This paper will consider how the Targumist has transformed the character of Boaz from that found in the biblical text. There is no doubt that Boaz is a key player in the book of Ruth; without the male redeemer safety and security for Naomi and Ruth could not be ensured. But Boaz’s engagement is restricted to reacting to Ruth’s actions and directions. There are certain tropes and themes to be expected, Boaz is certainly presented as the pious patriarch, however it is the women, and more specifically the foreign woman Ruth, who are in complete control. As a character Boaz has more in common with Rachel or Leah than Jacob; he has certain key moments of dialogue that move the plot, but his primary function is to provide offspring.
The Targum, as we might expect, presents Boaz in a different light. In the Targum we find that Boaz is actually the judge Ibzan whose piety brings about the conclusion of the famine and the messianic dynasty. He has even received a prophecy from God that kings and prophets would descend from Ruth and is the model of rabbinic propriety. This figure who is marginally central in the biblical account now becomes the paragon of piety and the righteous judge.
International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) will have
its 6th congress. Person in Charge: Dr. Willem F. Smelik, President of IOTS. For more information of IOTS, see here.
Programme of IOTS
Wednesday 4 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 10
Keynote Lecture: Steven Fraade, Targum and Multilingualism in Late Antique Judaism and Jewish Society
Wednesday 4 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00)
Main Building Hall 10
Philology & Methodology
11:00 Shamma Friedman, The Dating of Targum Onqelos
11:30 Shai Heijmans, About the ‘Unreliability’ of the Vocalization of Western Targum-Manuscripts
12:00 Margaretha Folmer, Forms and Uses of the Demonstrative Pronouns in Targum Onqelos
12:30 James K. Aitken, Septuagint and Targum Studies: Historical and Methodological Relations
Wednesday 4 Aug, Session B (14:30–18:00)
Main Building Hall 10
Genre
14:30 Alex Samely, The Targums within a New Description of Jewish Text Structures in Antiquity
15:15 Robert Hayward, ‘Targum a Misnomer for Midrash’? A new typology of the Second Targum of Esther
Afternoon coffee break 16:00
16:30 Philip Alexander, ‘Translation and Midrash Completely Fused Together’? The Form of the Targums to Canticles, Lamentations and Eccleasiastes
17:15 Rocco Bernasconi, A Literary Analysis of the Genesis Apocryphon
Thursday 5 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 10
Keynote Lecture: Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch, Avoiding Anonymity in the Bible and Beyond
Thursday 5 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00),
Main Building Hall 10
Exegesis
11:00 Willem Smelik, Targum in Talmud
11:30 Beatrice Lawrence, Jethro and Jewish Identity in Targumic Interpretation
12:00 Chris Brady, The figure of Boaz in TgRuth
12:30 Craig Morrison, dyt[/dyt[and the World to Come in the Syriac New Testament and Targum Neophyti
Thursday 5 Aug, Session B (14:30–18:00),
Main Building Hall 10
Translation Strategies
14:30 Dmytro Tsolin, The Transformation of Poetical Lines of the Song at the Sea (Ex. 15:1–18, 21) in the Targum Onqelos
15:00 Bjørn Olav Kvam, Genesis 14 as Key-text for the Balaam Texts – A Case study of Text-immanent Exegesis in the Targumim
15:30 Gudrun Lier, Translation Techniques in Malachi according to Targum Jonathan
Afternoon coffee break 16:00
Identifying Targum
16:30 Paul Flesher, Identifying the Palestinian Targums: The Case of the Cairo Geniza Manuscripts
17:00 David Shepherd, Can Anything Targumic Come from Qumran? Revisiting Klaus Beyer’s ‘Targums’ of Tobit and Isaiah
17:30 Announcements: NTCS-website
Thursday 5 Aug, 18:00, Main Building Hall 10
IOTS Business Meeting
Friday 6 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 13
Keynote Lecture: Dineke Houtman, The Use of Paratextual Elements in Targum Research
Friday 6 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00), Main Building Hall 13
Manuscripts, Reception and Edition
11:00 Luis Díez Merino, A New Complete Aramaic Bible
11:30 Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman, ‘Christian’ Targums in a Targum edition?
12:00 Hector Patmore, The Italian Textual Tradition of Targum Jonathan
12:30 Hans Van Nes, “Rome” in Targum Jonathan and its European Reception
