[a] According to this source, it was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel "from the mouths of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi," implying that it was based on traditions derived from the last prophets.
The additional statements that, on this account, the entire land of Israel was shaken and that a voice from heaven cried: "Who has revealed my secrets to the children of men?"
In the Babylonian Talmud it is quoted with especial frequency by Joseph, head of the Academy of Pumbedita,[5] who writes concerning the two biblical passages Isaiah 8:6 and Zechariah 12:11, "If there were no Targum to it we should not know the meaning of these verses".
It originated, however, in Syria Palaestina but was adapted to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, so it contains the same linguistic peculiarities as the Targum Onḳelos, including sporadic instances of Persian loanwords.
[13] In Talmudic times, and still by Yemenite Jews, Targum Jonathan was read as a verse-by-verse translation alternately with the Hebrew verses of the haftara in the synagogue.