The Book of Lamentations & Its Targum

tglam19b-16aThis page has now been updated with sub pages that can be navigated using the links in the drop down menu. On those pages you will find my translation of TgLam and images of the Solger MS.

Introduction:
My short introduction to Lamentations for the Bible Briefs series is available in a lovely pdf from Virginia Theological Seminary and Forward Publishing. Free download here.

Thesis:
I have decided to make my doctoral thesis “Targum Lamentations’ Reading of the Book of Lamentations” available on the net as a pdf since, to the best of my knowledge, there is only one copy at the Bodleian (call number MS. D.Phil. c.15589) which is not the most convenient place for many. There are many things I would change (and did in my book) and there are probably a few errors that I never corrected and so on. I must recognize the assistance and direction given by my supervisors Dr. Philip Alexander and Dr. Alison Salvesen. Needless to say any errors, misstatements, and general silliness is my fault, not theirs.

So I hope the thesis is of some use. All I ask is that it be properly attributed.

Translation:
If you would just like to read my English translation of the text, please see the sub page on this blog here. You can download an “eSword” version of the text via this link.

Book:
My book on TgLam is available in many libraries, but you can also purchase it from Amazon: The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God (Studies in the Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture, 3)

Reviews of The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations by GrossfeldWesseliusBorobio, Ego, and Van Puersen.

Articles:
I am in the process of asking permission from publishers to make them all available at this site.

The Date, Provenance, and Sitz im Leben of Targum Lamentations,” in The Journal of the Aramaic Bible 1, (1999), 5-29.

The Role of the מדת דינא (midat dinah) in the Targumim,” in Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity, The Interpretation of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity, vol. 7, ed. Craig A. Evans, (Sheffield: Sheffield Press, 2000), 364-74.

Vindicating God,” in The Journal of the Aramaic Bible 3.1/2 (2001), 27-40.

Targum Lamentations 1:1-4: A Theological Prologue,” in Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translation and Interpretation in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke. In Studies in the Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture, vol. 2, (Leiden: Brill, 2002). (Also available via Google Books.)

The following entries in The Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of Scripture. Eds., Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Craig G. Bartholomew, Daniel J. Treier, and N. T. Wright, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic Press, 2005):

  • “Lamentations,” pp. 426-28.
  • “Targum,” pp. 780-81.

“The Use of ‘Eschatological Lists’ within the Targumim of the Megilloth,” in Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009), pp. 1-17.