At the 2024 meeting in Amsterdam, a new Executive Committee was elected.
Executive Committee – 2024-2027
President David Shepherd, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Vice President Christian Brady, University of Kentucky, United States
Secretary-Treasurer Leeor Gottlieb, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
At-Large Members Viktor Ber, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic Margaretha Folmer, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands Laura Lieber, Duke University, UK Gavin McDowell, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes, France Hector Patmore, Cardiff University, UK Shlomi Efrati, KULeuven, Belgium
Editor, Newsletter for Targumic and Cognate Studies Jeroen Verrijssen, KULeuven, Belgium
Apologies from the Editor: I had intended to post this quite literally years ago. Just before the outbreak of COVID, this product was announced and demonstrated. Dr. Leeor Gottleib of Bar-Ilan University created the Equivalent Project which resulted in this incredible new(ish) tool for Accordance. This is from their blog post in January 2020.
Newly available with the release of Accordance Version 13.0.3, the Targums WordMap database is the product of the Equivalent Project – a research initiative headed by Dr. Leeor Gottlieb of Bar-Ilan University – which strives to identify and link the contents of ancient biblical translations back to their equivalents in the Hebrew Bible, thus creating a comprehensive synopsis and thesaurus of equivalents of the ancient translations of the Bible.
Utilizing Accordance Software’s Targums texts, (the most advanced digital Targum editions available with morphological tagging), the Targums WordMap provides users with powerful and previously unavailable cross-textual search capabilities. For example, a user can easily search for any word in the Hebrew Bible and create a comprehensive list of equivalent translations in the Targums. The results could also be narrowed by specifying which Targum texts to include in the search. Users can also create a detailed synopsis of the texts with precise alignment of all words and their equivalents.
For example, here you can see the comparison of the various versions of Genesis 3:15. Some versions are quite a bit long, so the line has to wrap, but here in one pane you can see all the Targumic versions aligned and in comparison to one another. It is an incredibly powerful tool and we are grateful to Dr. Gottlieb’s incredible and continuing work on this project and Accordance for making the tool available.
Follow the links above or check out the YouTube video below, demonstrating the tool.
11th International Organization for Targumic Studies
Call for Papers
It is a pleasure for the executive committee of the International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) to invite you to the eleventh IOTS meeting that will be held in connection with the international SBL conference: 28 July—1 August 2024. The conference will be held in the buildings of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The IOTS meeting hopes to include at least the topics
Manuscript traditions of the Targums
The role of the Targums in Biblical Studies
The relationship between Targum Onkelos and Targum Jonathan
The relationship between the Pentateuchal Targums
but papers on other topics within Targumic or Aramaic studies are also welcome.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words can be sent to Prof. Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman (e.van.staalduine-sulman@vu.nl) before 1 March 2024.
Given the situation in Europe, it seems that the SBL conference in Salzburg will take place without restrictions and that we as IOTS can physically join it. We look forward to meeting you again after four years or longer.
The deadline of the Call for Papers, March 1st of this year, is approaching and we have received very interesting proposals. There is, however, room for more papers on Targums and Aramaic. Feel free to send in your proposal to e.van.staalduine-sulman@vu.nl.
It is a pleasure for the executive committee of the International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) to invite you to the IOTS conference, connected to the international SBL conference on 17-21 July 2022 in Salzburg. The conference will accept proposals on the following topics:
Targums of the Tora
Targum and Qumran
Targum Studies: Past and Present
but papers on other related topics are also welcome. Abstracts of no more than 300 words can be sent to Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman (e.van.staalduine-sulman@vu.nl) before 1 March 2022.
Contrary to what we previously hoped for, the measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus have become increasingly strict, in the Netherlands as well as in other countries around the world. As we don’t know how long these restrictions will last, we have come to the conclusion that, much to our regret, we must cancel the IOTS conference scheduled for July this year. We will hopefully meet each other at the IOTS / IOSOT meeting in Zurich in 2022. Stay healthy!
Kind regards, Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman Margaretha Folmer
It is a pleasure for the executive committee of the International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) to invite you to the IOTS conference on 6-8 July 2020 at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The conference will know at least three topics,
Targums of the Tora
Targum and Peshitta
Targum and Qumran
but papers on other related topics are also welcome. Abstracts of no more than 300 words can be sent to Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman (e.van.staalduine-sulman@vu.nl) before 1 March 2020.
This past week I received word from Paul Flesher that Derek Beattie died on Saturday, 31 August at his home in Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire. He was 73 years old. His son has said that plans for the funeral are still in process, but it is likely to be on 13th September.
One of my great regrets now will always be that I was unable to meet Derek in person. We corresponded quite a bit while I was working on Targum Ruth and Derek was incredibly gracious to me. The Book of Ruth and its rabbinic interpretation, especially the Targum, was a subject he knew more about than perhaps any person living. It began with his doctoral work (see Jewish Exegesis of the Book of Ruth) and continued right until the end. In the last few years I know that the had been hoping to complete his commentary on Targum Ruth.
Derek always kindly responded to my emails, offering corrections and suggestions on my work, and was even willing to make his critical edition of Targum Ruth available to me for publication. (In the end I simply provided a transcription of the base manuscript, but his work was often referenced in my volume.) I am so grateful to have corresponded with him and only wish I had truly gotten to know him.
His faculty page at Queen’s University Belfast, where he was a longtime faculty member, has this bio.
Derek read Hebrew and Semitic (formerly Oriental) Languages at Trinity College, Dublin, in the heyday of Jacob Weingreen’s Honor School, then migrated to St Andrews where he took his PhD under the supervision of William McKane. After a brief period as a lecturer in the University of Aberdeen he was appointed to a lectureship in Semitic Studies at Queen’s University Belfast in 1973 and was head of the Department of Semitic Studies from 1985 until its absorption in the school of Greek, Roman & Semitic [subsequently Byzantine] Studies.
As a very meagre memento, below is the bibliography that I have of Derek’s work. I am certain it is incomplete and welcome additions from readers.
Bibliography
Derek Beattie
Beattie, D R G. “Kethibh and Qere in Ruth IV 5.” Vetus Testamentum21, no. 4 (1971): 490-494.
Beattie, D R G. “The Book of Ruth as Evidence for Israelite Legal Practice.” Vetus Testamentum24, no. 3 (1974): 251-267.
Beattie, D R G, Jewish Exegesis of the Book of Ruth.Sheffield: Sheffield University, 1977.
Beattie, D R G. “Midrashic Gloss in Ruth 2:7.” Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft89 (1977): 122-124.
Beattie, D R G. “Redemption in Ruth, and Related Matters: A Response to Jack M. Sasson.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament5 (1978): 65-68.
Beattie, D R G. “Ruth III.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament5, no. 39-48 (1978): 39-48.
Beattie, D R G. “The Targum of Ruth: A Sectarian Composition?”. Journal of Jewish Studies36, no. 2 (1985): 222-229.
Beattie, D R G. “The Targum of Ruth – 18 Years On.” Hermathena (1985): 57-61.
Beattie, D R G. “Towards dating the Targum of Ruth,” in Word in Season. Sheffield, JSOT Press, 1986, 205-221.
Beattie, D R G. “Ancient Elements in the Targum to Ruth,” Pages 159-165 in Proceedings of the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 4-12, 1985. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1986.
Beattie, D R G. “Ruth 2:7 and midrash.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 99 (1987): 22-423.
Beattie, D R G. “The Yemenite Tradition of Targum Ruth.” Journal of Jewish Studies41, no. 1 (1990): 49-55.
Beattie, D R G. “The Textual Tradition of Targum Ruth,” in Aramaic Bible(Sheffield, JSOT Pr), 1994, 340-348.
Beattie, D R G, The Targum of Ruth.Vol. 19. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1994.
Beattie, D R G. “Baldrick and Blackadder revive an ancient exegetical question relating to Ruth.” Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations9 (2000).
Beattie, D R G. “The Targum Ruth: A Preliminary Edition,” Pages 231-290 in Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translations and Interpretations in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke. Edited by Paul VM Flesher. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Beattie, D R G and P R Davies. “What Does Hebrew Mean?”. Journal of Semitic Studies56, no. 1 (2011): 71-83.
Beattie, D R G and M J McNamara, The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context.Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press / JSOT Press, 1994.
Conference Programme: Targum Studies in London, IOTS 2018
In consultation with the Institute of Jewish Studies, the International Organization for Targumic Studies announces a summer meeting at University College London, 9-12 July 2018 (the conference will start with an evening lecture on July 9th). The full programme can be found and downloaded here: http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/hebrew-jewish-research-blog/2018/04/15/targum-studies-in-london-iots-2018/
The focus of this meeting will be on two related issues:
The Aramaic dialects within their Late Antique environment The development of the Targums within their wider interpretative milieu.
The study of the local influences on the dialect of Onqelos and Jonathan, long considered to represent a direct development of Middle Aramaic, and sometimes held to reflect little to no signs of any specific provenance (Western, Eastern, Central Aramaic), is attracting renewed attention, which warrants the re-opening of the question about these Targums’ dialect and provenance.
Moreover, the provenance and integrity of the dialect of the Late Targums remains unsolved. These days their Aramaic is considered a learned, written dialect divested from a vernacular basis, but despite arguments of a considerable Syriac influence, its provenance is as yet unclear.
At the literary and exegetical level, the milieu of composition and transmission raises questions about the meaning of parallels between targumic and non-targumic exegesis. Exactly how does targumic exegesis relate to its rabbinic parallels? What are the differences in terms of contents, context, presentation, and narrative arc? The mere observation that parallels exist does not analyse the relationship at a level that is anywhere near profound enough to be meaningful.
Beyond the old questions of literary dependence, we still need to establish whether targumic exegesis reflects signs of a non-rabbinic, late rabbinic or other specific local environment. In spite of the evidently close connection between targumic and rabbinic exegesis, questions linger about the precise relationship between the Targums and the rabbinic milieu, whether in Roman Palestine, Babylonia or Jewish communities elsewhere, and the wider society in which they took shape and to which they inevitably responded. This conference seeks to address these questions and many more.
9th International Meeting
International Organization for Targum Studies (IOTS)
July 9-11, 2018, University College London
NB: The meeting will start in the evening of July 9th.
CALL FOR PAPERS We are pleased to announce a call for papers related to Targum and Cognate Studies. We particularly invite paper proposals with a thematic focus on one of two closely related and increasingly topical aspects of the contents and language of the Targums:
The Aramaic dialects within their Late Antique environment; The development of the Targums within their wider interpretative milieu.
In keeping with former IOTS meetings, we also issue an open call for paper proposals by scholars who wish to present their research on any topic in the field of Targum Studies.
The Aramaic dialects within their Late Antique environment The study of the local influences on the dialect of Onqelos and Jonathan, long considered to represent a direct development of Middle Aramaic, and sometimes held to reflect little to no signs of any specific provenance (Western, Eastern, Central Aramaic), is attracting renewed attention, which warrants the re-opening of the question about these Targums’ dialect and provenance. Moreover, the provenance and integrity of the dialect of the Late Targums remains unsolved. These days their Aramaic is considered a learned, written dialect divested from a vernacular basis, but despite arguments of a considerable Syriac influence, its provenance is as yet unclear.
The development of the Targums within their wider interpretative milieu At the literary and exegetical level, the milieu of composition and transmission raises questions about the meaning of parallels between targumic and non-targumic exegesis. Exactly how does targumic exegesis relate to its rabbinic parallels? What are the differences in terms of contents, context, presentation, and narrative arc? The mere observation that parallels exist does not analyse the relationship at a level that is anywhere near profound enough to be meaningful.
Beyond the old questions of literary dependence, we still need to establish whether targumic exegesis reflects signs of a non-rabbinic, late rabbinic or other specific local environment. In spite of the evidently close connection between targumic and rabbinic exegesis, questions linger about the precise relationship between the Targums and the rabbinic milieu, whether in Roman Palestine, Babylonia or Jewish communities elsewhere, and the wider society in which they took shape and to which they inevitably responded.
Location and hospitality
The conference will be organized under the auspices of the IOTS by the Institute for Jewish Studies (IJS) at University College London. Hospitality will be available via the IJS at the Tavistock Hotel in Bloomsbury, for £85 a person a night; please contact the IOTS at the address below. To take advantage of this discounted price, early reservations via our organization are recommended. Details to follow.
How to submit paper proposals
Papers should be of twenty-minutes length, allowing ten additional minutes for discussion. All proposals should include title, speaker, academic affiliation, and a short abstract of 200- 250 words. This call for papers will remain open until 31 December 2017. Please send your proposal to: Professor Willem Smelik, Email: willem.smelik@ucl.ac.uk; postal address (until May 1, 2018): 17 Gray Street, #3, Cambridge MA, 02138 USA.
