45–8; idem, in: Mulder (ed.), Mikra (1988), 189–216; idem, in:
A. Crown (ed.), The Samaritans (1989), 413–67; idem, in: JAB 1 (1999),
297–314; idem, A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (2000); R. Macuch,
Grammatik des Samaritanischen Aramäisch (1982); R. Anderson,
Encyclopedia of Religion, 13:33–6.
[S. David Sperling (2nd ed.)]
Syriac Aramaic: Peshitta and Other Versions
There is no unanimity as to the precise meaning of the term
“Peshitta” (pšyţtʾ), the Syriac Bible translation in use in the
Church of the East (“Nestorian”), the Syrian Orthodox (“Jacobite”)
Church, and the Maronite Church. Until the late
Middle Ages the Peshitta was also the Bible of the Byzantine
Syrian Malkite Church. The Peshitta comprises the Old Testament
(diatiqi atiqta), the New Testament (diatiqi ḥdata),
and the Apocrypha or deutero-canonical books (on the classification
of Syriac within the dialects of Late Aramaic see
S. Kaufman, ABD IV, 174–75). Once confined in the main to
Asia, Syriac-speaking churches that use the Peshitta are now
found in the United States and Europe as well. Grammatically,
the feminine form of the passive participle of the verb pešaţ,
“stretch out,” “extend,” “make straight,” “Peshitta” has been
taken to mean “simple,” as opposed to paraphrastic; “in common
use,” as against the Syro-Hexaplaric translation (see below)
and “monolingual edition.” (Unlike its Jewish-Aramaic
and Middle Hebrew cognate pšţ, the Syriac verb does not mean
bible
“explain.”) The Peshitta conforms closely to the Hebrew text
though it often makes additions for the sake of clarity. (For
translation techniques see Weitzman 1996.) Although this version
was used by the fourth-century scholars Aphrahat and
Ephraim the Syrian and Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428) the
name Peshitta was first used by Moses b. Kefa (d. 913) and
then in the 13th century by *Gregory Bar Hebraeus. Almost
every assertion regarding the authorship of the Peshitta and
the time and place of its origin is the subject of controversy
among scholars. Jacob of Edessa (eighth century) ascribes the
origin of the Peshitta to the efforts of Abgar, “the believing”
king of Edessa, and Addai the apostle, who are said to have
sent scholars to Palestine to translate the Bible into Syriac (cf.
Bar Hebraeus, Commentary to Ps. 10). However, this tradition
apparently conflates Abgar IX (179–216), who may have been
history’s first Christian king, with the first century Abgar V,
to whom later specious documents attributed epistolary correspondence
with Jesus. Addai the apostle is completely legendary.
J Other legendary traditions with no historical value
assign the work to the time of Solomon, and ascribe the translation
to an order of Hiram, king of Tyre, or to the priest Assa
(alternative: Asya) sent by an Assyrian king to Samaria (a legend
based on II Kings 17:27–28).
Although the Peshitta is the Bible of eastern Christians,
at least parts of it were known to medieval Jews. *Naḥmanides
in his introduction to Genesis cites and translates into Hebrew
a long passage that he had seen in a book he calls “The Great
Wisdom of Solomon,” which he refers to as ha-sefer ha-meturgam,
“the translated book.” The citation, in Syriac in Hebrew
characters, is essentially identical with a verse from Wisdom
of Solomon in Peshitta. This same scholar in his commentary
to Deuteronomy 21:14 cites a passage from Peshitta Judith 1:8
which he describes as being “in the Aramaic language.” As to
the origin of Peshitta’s Old Testament section, some scholars
argue for Jewish translators, others for Christian translators,
and still others for Jewish-Christians. The general contemporary
consensus that the Peshitta’s Old Testament section was
directly translated from the Hebrew indicates strongly that
the translators had a Jewish background. There are very few
obvious Christological elements. For example, the translation,
betulah, “virgin,” for Hebrew almah, “young woman,” in
Isaiah 8:14 in line with Matthew 1:23, “behold the virgin shall
conceive,” may be seen in the light of Biblical Hebrew betulah,
“virgin,” “young woman,” and Greek parthenos with the
same meanings. Even if virgo intacta is meant, Peshitta betulta
could be a late Christian adaptation (Vööbus 1958), as are the
superscriptions of certain Psalms. Evidence for Christian origins
has also been adduced from the indifference or negative
attitude of the translators to rabbinic and even Pentateuchal
legal norms relating to the calendar, sacrifice, and, possibly, the
dietary laws. This too is not conclusive. The last few decades of
new discoveries and refined scholarly methods have shown the
diversity in both Judaism and Christianity and the porousness
of the borders between the two religions. Weitzman (1999)
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