Onkelos

Onkelos ( ʾunqəlōs), possibly identical to Aquila of Sinope, was a Roman national who converted to Judaism in Tannaic times ( 35–120 CE). He is considered to be the author of the Targum Onkelos ( 110 CE).

In the Talmud

Onkelos is mentioned several times in the Talmud. According to the traditional Jewish sources, he was a prominent Roman nobleman, the son of a man named Callinicus ( Qəlūnīqūs or קַלִינִיקוּס Qalīnīqūs) and the brother of Titus, the Roman emperor. According to the midrash Tanhuma, he was a nephew of Hadrian, and not Titus. These claims have been questioned, as Hadrian's sister, his only sibling, had a daughter, and the only known child of either of Titus's siblings to survive to adulthood was also a girl, later known as Saint Flavia Domitilla.

Onkelos's conversion is the subject of a story wherein he first consulted with the spirits of three deceased enemies of Israel to see how Israel fared in the next world. The first was his uncle Titus, who was blamed for the destruction of the Second Temple; the second was the seer Balaam, hired by Balak king of Moab to curse Israel; and the last was Yeshu, a name used for those who sought to lead Jews astray to idolatry, in particular an idolatrous former student of Joshua ben Perachiah in the Hasmonean period as well as Manasseh of Judah. (In later writings Yeshu is used for Jesus, but opinions differ over whether it can be understood this way in the Talmud.) Onkelos is said to have seen all of them subjected to humiliating punishments for harming Israel. However, while Titus and Balaam dissuade him from converting, Yeshu encourages him to join the Jewish people (prompting the Talmud to praise "the sinners of Israel"). The earlier Jerusalem Talmud gives the subject of these stories as Aquilas the proselyte, often understood as being a person other than Onkelos. The difficulty with this theory, however, is that the Jerusalem Talmud says explicitly that he (Aquilas the proselyte) translated the Torah under Eliezer ben Hurcanus and Joshua ben Hananiah. The Babylonian Talmud repeats the same oral tradition, but this time calls him by the name Onkelos the proselyte, which leads one to conclude that the name is a mere variant of Aquila, applied in error to the Aramaic instead of the Greek translation. This view is supported by Epiphanius of Salamis (4th century).

The following story about Aquila's conversion appears in Midrash Rabbah:

After his conversion, the Talmud records a story of how the Roman emperor tried to have Onkelos arrested. Onkelos cited verses from the Tanakh to the first Roman contubernium, who then converted. The second contubernium was also converted, after he juxtaposed God's personal guidance of Israel in the Book of Numbers to the Roman social hierarchy. A similar tactic was used for the third contubernium, where Onkelos compared his mezuzah to a symbol of God guarding the home of every Jew, in contrast to a Roman king who has his servants guard him. The third contubernium also converted and no more were sent.

The Targum of Onkelos

According to the Talmud, Onkelos did not author the Targum Onkelos , but rather taught it to the masses who have started to become less and less familiar with the Targum. The Targum was given to Moses at mount sinai in the language most spoken at that time, Aramaic. Over the years people were starting to develop more and more trouble understanding the grasp of the Targum so onkelos stepped in and taught it to the people, which led the Targum to eventually be commonly regarded as Targum onkelos.