Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
Western targum of the Torah
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (also known as the Jerusalem Targum, Targum Yerushalmi, or Targum Jonathan) is an Aramaic translation and interpretation (targum) of the Torah (Pentateuch) traditionally thought to have originated from the land of Israel, although more recently a provenance in 12th-century Italy has been proposed.
As a targum, it is not just a translation but incorporates aggadic material collected from various sources as late as the Midrash Rabbah as well as earlier material from the Talmud. So it is a combination of a commentary and a translation. It is also a composite text, involving the Old Judean Targum, Targum Onkelos, and a diverse array of other material.
It is not to be confused with "Targum Jonathan".
Name
The original name of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan was Targum Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Targum). However, due to an error in the fourteenth century, it came to be known as the Targum "Jonathan" instead of "Jerusalem" in reference to Jonathan ben Uzziel. Due to the pseudonymous nature of this attribution, it is now also referred to as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, although this is variously abbreviated as TPsJ or TgPsJ. There are editions of the Pentateuch that continue to call it Targum Jonathan to this day.
Authorship
The Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 3a, relates that Jonathan ben Uzziel, a student of Hillel the Elder, fashioned an Aramaic translation of the Nevi'im. It makes no mention of any translation by him of the Torah.
The public source identifies “Targum Pseudo-Jonathan” as western targum of the Torah. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Targum, Pseudo-Jonathan and Western.
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This entry incorporates text from “Targum Pseudo-Jonathan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.