Jonathan, and is in the dialect of Palestine.  The other Targums are not,

from the critical point of view, of such importance.

The Targums are followed by the Talmud, both in time and purpose.  The

word Talmud is equivalent to our word 'doctrine', and the object of the book

was to embody all that had previously been written in a series of rules, laws

and institutions governing the civil and religious life of Israel.

The Talmud consists of the Mishna and the Gemara.  These divisions are

explained by the fact that the Jews believed that, in addition to the written

law, Moses received an oral or spoken law, which they venerate as of equal

authority.  In the time of Christ, this tradition of the elders had taken a

place higher than the law itself.  Dr. Lightfoot writes:

'Whoso nameth the Talmud nameth all Judaism, and whoso nameth Mishna

and Gemara, he nameth all the Talmud ... The Talmud is divided into two

parts ... this is the Jews' Council of Trent, the foundation and

groundwork of their religion ... The Son of Hamlai saith, "Let a man

always part this life in three parts: a third part for the Scriptures,

a third part for Mishna, and a third part for Gemara".  The Mishna is

the "text", the Gemara the "completion", and together they are

considered final'.

It is not our present purpose to enlarge upon this work or to show its

bearing upon the doctrine of the New Testament.  For the moment we are only

passing in review those works of antiquity that provide means for checking

the text of the Hebrew Bible, and in spite of all the fables and complicated

reasonings that make the reading of the Talmud a weariness to the flesh, we

must gratefully include this monumental work among our valued witnesses.

We must now go back to an earlier time and review the labours of the

Sopherim, whose work dates back to the days of Nehemiah and Ezra.  The

Talmudic interpretation of Nehemiah 8:8 clearly explains the nature of their

labours.  The Sopherim were 'the Scribes', a name given to Ezra in Nehemiah

8:4.  The reader should read the whole of Nehemiah 8; space will only permit

a short quotation here:

'And Ezra opened the book ... so they read in the book in the law of

God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the

reading' (Neh. 8:5-8).

The Gemarists in the Jerusalem Talmud, referring to Nehemiah 8:8,

write: 'Whence came the custom of having an interpreter?  Rabbi Zeora, in the

name of Rabbi Hananeel, saith':

'From that place "They read in the book of the law" -- that meaneth the

reading (in the original tongue); "distinctly" -- that meaneth the

interpreting (the Chaldee paraphrase); "and gave the sense" -- that

meaneth the exposition (and the division of words, &c.); "and caused

them to understand the reading" -- that meaneth the Massoreth, or

points and accents (originally Hebrew was without vowel points)'.

The Sopherim in effect produced an Authorized Version, which it was the

business of the Massorites to preserve for all time.  The student who uses

The Companion Bible will be familiar with Appendices Nos. 31, 32 and 33,

where some of the labours of the Sopherim are recorded.