Targumic Development, Intersections with the New Testament, and Their Implications for Understanding the Aramaic Jesus

Bruce Chilton

doi:10.21697/ct.96.2.01

Published: 2026-05-17

Vol. 96 No. 2 (2026)

Targumic Development, Intersections with the New Testament, and Their Implications for Understanding the Aramaic Jesus

Bruce Chilton

Collectanea Theologica

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.21697/ct.96.2.01

Abstract

Some researchers treat Targumim as pre-Christian and therefore as a precedent for Jesus’s teaching, while others portray them as a later literature that should not be factored into exegesis. The apparent deadlock may be overcome, however, since notable overlaps with the New Testament are not an oddity. Many different literatures offer material comparable with the Targumim. Without such intersections the Targumic corpus could not have been dated. This paper sets out critical principles for understanding the phenomenon of intersectionality (understood in its mathematical, not sociological, sense). On that basis, historical parameters for discussing Jesus and his initial followers as Aramaic speakers are explained.

Keywords:

Aramaic, Gospel study, historical Jesus, intersectionality, Targumim, tradition criticism

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Chilton, B. (2026). Targumic Development, Intersections with the New Testament, and Their Implications for Understanding the Aramaic Jesus. Collectanea Theologica, 96(2), 229–252. https://doi.org/10.21697/ct.96.2.01

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Black, Matthew. 1957. “The Recovery of the Language of Jesus.” New Testament Studies 3.4:305–13.
Google Scholar

Black, Matthew. 1967. An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts. Oxford: Blackwell.
Google Scholar

Brown, Colin. 2022. From the Beginnings of Christianity to the End of World War II. Vol. 1 of A History of Quests for the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Google Scholar

Casey, Maurice. 2010. Jesus of Nazareth. An Independent Historian’s Account of His Life and Teaching. London – New York: T&T Clark.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 1982. The Glory of Israel. The Theology and Provenience of the Isaiah Targum. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement 23. Sheffield: JSOT.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 1984. A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible. Jesus’ Use of the Interpreted Scripture of His Time. Wilmington: Glazier. (Also published with the subtitle: Jesus’ own interpretation of Isaiah. London: SPCK; The Glazier edition has been reprinted in 2013 – Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock).
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 1987. The Isaiah Targum. Introduction, Translation, Apparatus, and Notes. The Aramaic Bible 11. Wilmington, DE: Glazier.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 1989. Profiles of a Rabbi. Synoptic Opportunities in Reading about Jesus. Brown Judaic Studies 177. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 2019. Resurrection Logic. How Jesus’ First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 2023. “A Resurrection Fallacy.” In Misusing Scripture. What are Evangelicals Doing with the Bible?, edited by Mark Elliott, Kenneth Atkinson, and Robert Rezetko. Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies. Abingdon – New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D. 2025. Aramaic Jesus: Tradition, Identity, and Christianity’s Mother Tongue. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Google Scholar

Chilton, Bruce D., and Alan J. Avery-Peck, eds. 2024. Targums and Rabbinic Literature. Ancient Sources for New Testament Study 7. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Google Scholar

Collingwood, Robin G. 1999. The Principles of History and Other Writings in Philosophy of History. Edited by W. H. Dray and W. J. van der Dussen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Collingwood, Robin G. 2013. An Autobiography and Other Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, n.d., Hebrew Union College. Cincinnati, OH (website). Accessed April 30, 2025. https://cal.huc.edu/.
Google Scholar

Cook, Edward M. 2015. Dictionary of Qumran Aramaic. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Google Scholar

Cook, Edward M. 2022. Biblical Aramaic and Related Dialects. An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Dunn, James D. G. 2003. Jesus Remembered. Christianity in the Making 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Google Scholar

Erll, Astrid. 2008. “Cultural Memory Studies: an Introduction.” In Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, edited by Astrid Erl and Ansgar Nünning, 1–15. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Google Scholar

Flesher, Paul V. M., and Bruce D. Chilton. 2011. The Targums. A Critical Introduction. Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture 12. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press – Leiden: Brill.
Google Scholar

Kahle, Paul. 1930. Masoreten des Westens II. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Google Scholar

Kahle, Paul. 1959. The Cairo Geniza. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Google Scholar

Keith, Chris, and Anthony Le Donne, eds. 2012. Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Google Scholar

Leach, Stephen. 2015. “The Living Past.” History and Theory 54 (1): 116–25.
Google Scholar

Maier, Gerhard. 1974. Das Ende der historisch-kritischen Methode. Wuppertal: Brockhaus.
Google Scholar

McNamara, Martin J. 2010. Targum and Testament Revisited: Aramaic Paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Google Scholar

McPartland, Thomas J. 2015. Lonergan and Historiography. The Epistemological Philosophy of History. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri.
Google Scholar

Miner, Robert C. 2006. “Collingwood and Lonergan on Historical Knowledge.” Lonergan Workshop 19:197–209.
Google Scholar

Sandmel, Samuel. 1962. “Parallelomania.” Journal of Biblical Literature 81 (1): 1–13.
Google Scholar

Talbott, Rick. 2012. “Review of Jesus of Nazareth.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80 (3): 828–31.
Google Scholar

Wernberg-Møller, Preben. 1962. “An Inquiry into the Validity of the Text-Critical Argument for an Early Dating of the Recently Discovered Palestinian Targum.” Vetus Testamentum 12:312–30.
Google Scholar

York, Anthony D. 1974. “The Dating of Targum Literature.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 5:49–62.
Google Scholar