The Patriarchs and the Inheritance of the Land in the Targums

Tomasz Niedźwiedzki

doi:10.21697/ct.96.2.02

Published: 2026-05-17

Vol. 96 No. 2 (2026)

The Patriarchs and the Inheritance of the Land in the Targums

Tomasz Niedźwiedzki

Collectanea Theologica

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.21697/ct.96.2.02

Abstract

The framers of targumic literature made the patriarchs resemble pious Jews from their own times. The phenomenon could be called the ‘targumization’ of the biblical heroes. On the other hand, some of the biblical personages have been perceived and presented as the non-Jews who were contemporaries of the editors of the Targums – the Gentiles. By modifying the accounts of the interactions between the biblical personages, the ancient Jewish writers carried out their own self-definition and its counterpart – the constitution of the ‘Other.’ The analysis of the differences between the Hebrew Bible and its targumic interpretation not only could help us to understand how the communities that created the Targums perceived other ethnic and religious groups, but it also could explain to us how they defined their own identity among the Gentiles by redefining and updating the status of the patriarchs in their world. One of the areas in which the meturgemanim have expressed their identity is the subject of the inheritance of the Land.

Keywords:

Targums, patriarchs, inheritance, Jewish identity

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Niedźwiedzki, T. (2026). The Patriarchs and the Inheritance of the Land in the Targums. Collectanea Theologica, 96(2), 253–274. https://doi.org/10.21697/ct.96.2.02

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