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The Targum to the Song of Songs. Whatever theories have been advanced in the past, or may still be advanced with regard to the scope and meaning of the Song of Songs itself, there can be no doubt as to the character of the Aramaic version, a translation of which is given in this volume. The word version is scarcely the correct term; we should rather anticipate and say at once that it is a paraphrase, and just such a paraphrase as will set at rest any conjecture as to what the author himself (whoever he was) thought with regard to the original purpose of this fascinating smaller book of the Bible which he endeavoured to elucidate.The Targum-paraphrase of the Books of the Bible, included in the term Kethubim or Hagiographa, was for a time attributed to one named Jose or Joseph, surnamed the Blind, Chief of a Rabbinical Seminary at Sura in the third century; but it has since been proved that the Targums of the several books of the Hagiographa owe their origin to various authors. The Targumist of the Song was evidently not troubled with any theories as to whether it had a literal, mystical, or allegorical meaning. After all, there was consistency in the forms and expressions employed in the original j the name of King Solomon did appear in the course of the Book, and the pastoral character as regards scenery and language was quite in keeping with the supposition of Solomon's authorship of it. But the real question for him to determine was, what the original author intended the Book to be, whether a bridal drama and song, a pastoral eclogue, a dramatic poem, or an epithalamium of a pastoral kind, to be taken seriously and in its literal sense; or, on the other hand, whether the author himself regarded it merely as the framework upon which to construct some higher and wider conception....

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