Literary Approaches to the Aramaic Bible

This article explores how Jewish Aramaic translators of the Hebrew Bible (targumists) employ the following features of literary art: word-motif (Leitwort) chiasm, inclusio, paronomasia, and polysemy. It draws upon the field of literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible and argues that the Aramaic translators of the biblical text possessed an understanding of biblical style as a whole. More importantly, it shows that these translators creatively deployed literary devices for ends that go beyond replicating the sounds and rhythms of a specific biblical passage. Translators, like scribes and poets, were creative technicians of ancient literary art. The products of their effort must be understood as translations, but they can also be analyzed in their own right as works of (Bible-style) literature. This article focuses on the targum to the Former Prophets and more intensively on the targum to Isaiah.