Targum or Targum Publishing

On AUTOCAT a cataloger was puzzled by the heading

Bible. O.T. Psalms. Aramaic. Targum.

“Targum” is the Hebrew for “translation,” but when referring to the Tanakh it is used for an Aramaic translation. In this heading "targum" is noted as the name of the version. There are a couple of targumim around, Onkelos, Jonathan and Pseudo-Jonathan, but Psalms only has one “Targum” and it is not attributed to any particular author. It seems repetitious to have both "Aramaic" and” Targum."

Targum Onkelos on the Torah is the official, authoritative Aramaic translation. The Aramaic translation of Psalms is partly allegorical and partly literal. It was probably written by more than one person in the time of the Roman Empire.


Similar LCSH headings are:

Bible. O.T. Deuteronomy. Aramaic. Onkelos.
Targum sheni.
Bible. O.T. Former Prophets. Aramaic. Targum Jonathan
Bible. O.T. Genesis. Aramaic. Onkelos.
Bible. O.T. Isaiah. Aramaic

Not used are:

Bible. O.T. Deuteronomy. Aramaic. Targum Onkelos
Bible. O.T. Esther. Aramaic. Targum sheni
Isaiah Targum

However, since I did not see the book that the cataloger had there is another possibility. The heading is created with the “Bible” as the collective name of the work followed by the name of the book. Thirdly is the language of the translation followed by the version. If I wrote an English translation of Psalms a possible heading is: Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Stuhlman. If the publisher is more prominent than the individual translator the version would be the name of the publisher.

The daily student newspaper at Rutgers University, The Daily Targum was founded in 1869. The name of their publisher is Targum Publishing. If they published the work that the AUTOCATer had in hand, then the heading would be perfectly reasonable as “Targum” would be a version.