01_AzuelosVoltaggio_161_178_copia_161_178 10/07/15 11:33 Pagina 161 The “angel sent from before the Lord” in Targum Joshua 5,14 Studying the way Aramaic Targums deal with the phenomenon of angels and other heavenly creatures in the Bible can reveal much about the faith and beliefs of worshippers 1 and scholars 2 of the time in which they were redacted. In an earlier study 3 we examined beliefs about angels in Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch and ana- lyzed the Aramaic translations of the term ~ykalm/$alm (“angel”/“angels”) when it appears explicitly in the Pentateuch, both in the meaning of an emissary of flesh and blood, and in the meaning of a non-corporeal one. We also examined all the Targum sources that inserted an “angel” into their translation where it did not appear in the original Hebrew Pentateuch. The study revealed that, in most of the cases where the term “angel” does appear explicitly in the Pentateuch, it is translated lit- erally, without any additions. In a few cases, the Targums supple- ment the term “angel” as it appears in the Pentateuch with a name, title, function or quantifier. Such additions appear only in the Pales- tinian Targumic versions, whereas Targum Onqelos remains faithful in translation throughout the Pentateuch translations. Our study found 42 instances altogether where the Targumic sources inserted an “angel” into their translation of a biblical story. When an “angel” 1 See A. SHINAN, “Knesset Ezra”, Literature and Life in the Synagogue. Studies Presented to Ezra Fleischer (eds. S. ELIZUR – M.D. HERR – G. SHAKED – A. SHINAN) (Jerusalem 1994) 135 (Hebrew); n. 18 emphasizes the relation- ship between the Targums and the reading of the Torah. See also A. SHINAN, The Embroidered Targum. The Aggadah in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch (Jerusalem 1992) 14 (Hebrew); F.G. VOLTAGGIO, La oración de los padres y las madres de Israel. Investigación en el Targum del Pentateuco. La antigua tradición judía y los orígenes del cristianismo (BMid 33; Estella [Navarra] 2010) 31-35. 2 See R. KASHER, “The Aramaic Targums of the Bible”, Peamim 83 (1999) 75-85 (Hebrew). The Targums were studied early on and alongside the Bible as part of the training of Torah scholars; see, for example, on Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkay in Sof 16:8: “He studied Bible and Targum, Midrash, halakhot, aggadot and allegories; he studied everything”. 3 Y. AZUELOS, The Angelology of the Aramaic Targums on the Pentateuch (Dissertation, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies; Jerusalem 2002) (Hebrew). BIBLICA 96.2 (2015) 161-178