Targum Onkelos

The Targum Onkelos ( אונקלוס, also: Onqelos ) is a translation of the Torah from Hebrew into Aramaic, which has gained early in Judaism official validity.

The base text probably dates from the 2nd century. As in Palestine, the Hebrew language was gradually replaced by Aramaic, was to worship the problem is that people no longer understood the Hebrew texts. They sat therefore an interpreter, called Meturgemanim who translated orally sometimes very free from Hebrew to Aramaic. Later they wanted to record more precise transmission and it created the Targums.

The Targum Onkelos is first cited in the Babylonian Talmud and called "our Targum ". Since learned schools of Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia began their activity until the 3rd century AD, the editors of the Targum Onkelos can not be recognized earlier.

In Babylonian sources Onkelos is often equated with Aquila. Onkelos and Aquila both lived in the 2nd century, were both proselytes and written translations of the Bible, but in different languages. The Aramaic translation of Onkelos is completely preserved, the Greek of Aquila but only in fragments. The Italian scholar Azaria dei Rossi was the first who sought to unravel the confusion between the Aramaic translator Onkelos and the Greek translator Aquila. This is no easy task, since facts and legends are interwoven.