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International Targum Text Edition Project
ITTEP Press Release #1
September 2004
Paul V.M. Flesher, Director
The International Organization of Targumic Studies announces the formation of the International Targum Text Edition Project. The project’s purpose is to consolidate and analyze all textual information concerning the Jewish Targums (i.e., Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible) from the Rabbinic and Geonic periods. The initial goal of this project will be to bring together and coalate in digital format all Targum manuscripts for each book of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This will be followed by analysis of the manuscripts’ textual relationships, aspects of their language, textual history, and literary character. The project will take advantage of the flexibility and power that computers bring to text editing and, in that light, aims to reconceive the idea of an edited text and ultimately to make final works available in that form. Key results will not wait until the project’s completion, however, before being made available to the scholarly community. Databases and preliminary editions of each targum, as well as other tools, will be published via digital means (internet, cd-rom, etc.) when they reach a usable state.
One goal of the project is to treat the manuscripts to all targums according to a uniform set of standards, both from a text-critical perspective and from a digitial perspective. This will enhance their ease of use. To accomplish this, the large scale and long term character of this project requires a central Governing Board. The targums’ differences in character will require, by contrast, that the standards be applied slightly differently. The targums divideinto four groups which share common features. The labor for these groups will be undertaken by Section Committees, which will be chaired by Section Editors. The four sections are: the Targums to the Prophetic books, the Targums to the books of the Writings, Targum Onkelos to the Pentateuch, and the Palestinian Targums to the Pentateuch.
The Section Committees are now being organized and targum scholars are invited to contact Section Editors and/or Organizers if they are interested in taking part. The primary membership of the Section Committees will consist of those working on the relevent Targums. Scholars who wish to join this project should contact the appropriate editor or organizer: