I'm writing a biblical Hebrew exegesis research paper and I'm struggling to understand what a particular abbreviation means: "Tg. Ps.-J." It's in the Word Biblical Commentary 6A on Deuteronomy. I've seen it before but it's quite important to the exegesis to know which manuscript this variant refers to.
I'm guessing it has something to do with Targums and Peshittas but can't find any specific information out there on what the J stands for.
Tg. Ps. J stands for Targum of Pseudo Jonathan. It is a Targum of the western tradition, a translation of the Pentateuch. It is called Pseudo Jonathan because for years it was thought to be the work of Jonathan b. Uzziel. Most scholars conclude this is due to a printer's error. According to this opinion, the work was originally known as Targum Jerushalmi (Jerusalem) and abbreviated TJ (or TY). As the Jewish scholar Jonathan b. Uzziel did translate a targum (though of the prophets not the Pentateuch), the editions of TJ were assumed to be his by later readers (reading the TJ as Targum Jonathan). As the conclusion is against this now, the "Pseudo" (Ps) has been added in the references.
