text · B0037
Targum Yerushalmi (Pseudo-Yonatan) תרגום ירושלמי (המיוחס ליונתן)
The great aggadic Targum of the Torah — the Eretz Yisrael counterpart to Onkelos's Babylonian sobriety, carrying a library of midrash inside its translation. Printed under the wrong name for four centuries: the "Yonatan" of its title is a misread abbreviation for "Yerushalmi."
I. Who
- Hebrew
- תרגום ירושלמי (המיוחס ליונתן)
- Also known as
- Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Targum Yonatan on the Torah
- Era
- geonim
II. When
- Traditional
- the 'Targum Yerushalmi' of the rishonim; printed under Yonatan ben Uzziel's name from 1591
- Civil (computed)
- 4380–4560 AM · 620–800 CE
- Academic
- Eretz Yisrael targum tradition with a final redaction after the rise of Islam, c. 7th–8th c. CE or later
- Duration
- ≈180 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Language
- Aramaic
- Redaction
- Anonymous. The rishonim cite it as "Targum Yerushalmi" (ת"י); the ascription to Yonatan ben Uzziel arose when that abbreviation was misexpanded, and first appears in print in the Venice 1591 edition.
- Structure
- A complete Aramaic Torah (B0001) that is half translation, half running aggadah — far more expansive than Onkelos (B0004), weaving whole midrashic narratives into the verse.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Talmud knows no Targum of the Torah by Yonatan ben Uzziel — Megillah 3a assigns him the Prophets alone, and the same passage has the Torah's targum said by Onkelos; the rishonim cite this work as "Targum Yerushalmi." | rabbinic reconstruction | ★★★★☆ | |
| The ascription to Yonatan ben Uzziel is a late misexpansion of the abbreviation ת"י (Targum Yerushalmi), fixed in print by the Venice 1591 edition — hence the scholarly name "Pseudo-Jonathan." | reconstruction | ★★★★☆ | |
| The work's final redaction is post-Islamic: its rendering of Bereishit 21:21 names Yishmael's wives Adisha and Fatima — the names of Muhammad's wife and daughter — while much of its aggadic material is demonstrably ancient; scholars accordingly date the redaction between the 7th–8th centuries and (on some views) as late as the 12th, over an old Eretz-Yisrael targum core.
Dating is genuinely layered: ancient traditions, late redaction. Sefaria hosts the work under the traditional (mistaken) title "Targum Jonathan on Genesis" etc.
|
reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |
|