The Aramaic Targums: Translation, Interpretation, and Paraphrase.
There are some out there who simply do not quite understand what the Aramaic Targumim are and what is included in their text. The Verb לתרגם means "to translate" in Hebrew. In some cases it can actually mean "To paraphrase" for the purpose of interpretation. From this verb comes the noun תרגום "translation" and מתרגם "Translator." This seems simple enough when looking simply at what the word means, but when we get to the actual Aramaic Targum we can see that this word can encompass more than we originally thought.
Certain people out in the counter-missionary world state that Aramaic Targumim are simply Midrashic interpretations of the actual biblical text. In a recent argument concerning the translation of the Aramaic word בר "son/son of" I came across a rather sad line of argumentation. I will cite and reference an article by counter-missionary author UriYosef and discuss why I disagree with his analysis that only ברא means "a son" and בר does not have that meaning.
VI. AN EXCURSION INTO THE ARAMAIC DOMAIN
As was noted in Section IV, the common Aramaic noun for son is בְּרָא , not .בָּר
Several applications of the Aramaic term בַּר are present throughout the Aramaic
portions of the Hebrew Bible, and these are shown in Table VI-1.
As is evident from Table VI-1, all (undisputed) applications of the Aramaic noun בַּר
in the Hebrew Bible show that the term is used in the possessive construct, son
of…, not as a free standing noun combined with the definite article, the son.
**(Note: I was unable to get the table fully imported due to formatting. I will fix this in the future, but for the time being, go to the link above and scroll down to the section noted for the table. please feel free to read Uri's article to see if I accurately represented his position.)**
Uri's Problem:
The first and foremost problem is that Uri limits his own playing field by claiming that "In the Hebrew Bible" not "in the Aramaic Language." This is a serious fallacious problem in that it takes only a narrow selection of the Aramaic language and does not fully encompass works written in Aramaic. I'm going to give at least two examples from the Aramaic Targumim that shows that בר can and does in fact mean "a son." Going into great detail about grammar is not necessary since this is not a linguistic analysis but simply a assertion of meaning in the Aramaic language.
Genesis 30:5 (Targum Onkelos)
וְעַדִּיאַת בִּלְהָה וִילִידַת לְיַעֲקֹב בָּר:
Translation:
"And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son."
Isaiah 9:5 (Targum Yonatan)
אַמַר נְבִיָא לְבֵית דָוִד אֲרֵי רָבֵי אִיתְיְלִיד לָנָא בַּר אִתְיְהַב לָנָא וְקַבֵּל אוֹרַיְתָא עֲלוֹהִי לְמַטְרָהּ וְאִתְקְרֵי שְמֵיהּ מִן קַדָם מַפְלִיא עֵצָה אֳלָהָא גִבָּרָא קַיָם לְעַלְמַיָא מְשִיחָא דִשְלָמָא יַסְגֵי עֲלָנָא בְּיוֹמוֹהִי
Translation:
"The Prophet said to the House of David, For a Child was born to us, to us a son was given; and he will accept the Torah upon himself to observe it, and his name shall be called before the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty G-d, who exists forever, "The anointed one in who's days peace will increase upon us."
I am by no means a rocket scientist but I think we can see plainly how בר is being used in each of these passages and what it clearly means.
The Claim of the targums being midrashic:
Uri has made the claim that these targumim are making midrashic interpretations of the text and that they are not actually translating anything in the text. Let's look at both the Hebrew and Aramaic text of each and let's see if we can determine what is in fact translation, paraphrase, and interpretation.
Isaiah 9:5:
The Hebrew reads:
כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַּד-לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְׂרָה עַל-שִׁכְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ פֶּלֶא יוֹעֵץ אֵל גִּבּוֹר אֲבִי-עַד שַׂר-שָׁלוֹם:
Translation:
For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us; and the government is upon his shoulders and his name was called wonderful counselor, mighty G-d, eternal father, a peaceful ruler. Targum Yonatan:
אַמַר נְבִיָא לְבֵית דָוִד אֲרֵי רָבֵי אִיתְיְלִיד לָנָא בַּר אִתְיְהַב לָנָא וְקַבֵּל אוֹרַיְתָא עֲלוֹהִי לְמַטְרָהּ וְאִתְקְרֵי שְמֵיהּ מִן קַדָם מַפְלִיא עֵצָה אֳלָהָא גִבָּרָא קַיָם לְעַלְמַיָא מְשִיחָא דִשְלָמָא יַסְגֵי עֲלָנָא בְּיוֹמוֹהִי
Translation:
"The Prophet said to the House of David, For a Child was born to us, to us a son was given; and he will accept the Torah upon himself to observe it, and his name shall be called before the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty G-d, who exists forever, "The anointed one in who's days peace will increase upon us."
Highlighted red are what we can consider to be paraphrasic and or interpretations within the text of Targum Yonatan to Isaiah 9:5 due to the fact that there is no correspondence with the Hebrew text. The remaining which remained black are what can be considered a translation in the real sense of the word in that it contains no exegetical glosses or paraphrasing of the text. To translate the remaining part of the Targum that is not paraphrasic or exegetical we have: "For a Child has been born to us, a son is given to us......His name shall be called.....wonderful counselor, the mighty G-d....."
Genesis 30:5 (Hebrew):
וַתַּהַר בִּלְהָה וַתֵּלֶד לְיַעֲקֹב בֵּן:
Translation:
"And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son"
Genesis 30:5 (Targum Onkelos):
וְעַדִּיאַת בִּלְהָה וִילִידַת לְיַעֲקֹב בָּר:
Translation:
"And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son"
The Targum Onkelos seems to exhibit zero paraphrase or interpretation of the verse in question. So there is no need to go into specifics here.
Conclusion:The Targum Onkelos seems to exhibit zero paraphrase or interpretation of the verse in question. So there is no need to go into specifics here.
Based on the evidence above we can see two things very clearly. One, that בר does indeed mean "a son" in the Aramaic Language as opposed to the claim made by UriYosef that it does not. Second, We can see that the Aramaic Targumim, while it can and does contain paraphrasic and exegetical readings, it does contain actual translation of the text which is also evidenced above. Now, it is up to you to decide on what is truth!
Shalom,
Yosef Menachem
