Museums

The Schøyen Collection' - Targum (MS 206)

The Schøyen Collection is the largest private manuscript collection produced in the 20th century. The whole collection contains 13,642 manuscript items covering a period of over 5,000 years! The Schoyen Collection profiles itself as: "The Collection is a resource for students, academics, research institutions, publishers and all others with an interest in advancing the study of human culture and civilization, regardless of nationality, race or religion. The Collection is also a means to preserve and protect for posterity a wide range of written expressions of belief, knowledge and understanding from many different cultures throughout the ages." We show this document by kind courtesy of the 'The Schøyen Collection'. Website: www.schoyencollection.com

Targum The Aramaic word for “interpretation” or “paraphrase” is targum. The Aramaic language was commonly used by Jews living in Persia, starting about 450 B.C. That is why the need existed to have an Aramaic translation besides the Hebrew writings. In spite of the fact that targums were free paraphrases and not literally translations, they are surely an important source of knowledge. MS 206 (first half 11th century) This manuscript contains Exodus 10:15 – 14:21. It was written on Vellum, in Iraq, in the first half of the 11th century. It was probably copied by a scribe, perhaps originating from the Maghreb (North Africa probably Tunisia). The account at Exodus 10:15 - 14:21 happened during the time when the Israelites were in Egypt. God brought 10 plagues over the country as “a judgement against all the gods of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12 – King James). It resulted in relieving the Israelites from slavery and allowing them to leave and proved that the God of the Israelites was the true God (Joshua 2:10,11). This targum starts with the 8th plague, the plague of frogs, and ends with the parting of the waters of the Red Sea.

In the image below the places where God's name is written are highlighted in yellow.

 

- top -