Translation, Translation Technique, and the Psalm Superscriptions of the Aramaic Targum

Abstract

The Jewish Quarterly Review (Fall 2020) Copyright © 2020 Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. All rights reserved. T H E J E W I S H Q U A R T E R LY R E V I E W, Vol. 110, No. 4 (Fall 2020) 621–651 A RTICLE S Translation, Translation Technique, and the Psalm Superscriptions of the Aramaic Targum ABRAHAM J. BERKOVITZ THE PSALTER PROV IDE S a distinctive vista into the history of late antique biblical reception.1 Jews and Christians cited the book of Psalms more often than other biblical texts and suffused their exegesis, polemic, liturgy, and piety with citations from the Psalter.2 Thus, the reception history of the Psalms offers a microcosm of the religious world of Late Antiquity. In order fully to appreciate its story, however, we must pay attention to the ways that ancient readers engaged with the Psalter’s most enigmatic feature: the superscriptions that adorn almost ­ every psalm.3­These titles provide a special challenge for interpreters. They are usually short and sometimes repetitive, and they very often contain distinctive terminology found nowhere ­ else in Scripture. The serious attempt by ancient readers to render psalm superscriptions comprehensible offers us a win­ dow I owe thanks to Prof. Gary Rendsburg for commenting on an earlier draft of this essay. 1. Some recent works include John F. A. Sawyer, “The Psalms in Judaism and Chris­ tian­ ity: A Reception History Perspective,” in Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms, ed. S. E. Gillingham (Oxford, 2013), 134–43; Susan E. Gillingham, “The Reception of Psalm 137 in Jewish and Christian Traditions,” in Jewish and Christian Approaches to the Psalms: Conflict and Convergence, ed. S. E. Gillingham (Oxford, 2013), 64–82; Gillingham, A Journey of Two Psalms: The Reception of Psalms 1 and 2 in Jewish and Christian Tradition (Oxford, 2014); William P. Brown, ed., The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms (New York, 2014), 253–310; and see the essays in Peter W. Flint et al., eds., The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception (Leiden, 2005), 443–579. 2. For a thorough analy­ sis, see Abraham J. Berkovitz, “The Life of Psalms in Late Antiquity” (Ph.D. diss., Prince­ ton University, 2018). 3. On the genesis of ­ these superscriptions, see Brevard S. Childs, “Psalm Titles and Midrashic Exegesis,” Journal of Semitic Studies 16.2 (1971): 137–50; Elieser Slomovic , “­ Toward an Understanding of the Formation of Historical Titles in the Book of Psalms,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 91.3 (1979): 350–80. 622 JQR 110.4 (2020) through which to gaze upon the under­ lying mechanics of meaning production in biblical interpretation. This essay ­ will reconstruct the exegetical practices of one type of reader: a translator. A translator, unlike a homilist, cannot easily ignore the base text from which he works.4 Superscriptions, therefore, must be made legible. How the Greek and Syriac traditions rendered psalm titles has been studied in depth.5 The Aramaic targum, however, has not.6 This essay ­ will thus fill in a missing chapter in the history of psalm reception by providing a systematic and detailed analy­ sis of exactly how Targum Psalms rendered each Hebrew superscription into Aramaic. In the course of ­ doing so, it ­ will bring to light vari­ ous characteristics of the targum, such as the tools the targumist used to translate, the connection between the title of a psalm and its body, and the targum’s relationship to the larger world of rabbinic tradition. 4. See Moshe J. Bern­ stein, “A Jewish Reading of Psalms: Some Observations on the Method of the Aramaic Targum,” in The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception, ed. P. W. Flint et al. (Leiden, 2005), 480–81. 5. See the works of Albert Pietersma, “Exegesis and Liturgy in the Superscriptions of the Greek Psalter,” in Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Organ­ ization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies Oslo July–August, 1998, ed. B. A. Taylor (Atlanta, 2001), 99–138; Albert Pietersma, “Septuagintal Exegesis and the Superscriptions of the Greek Psalter,” in The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception, ed. P. W. Flint et al. (Leiden, 2005), 443–75; Harry van Rooy...