--- title: "Theorizing in the Absence of a Theory:The Case of the Aramaic Targums — Lasair 2009" description: "Lasair, working from translation studies, proposes three features that any such theory should centre on." authors: ["Simon Lasair"] year: 2009 venue: "TranscUlturAl 1" source: "https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/tc/index.php/TC/article/view/6249" doi: "10.21992/t9np7q" licence: "CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; TranscUlturAl)" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lasair-2009-theorizing-absence-theory-case-aramaic/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lasair-2009-theorizing-absence-theory-case-aramaic/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2009](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2009/) / Theorizing in the Absence of a Theory:The Case of the Aramaic Targums to the Pentateuch # Theorizing in the Absence of a Theory:The Case of the Aramaic Targums to the Pentateuch **Authors:** Simon Lasair · **Year:** 2009 · **Venue:** TranscUlturAl 1 · **Licence:** CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; TranscUlturAl) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.21992/t9np7q) · [PDF](https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/tc/index.php/TC/article/download/6249/5419) · [DOI 10.21992/t9np7q](https://doi.org/10.21992/t9np7q) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1537120894) **Citations:** 2 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary The paper addresses a methodological gap in the study of the Aramaic Targums to the Pentateuch. Their producers left no account of how a targum should be made or what makes a good one, so modern scholars must build the translation principles themselves. Lasair, working from translation studies, proposes three features that any such theory should centre on. The first is the "targumic shadow", a close word-by-word mirroring of the Hebrew source. The second is that the added narrative expansions are themselves acts of translation. The third is the large-scale coherence structures that the targums create and the Hebrew Bible lacks. Using Genesis 22:1 in Targum Onqelos as a worked example, he argues that the shadow both enables and limits additions. The core dynamic is a tension between conservative imitation and culturally motivated updating for a post-biblical Jewish audience. He concludes that any reconstructed theory is necessarily a modern one, which makes explicit methodological discussion essential. ## Key points - There are three complete Pentateuch Targums, ranked by how much they add. Onqelos adds least, Neofiti sits in the middle, and Pseudo-Jonathan adds most, being nearly twice the length of Onqelos. - Alexander Samely coined the term "targumic shadow". It covers matching syntax, a corresponding word for each Hebrew word, and often the same tri-consonantal root and morphology. - In the Genesis 22:1 comparison, Onqelos keeps the accusative marker (Hebrew ’t rendered as Aramaic yt), even though Aramaic does not need it. It also changes the divine name. The texts used are the BHS and the Sperber edition. - The only early rabbinic reference is Mishnah Megillah 4:4 (ca. 200 CE), and it is ambiguous. Its term meturgeman can mean either a translator or someone reciting a targum. - Most manuscripts open each verse with its first Hebrew words, which suggests the Aramaic always travelled with part of the source. Flesher argues that an early Onqelos underlies the literal renderings in Neofiti and Pseudo-Jonathan. ## Interesting ideas - The tight one-to-one mapping between source and target (word, root, morphology) can serve as a skeleton, so anything outside that mapping is easy to isolate as an addition. - The shadow acts as a control: new material is allowed only if it fits inside the inherited macro-structure of the narrative. - Three versions of one text with graded amounts of expansion form a natural controlled comparison, because the literal core is shared and only the additions differ. - Manuscripts keep a fragment of the source next to each translated unit, which anchors the derived text to its origin. - Lasair insists that rules reconstructed without native testimony remain the analyst's hypotheses, not the producers' own principles. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (back): when translating through the meta-world, align output to source tokens and mark every unaligned span as an expansion, so the reader can see exactly what was added. - **I2** (world): require every inferred entity, state or event to attach to an existing slot in the text's event order; reject free-floating inferences as unjustified. - **I3** (learn): build evaluation sets of literal versus elaborated retellings of the same fable and check that the world model stays invariant on the shared core. - **I4** (frames): store the source span with every frame and role, so each claim in the meaning graph can be traced back to the words that licensed it. - **I5** (learn): label self-induced repair rules as hypotheses with recorded evidence, and promote them only after they pass negative controls. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* Fields: [Linguistics & languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/linguistics/) Topics: [🕎 Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [🐪 Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) ## Institutions - [University of Alberta](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/university-of-alberta/) — University, Edmonton, Canada · 16 works · 2,099 citations ## Cite Cite as: Simon Lasair. 2009. Theorizing in the Absence of a Theory:The Case of the Aramaic Targums to the Pentateuch. TranscUlturAl 1. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{lasair2009theorizing, title = {{Theorizing in the Absence of a Theory:The Case of the Aramaic Targums to the Pentateuch}}, author = {Simon Lasair}, booktitle = {TranscUlturAl 1}, year = {2009}, doi = {10.21992/t9np7q}, url = {https://doi.org/10.21992/t9np7q} } ``` - [← previous How to Establish a Verbal Paradigm on the Basis of Ancient Syriac Manuscripts](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/peursen-2009-how-establish-verbal-paradigm-basis/) - [next → Une description morphologique structurée en arbre du verbe akkadien qui utilise des structures de traits et des transducteurs multirubans A Tree-Structured morphological description of the Akkadian verb which uses Feature Structures and Multi-tape Transducers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/barthelemy-2009-une-description-morphologique-structuree-en/) - [↑ back to papers of 2009](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2009/)