| Summary: | <p>During the past two decades there has been growing appreciation of the importance of the Palestinian Targumim of the Pentateuch for the study both of the New Testament and of Tannaitic Judaism, However, these documents cannot be fully or properly used until they have been dated, Dating in this case is a complex problem,for each of them has many dates - the date of the basic translation,the dates when additions were made, the date of the final redaction,and the dates of the manuscripts. What, in fact, is required is a history of the development of the Palestinian Targumim.</p>
<p>The present study aims to provide the groundwork for such a history, It will attempt to sustain the thesis that the extant Palestinian Targumim of the Pentateuch are later elaborations of a complete Targum or Targumic tradition which originated in the period of the Second Temple.</p>
<p>The method which I have chosen has been to examine the equivalents given by the Targumim for Biblical geographical names, I have concentrated the inquiry on two important clusters of these terms, namely, the Targumim of the Table of the Nations in Genesis 10 and of the Boundaries of the Land of Israel in Numbers 34.</p>
<p>Section I discusses this method. There I have stressed the need for combining an examination of the names themselves with a comprehensive analysis of the material in which they are embedded.
Thereafter, the study has two main aspects: (1) the identification of the Targumic geographical names; and (2) the use of this information for the purpose of dating.</p>
<p>Continued in thesis ...</p>
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