Category:Prophets and Writings with Targum-Tafsir BL Or 2210-2211-2375

This category contains full images of a three-volume set of biblical codices. The three consecutive volumes contain Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, and Writings; all were produced by a single scribe. Each book of the Prophets and Writings (the second and third divisions of the three-part Hebrew Bible or Tanakh) is presented in a single, double or triple version: Minimally there is vocalized Hebrew accompanied by masoretic notes, but in most cases the Hebrew text is interspersed, verse by verse, with vocalized Aramaic Targum and/or Judeo-Arabic Tafsir.

This three-volume set is the best complete representative of the tradition of the Jews in Yemen for the Prophets and Writings with Targum and Tafsir. It is important for its accuracy and remarkable in its clarity and beauty. It is the masterpiece of its genre.

Introduction[edit]

The tradition of Targum and Tafsir[edit]

The Jews of Yemen transmitted all three divisions of the Hebrew Bible—Torah, Prophets, and Writings—along with Aramaic Targum and/or the Judeo-Arabic Tafsir by Sa`adia Ga'on for selected books. In the finest manuscripts that represent this tradition, the scribe copied the verses within a given biblical book sequentially either once, twice, or three times: A couple of books were copied in Hebrew alone, others were copied in Hebrew along with either Aramaic Targum or Arabic Tafsir, and still others were copied in Hebrew along with both Aramaic Targum and Arabic Tafsir. The parallel texts in three different languages appear in these manuscripts as follows:

1. The Hebrew text is vocalized with either Babylonian supralinear vocalization (especially in older manuscripts) or with Tiberian vocalization; in the latter case, the finest manuscripts also contain a full Tiberian masoretic rubric including notes and treatises. In some cases there is a combination of the Tiberian and Babylonian vocalizations.
2. The Aramaic Targum contains simple Babylonian supralinear vocalization.
3. The Tafsir is written in the traditional Hebrew letters of Judeo-Arabic.

The breakdown between Torah, Prophets, and Writings is as follows:

• Torah: The Yemenite Jewish tradition transmits both Targum and Tafsir in full along with the Hebrew.
• Prophets: There is Targum Jonathan on all of the books, and additional Tafsir on Isaiah.
• Writings: Here the tradition is eclectic, depending on the book.
  • The Five Megillot (Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Esther) contain both Targum and Tafsir.^[1]
  • The Three Poetic Books (Psalms, Job, Proverbs) and Daniel contain Tafsir in addition to the Hebrew, but no Targum.
  • The last two books (Ezra and Chronicles) have the Hebrew alone.

The Jews of Yemen are the only community in the world that continues the ancient custom to supplement each verse of the Torah, Haftarot and some other biblical books with Aramaic Targum when they are read aloud in the synagogue. This living tradition of vocalization for the Aramaic of the targums is unique, and manuscripts from Yemen are therefore crucial to the production of accurate, vocalized editions of Targum. The Yemenite Jewish tradition also holds the Tafsir of Sa`adia Ga'on in high regard made it part of regular study, thus preserving a living tradition for Judeo-Arabic translation of the Bible as well.

Terminology (Taj versus Parashah)[edit]

Taj: In earlier generations, the Jews of Yemen—like Jews who lived in other parts of the Islamic world—called a biblical codex containing the full masoretic apparatus of vocalization and notes (for the Torah, Prophets, Writings or the entire Hebrew Bible) a "Crown": Taj (תאג') in Judeo-Arabic or Keter (כתר) in Hebrew. It requires great expertise to render the biblical text along with its entire masoretic rubric with accuracy and clarity and in a pleasing aesthetic style. These scribal creations were therefore extremely valuable, and their honorific title Taj indicates that they were often the most precious physical possession of an individual or a community. In most cases the text is unaccompanied by translations or commentaries these full, masoretic biblical codices.

Parashah: Another type of biblical codex produced in Yemen included the Torah with translations (Targum/Tafsir), and sometimes also one or more commentaries, especially the commentary of Rashi. These were called Parashah (פרשה) by the Jews of Yemen, which indicates that they were meant as study companions to the weekly Torah reading or as guides to follow it. In many cases (especially in later manuscripts) the Targum/Tafsir are written alongside the Hebrew in a separate column; in other cases, the Targum/Tafsir is written after each Hebrew verse sequentially. The full masoretic rubric to the Hebrew biblical text is almost always lacking.

Change in terminology: In more recent generations, the descendants of Yemenite Jews have applied the term Taj to printed editions that combine Torah and Targum at a minimum, sometimes including Tafsir and other commentaries as well. This expansive use of the term goes back at least as far as the first printed edition of the Torah with Targum and Tafsir (Jerusalem, 1894-1901), which was entitled Taj. In these editions too the masoretic notes are usually dropped.^[2]

A few of the finest manuscripts from Yemen combine the chief characteristics of both Taj and Parashah: They provide a full masoretic rubric for the biblical verses in Hebrew, and further supply Aramaic Targum and/or Judeo-Arabic Tafsir sequentially after each verse. This combination results in very lengthy manuscripts that require a high degree of expertise and a tremendous amount of labor to produce. BL Or 2210, 2211, and 2375 together form an exemplary set of such codices. On the one hand, because they retain the masoretic apparatus in full they are close to Taj in the original sense. But on the other hand, since they are manuscripts of the Prophets and Writings rather than the Torah, the term Parashah seems not to apply to them. The term Taj in its modern sense certainly does.

The scribe, his children, and their biblical codices[edit]

This three-volume set of bibical codices containing the Prophets and Writings was copied by a Jewish scribe in Yemen, Benayah ben Sa'adyah ben Zekharyah ben Margaz of Sana’a, who completed the first two volumes in 1468 and 1475 respectively. It is reasonable to suggest that he completed the third volume in about 1480. All three manuscripts are found today in the British Library (=BL), where they are labeled as Or 2210, Or 2211, and Or 2375.^[3] For convenient browsing of the entire three-volume set, see here.

The scribe Benayah wrote many manuscripts during his productive period (1450-1483), and the overwhelming majority appear to have been masoretic biblical codices (without Targum or Tafsir). Several of his children (including his daughter Miriam) continued their father's work as scribes, and they too specialized mostly in masoretic biblical codices. The family as a whole is reputed to have written hundreds (!) of such manuscripts, of which some 33 survive. Their masoretic codices are fine representatives of the biblical text in Hebrew as transmitted by the Jews in Yemen, but they mostly lack Targum and Tafsir.^[4]

Some examples of our scribe's other work include several copies of the Torah (here [1469], here [1469-70], here [1470], and also in a two-volume set: volume 1, volume 2); Prophets (complete here in two volumes, and an additional volume of Former Prophets here [all of them penned in 1461]); Writings (here [1469-70]).

The scribe's eldest son, David, wrote a majestic Torah codex including haftarot with Targum Jonathan at the end (here [1485]), another copy of the Torah alone (here [1490]), and another copy with haftarot (here [1498]).

Another son, Joseph, produced copies of the Torah (here [1478], here with haftarot [1481], here [1508], and here); Prophets with Targum (here [1483], which contains Joshua, Judges, Jeremiah, Ezekiel); Writings (here [1485]).

Contents[edit]

The three codices by a single scribe form a complete set of the books of the Prophets and Writings in Hebrew, with additional Aramaic Targum and/or Judeo-Arabic Tafsir on most of the books.

The first volume (BL Or 2210) contains the Former Prophets (four biblical books). These are double versions in which each verse is copied twice, once in Hebrew and once as Aramaic Targum (Targum Jonathan). The books appear in the following order:

1. Joshua (with Targum Jonathan);
2. Judges (with Targum Jonathan);
3. Samuel (with Targum Jonathan);^[5]
4. Kings (with Targum Jonathan).^[5]

The second volume (BL Or 2211) contains the Latter Prophets (four biblical books). These too are double versions in which each verse is copied twice, once in Hebrew and once as Aramaic Targum (Targum Jonathan), expect for Isaiah which is a triple version (Hebrew, Targum, and Tafsir). The books appear in the following order:

1. Jeremiah (with Targum Jonathan);
2. Ezekiel (with Targum Jonathan);
3. Isaiah (with Targum Jonathan and Tafsir);
4. Twelve Prophets (with Targum Jonathan).^[6]

The third volume (BL Or 2375) contains the Writings (eleven biblical books). Some of these contain Targum and Tafsir in addition to the Hebrew, some of them contain Targum or Tafsir, and some of them have the Hebrew alone. The books appear in the following order:

1. Ruth (with Targum and Tafsir), followed by some midrash in Arabic;^[7]
2. Psalms (with Tafsir);
3. Job (with Tafsir);
4. Proverbs (with Tafsir);
5. Ecclesiastes (with Targum and Tafsir);
6. Song of Songs (with Targum and Tafsir);
7. Lamentations (with Targum and Tafsir), preceded by some midrash in Arabic;
8. Daniel (with Tafsir);
9. Esther (with Targum and Tafsir);^[8]
10. Ezra (Hebrew only).^[9]
11. Chronicles (Hebrew only).^[10]

This order of the books in the Prophets and Writings follows the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 14b) and Maimonides (Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah and a Torah Scroll 7:15).

Importance for the text and vocalization of the Targum[edit]

The text in the first two volumes (BL Or 2210 and 2211) is the basis for the editions of Targum Jonathan on the Prophets by Alexander Sperber (The Bible in Aramaic vols. 2-3) and by Menachem Cohen (Mikra'ot Gedolot ha-Keter).^[11] In addition, Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman, "An Electronic Edition of Targum Samuel", analyses the entire range of extant textual witnesses to Targum Jonathan on Samuel; she too highlights the important place of manuscripts by the Jews of Yemen as sources for a critical edition of the Targum,^[12] and of the important place of our manuscript (BL Or 2210) within that tradition.^[13]

Cohen argues that the living tradition of vocalization for the Targum by Yemenite Jews is the only reasonable basis for a vocalized edition of the Targum. Van Staalduine-Sulman observes that "the vocalisation stemma shows that the Yemenite tradition is not only very coherent in its consonantal tradition, but also in its vocalisation",^[14] and similarly concludes: "If the edition of Targum Samuel includes vocalisation, it is recommended to use the Yemenite or the Babylonian tradition, since these manuscripts have the most consistent vocalisation."^[15]

In addition to Targum Jonathan on the Prophets, Cohen also based the Targum in his volume for the Five Megillot on Yemenite manuscripts (which presumably include BL Or 2375).

Parallel codices[edit]

Many other codices were written in the Yemenite Jewish tradition that combines the Bible in Hebrew with Aramaic Targum and Judeo-Arabic Tafsir. These are needed in order to verify the text in our three-volume work, to help establish the the correct reading in difficult contexts and document important variants, and to supply a small amount of missing text in places where the work is slightly damaged.

The British Library holds the world's greatest collection of Yemenite Jewish biblical codices, and has graciously made them available to the public without restriction. Many of the codices described below are found in its holdings.

Parallel codices with Targum Jonathan on the Prophets[edit]

Van Staalduine-Sulman has analysed the extant textual witnesses to Targum Jonathan on Samuel. She notes at the outset of her discussion of the Yemenite tradition that in general it "shows such a strong internal coherence, in spite of the differences in age, that it is almost impossible to establish which manuscript is a direct or indirect Vorlage of which."^[16] She nevertheless created a stemma for the Yemenite tradition,^[17] in which our manuscript (BL Or 2210) occupies an important place as the only complete witness for the first of two subgroups within that tradition. Van Staalduine-Sulman designates our manuscript with the siglum Y711.

The second subgroup of manuscripts within the Yemenite tradition is larger. Several of the most important manuscripts that appear in Van Staalduine-Sulman's stemma for that subgroup are freely available online as high-quality scans. These can serve as textual parallels for verifying and determining not just the Targum on Samuel, but for the text of Targum Jonathan on the Prophets as a whole (i.e. as a small control group for editing BL Or 2210 and Or 2211 in their entirety).

Former Prophets:

1. BL Or 1472 (Samuel and Kings with Targum Jonathan). This manuscript is designated with the siglum Y710 in van Staalduine-Sulman's stemma, and it is the chief witness for the text of Samuel in the second subgroup.
2. BL Or 1471 (Former Prophets with Targum Jonathan). This manuscript is designated with the siglum Y727 in van Staalduine-Sulman's stemma. It is derived from Y710 (=BL Or 1472), and is therefore a useful representative of the second subgroup mainly for the books of the Former Prophets not contained in Y710 (namely Joshua and Judges).
3. State Library of Berlin, Germany Ms. Or. Qu. 578 contains Joshua and Judges with Targum Jonathan, written by Joseph ben Benayah (1483).

Complete Prophets:

1. BL Or 2371 (Former Prophets) and BL Or 1474 (Latter Prophets). These two volumes by the same scribe form a complete set of the Prophets. BL Or 2371 on the Former Prophets is designated with the siglum Y716 in van Staalduine-Sulman's stemma, and it is derived from Y727 (=BL Or 1471) according to that stemma. Its companion volume (BL Or 1474) is therefore a useful representative of the second subgroup for Targum Jonathan on the books of the Latter Prophets.

Further options to widen the control group for books of the Latter Prophets:

1. State Library of Berlin, Germany Ms. Or. Qu. 578 (see above, "Former Prophets") also contains Jeremiah and Ezekiel with Targum Jonathan.
2. BL Or 1473 (Jeremiah and Ezekiel), in which the biblical text and Targum are vocalized with superlinear Babylonian vowels.
3. Ezekiel and the Twelve Prophets, in which the biblical text and Targum are vocalized with superlinear Babylonian vowels.

Parallel codex with Tafsir on Isaiah[edit]

The manuscript BL Or 1474 (Latter Prophets) also contains Sa`adia Ga'on's Tafsir on Isaiah in a triple version (Hebrew-Aramaic-Arabic), just as is found in BL Or 2211.

Columbia University Libraries (catalogue) is a 17th century copy of the Tafsir on Isaiah.

Parallel codices with Targum and Tafsir on the Writings[edit]

As a full codex of the books of the Writings with Targum and Tafsir, BL Or 2375 is almost completely intact. In this it appears to be unique, because other manuscripts do not contain the books of the Writings in their entirety. Parallel codices are nevertheless important as a control group to verify and determine the text as a whole, as well as to recover a small amount of text at the beginning and the end that is lost.

Some parallel codices of the Writings[edit]

1. State Library Of Berlin, Ms. Or. fol. 1203 (1288) is a copy of Ketuvim with Tiberian vocalization and accompanied by Tafsir, verse by verse. The full volume is intact, but it strangely lacks Lamentations and Esther. Unlike BL Or 2375, it also lacks a masoretic rubric for the Hebrew and there is no Aramaic Targum.
2. BL Or 1302 contains Targum and Tafsir on the last half of Ruth (beginning at 2:13), Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs and most of Ecclesiastes. The vocalization is superlinear, even for the biblical text, which may indicate that this codex is earlier than BL Or 2375.
3. BL Or 1476 contains Targum and Tafsir on Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther (with Targum Sheni), as well as the Hebrew text of Ezra and Chronicles (complete until the very end).
4. Raphael Hai Melamed, The Targum to Canticles according to Six Yemen Mss. (Philadelphia, 1921), is a critical edition of the Targum to the Song of Songs which analyzes six Yemenite manuscripts and compares them to the textus receptus; see especially pp. 10-16 for a comparison of the manuscripts and a stemma which includes BL Or 1302, 1476 and 2375.

Alternatives for missing text at the beginning of Ruth[edit]

There is a small but significant loss at the beginning of BL Or 2375, where the text of the first half of Ruth is fragmentary. Even though the amount of damaged text is small (roughly 40 verses with some degree of damage), a person who wants to read Ruth along with its Targum and Tafsir is forced to choose a different Yemenite manuscript. Furthermore, any edition of Ruth with Targum and Tafsir must supply that missing text from other Yemenite sources; for all the other books of the Writings, BL Or 2375 is sufficient on its own.^[18]

Various sources for the missing text in Ruth are available:

1. For Tafsir, there is State Library Of Berlin, Ms. Or. fol. 1203 (see above #1).
2. For Targum, there are numerous copies of Yemenite "Three Megillot" manuscripts, which contain Song of Songs, Ruth and Ecclesiastes along with Targum and the commentary of Rashi. Most of these manuscripts are relatively late, yet the biblical text and Targum are transcribed with care. The Ktiv project lists dozens of typical copies. In one of them, Sa`adia Gaon's Tafsir was added in the margins by the uncle and grandfather of Rabbi Joseph Kafih. For convenient viewing and download of typical copies, see here and here (these two copies have Targum with Tiberian vocalization); here, here and here (Targum with Babylonian vocalization).
3. Rabbi Yosef Kafih's published edition of the Five Megillot from Yemenite manuscripts contains Targum and Tafsir and other commentaries.

The Torah with Targum and Tafsir[edit]

Unfortunately, our scribe's extant works do not include a codex of the Torah with Targum Onqelos and Tafsir. If he wrote such a codex, it has not survived.

A. Our scribe and other members of his family did write a number of codices of the Torah itself (without Targum Onqelos and Tafsir); for a list of these manuscripts see above.

B. The following are two convenient representatives of the Torah with Targum Onqelos and Tafsir in the tradition of the Jews of Yemen; both of them are complete, quite accurate overall, and visually suitable for reading:

1. An aesthetic, three-volume set of a Parashah (1655), which contains Targum and Tafsir alongside the text of the Torah (without masorah) and the commentary of Rashi below them;
2. the first published edition of the Taj (Jerusalem, 1894-1901), in which each verse of the Torah is followed by Targum Onkelos (with Tiberian vocalization) and Tafsir.

C. The following are two very early manuscripts of the Torah with Targum Onqelos from Yemen:

1. BL Or 2363 (complete);
2. BL Or 1467 (contains Leviticus through Deuteronomy).

D. Other manuscripts of the Torah with Targum and/or Tafsir:

1. Columbia University Libraries (catalogue), which includes the Torah with Tiberian vocalization for biblical verses (without masorah), Targum with superlinear vocalization, and Tafsir (1411).

E. Digital versions of Targum Onkelos and Tafsir:

1. A vocalized digital text of Targum Onqelos based upon the the first edition of the Taj (see above A), but further corrected using additional sources, may be found at Hebrew Wiksource.
2. A digital text of Tafsir on the Torah is available at Sefaria. The digital text is based on Joseph Derenbourg, Version Arabe du Pentateuque (Paris, 1893), which is itself an edition based upon Yemenite manuscripts.

References[edit]

1. ↑ The Targum of the five megillot is a highly expansive midrashic text, quite unlike Targum Onqelos on the Torah and Targum Jonathan on the Prophets. In his introductory comments about Targum Ruth, Rabbi Joseph Kafih mentions that it "only appears in codices written over the last 500 years, but not in those written earlier, which may indicate that Targum Ruth reached Yemen only in a later period" (Ḥamesh Megillot [Jerusalem, 1962], p. 135). The chronological point seems to be the case for the Targum of the five megillot in general (not just Ruth), and our codex which was written in the late 15th century seems to be one of the earliest examples of a codex written in Yemen with the Targum on these books. Rabbi Kafih also mentions that the Jews of Yemen did not ultimately adopt the custom to include the Targum for all five of these books when they are read in the synagogue. They did so for Song of Songs, Ruth, and Ecclesiastes, which is why we find many manuscripts from Yemen of the "Three Megillot" that include the Targum on these books (and usually Rashi's commentary as well). But the same thing is not true for Esther and Lamentations: "For Esther and Lamentations we did not print the Targum, because it is not our custom to translate them [into Aramaic when read in the synagogue]. In most manuscripts they did not copy [the Targum on Esther and Lamentations]. But in those few [manuscripts] in which it is found it is immeasurably more accurate and excellent than that [Targum] which is found in the printed editions" (p. 299). Our manuscript is one of those "in which it is found" on all five megillot, and perhaps the most important one. The volume of Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer on the Five Megillot chose to present a vocalized version of the Targum on these five books based on Yemenite manuscripts specifically, and presumably consulted our manuscript as well.
2. ↑ On the distinction between Taj and Parashah see Amram Qoraḥ, Sa`arat Teiman (Jerusalem, 1954), p. 97-98; cited in Parashah Meforashah (Bnei Brak, 2011), pp. 11-12.
3. ↑ The full bibliographical records for these three manuscripts are available at the British Library website: BL Or 2210, BL Or 2211, and BL Or 2375. For information about the datasets from which the PDF files on each individual book were assembled, see here (overall list of datasets), here (dataset for BL Or 2210-2211), and here (dataset for BL Or 2375).
4. ↑ For information about the family see here (Hebrew). Other biblical codices penned by other Jews in Yemen during the same period bear a striking resemblance to the ones produced by Benayah's family; see for instance this fully intact copy of the Torah [1478].
5. ↑ ^{a b} 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are a single book in the masoretic tradition ("Samuel"), as are 1 Kings and 2 Kings ("Kings").
6. ↑ The Twelve ("Minor") Prophets are counted as a single book in the masoretic tradition. The final folio is damaged and a small amount of text is missing (parts of Malachi 3:4-24). This bit of missing text can be supplied by BL Or 1474; see below. The missing text is not found in Yemenite texts containing Haftarot, since in the Yemenite tradition (unlike other communities) the end of Malachi is not read on Shabbat ha-Gadol.
7. ↑ The initial folios of Ruth are damaged in the codex, and some pages between them are missing (which contained Ruth 1:5-2:4 and 2:14-23). See below.
8. ↑ The Targum on Esther that appears in this manuscript is Targum Sheni ("Second Targum").
9. ↑ In the masoretic tradition, Ezra and Nehemiah are a single book called "Ezra".
10. ↑ 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles are a single book in the masoretic tradition ("Chronicles"). Note that the last two folios of Chronicles are missing (which contained 2 Chronicles 34:29-36:23). Immediately following Chronicles towards the end of the volume is a treatise on the cantillation of the Three Poetic Books in Judeo-Arabic (written in three columns in small print), and then at the very end a folio has been appended containing text from the Torah (Leviticus) with masoretic notes and Targum Onqelos. The two missing folios at the end of Chronicles are not critical. It is true that the Hebrew biblical text of the books of the Writings in BL Or 2375 is of significant value: Mordechai Breuer consulted it in his reconstruction of the parts of the Writings that are missing in the Aleppo Codex, as documented in The Biblical Text in the Jerusalem Crown Edition and its Sources in the Masora and Manuscripts (Jerusalem: Keren Ha-Masora, 2003). Our manuscript is listed there on p. 7, and is represented within the critical apparatus by the siglum ¹ב. But the entire book of Chronicles is intact in the Aleppo Codex (as is the entire book of Ruth, the beginning of which is fragmentary in BL Or 2375). The reverse is also true: All of the missing parts of the Aleppo Codex are found in full within BL Or 2375.
11. ↑ See Cohen's critical introduction, published at the end of the volume on Joshua and Judges (which was the first volume to appear in 1992).
12. ↑ See especially her conclusions and recommendations on pp. 45-47 (4.4): The place of Yemenite manuscripts in a critical edition ultimately depends, according to Van Staalduine-Sulman, on the type of edition that is sought.
13. ↑ See the stemma on pp. 28-29 (4.2.2).
14. ↑ See p. 20 (3.7). She further writes: "This must be due to a largely written tradition, since the stemma based on pure vocalisation also gives evidence of a consistent Yemenite family." However, the inference that a high level of internal coherence in the area of pure vocalization "must be due to a largely written tradition" is not conclusive. It may rather be due to the careful transmission of an oral liturgical tradition—since unlike other communities the Jews in Yemen read the Targum in the synagogue—much in the same way that the masoretes vocalized their manuscripts based on their own oral liturgical tradition with an extremely high level of coherence for "pure" vocalization, rather than by copying them. On this see Mordechai Breuer, The Aleppo Codex and the Accepted Text of the Bible (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1976), pp. 67, 91-94 (Hebrew).
15. ↑ Ibid., p. 21 (3.8).
16. ↑ Ibid., p. 28 (4.2.2).
17. ↑ Ibid., p. 29 (4.2.2).
18. ↑ There are also two folios missing at the end of Chronicles, but those contained only the biblical text which can be easily supplied from other Yemenite manuscripts.

BL Or 2210, 2211, 2375 (full scans)[edit]

Convenient browsing of all three full volumes may be found at Internet Archive:

1. Prophets and Writings (BL Or 2210-2211-2375) (all three volumes sequentially, in order to facilitate browsing and study).
2. Former Prophets (BL Or 2210)
3. Latter Prophets (BL Or 2211)
4. Writings (BL Or 2375)