Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

peated as such, and eventually they recognized and described it explicitly

as such.

Early Translations: Aramaic and Greek

Another possible indication that the Torah was considered authoritative

Scripture before the middle of the Second Temple period is the translation

of those texts into the vernacular languages. TheIliadand theOdyssey,de-

spite their central cultural importance when the Romans took over the

Greek culture, were apparently never translated into Latin in antiquity. A

summary of theIliadis attributed to Baebius Italicus in Nero’s time, but it

is a brief (only 1,070 hexameters) pedestrian version of the majestic origi-

nal. By contrast with the Homeric poems, which were not translated, the

Torah was translated in subsequent centuries into languages that the peo-

ple could understand. The texts were important not only for the educated

and cultured, and spoke not only of the past; they were central to the on-

going life of the whole community and had to be applicable to the future

situations that the people might encounter. So the Scriptures were trans-

lated into Aramaic and Greek, the respective languages of the Persian Em-

pire and the Jewish community in Babylon, and of the Hellenistic Empire

and the Jewish community in Alexandria.

The Babylonian destruction and exile caused many fractures in Israel’s

life, including that of language. Aramaic was the imperial language of the

Persian Empire, and Greek the language that the successors of Alexander

attempted to impose upon their conquered territories. Though there was

resistance to Greek culture, an increasing number of Jews became Aramaic

or Greek speakers, creating a need for translations. Because the texts were

important for community identity and had to be applicable to the future

situations and foreign surroundings in which the Jewish people would

find themselves in the Diaspora, the Scriptures were translated into lan-

guages that the people could understand.

There is no early evidence, but it seems likely that by the third century

b.c.e.the Jewish community in Babylon had begun to translate the Torah

and possibly also prophetic books into Aramaic. We do not know whether

these were complete, written translations or oral, functional explanations

of the Hebrew. The latter scene is mirrored in Neh. 8:8, narrated probably

in the fourth century: accompanying a public reading from the Hebrew

scroll, the Levites translated it and gave the sense, so that the people could

127

The Jewish Scriptures: Texts, Versions, Canons

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:57 PM