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Incorrectly attributed to Jonathan ben Uzziel, this Targum, part of the Palestinian Targums, has been call Pseudo-Jonathan to rectify this mistaken identification. Pseudo-Jonathan provides us with a translation of almost every verse of the Pentateuch. Unique from other Targums of the Pentateuch in many ways, this Targum is also very much a composite work, but one composed with skill and initiative.

The Targum of Ezekiel, when critically analyzed, offers a vivid insight into an area of Jewish theological speculation stretching far back into the history of Jewish religious thought. The complexity of the document, however, compounded by a difficult Masoretic text, abundant grammatical and syntactical problems, and an infusion of strange language and linguistic peculiarities, challenges the most incisive biblical analysts. Like the Book of Ezekiel, it poses literary, exegetical, and theological problems.The Targum belongs to the same genre as the other official Targumim, designated in Jewish Tradition as Onqelos on the Pentateuch and Jonathan on the Prophets. Its language, basically Palestinian Aramaic, was revised and edited in Babylon; its vocabulary, idiom, grammatical form, and rendering of the Hebrew text are essentially the same as we find in the official Targumim on the other books. But beyond this, the Targum of Ezekiel has some peculiarities distinctly its own.

The Book of Exodus speaks of central events in Jewish self-understanding: the Exodus from Egypt, the covenant with Moses, and the giving of the Law. It is part narrative, part religious law. This translation of the Palestinian Targums of Exodus will assist in understanding this biblical book which is, in itself, an elaborate redaction of the Jewish faith.

The importance of Leviticus for the Jews of the post-biblical period cannot be exaggerated. Leviticus contains laws which regulated almost all aspects of communal and individual life. These targums shed light on how Leviticus was understood and its laws practiced.

Designed for those who are beginning Targum study, this book also provides material for those who have already made some progress. Beginners will have recourse first of all to the Translation, and the Notes are intended to help orient them in the message conveyed by the Targum in its two levels. Students with recourse to Aramaic will perhaps require remarks of a linguistic and textual nature; these are given in the Apparatus. Additional material for more advanced students is also offered in the Notes, to help relate the exegesis of the Targum to the intertestamental document, Rabbinica, and the New Testament.

One approach to Chronicles would suggest that it was not considered an altogether vital component in the canon, but later it came to play a specific interpretative role. Others suggest that it came to be regarded as the authorized version of the history of Israel. In the Jewish liturgical tradition the Book of Ruth is read at the festival of Shavuot, or Pentecost, and it may be conjectured that the Targum originated in conjunction with this practice. The Targum of Ruth exists in a large number of manuscripts; the eight used in the present work are of European provenance.

The Onqelos Targums are the most literal translations of the Targumim. When translated by Bernard Grossfeld--the foremost scholar of Aramaic in the United States--these Torah volumes represent some of the most scholarly and accurate translations in existence.

The attribution, by the Babylonian Talmud, of this Targum to Jonathan ben Uzziel is suspect on several counts: among others, the silence concerning Jonathan in the parallel passage in the Palestinian Talmud, and the fanciful suggestion that Onkelos=Aquila and Jonathan=Theodotion. The attribution, therefore, is not to be taken as historical fact. The Talmud may have been attempting to enhance the authority of the Targum by claiming authorship by a disciple of Hillel, which Jonathan was.It is generally agreed that the author of the Targum Jonathan is unknown; in fact, it is preferable to consider multiple authorship. For while language and translation techniques are uniform, there is variety from book to book.