Onkelos, tiik Pkoselyte ("iMl OlbpJlX), son of Kalonymus (DI-^IIPp "3), is the supposed author of the celebrated Chaldee paraphrase of the Pentateuch called Targum Onkelos. We possess no certain data as to the time when he lived, but he is generally believed to have been a contemporary of Christ, or certainly of the apostles. Some assign A.D. 40 as the year of his birth ; others make it earlier. He is reputed to have been a scholar of Gamaliel (q. v.) ; but, unless Onkelos was a contemporary of Christ, he must have been the disciple of Gamaliel II (q. v.), and not of the grandfather of the eminent rabbi, generally called in distinction Gamaliel
I, who was the teacher of the apostle Paul (Acts xxii, 3; comp. on this point Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, iv, 152). In the Tosiflha {Mikvaoth,\\; Kelim, iii, 2; Chagigah, iii, 1) Onkelos is spoken of as the disciple yf Gamaliel
II. This learned Jew was also the teacher of Aquila, and there are some students who confound Onkelos with Aquila, also a Jewish proselyte, who flourished about the close of the 1st century, and translated the Old Testament into Greek. But more of this below. Onkelos it appears clearly was a proselyte. His love for his newly adopted Jewish faith was so intense, we are told by Jewish writers, " that, after dividing his paternal inheritance with his brothers, he threw his portion into (nb'cn """S) the Dead Sea (Tosifiha Demai, vi, 9), and when Gamaliel, his teacher in the new faith, died, Onkelos, out of reverence for him, burned at his funeral costly garments and furniture to the amount of seventy Tyriun ?««'«(«== about twenty-one pounds ster- ling {Tosiflha Sabbath, ch. viii; Semachoth, ch. viii; Aboda Sara, 11 a). The Babylonian Talmud says that he was nephew of the emperor Titus ("13 D15p51X Di::"::l nirnx ~I3 Clp'^r^p) ; and that before hb conversion to Judaism he successively conjured up from the other world the ghosts of his uncle Titus, Balaam, and Christ, to inquire of them which nation is the hap- piest in the next world. Titus, whom he called up first, told him that the Jews were the hajipiest, but warned him against embracing their faith, because of the great difficulty in fiiltilling all its multitudinous commandments, and advised him to persecute them, for every one who oppresses Israel shall become a chief {Lament, i, 5). Balaam, whom he brought up next, also told him that the Jews were the most distinguished in the other world, and yet admonished him "neither to seek their peace nor their prosperity all his days for- ever" (I)eut. xxiii, 6) ; while Christ, whom he called up last, and who also declared that the Jews v.cre the first in the next world, counselled him to seek their good and not their evil, for he who touches them touches the apple of his eyes {Gittin, 56 a, 57 b). Onkelos's conversion to Judaism, however, was no easj- thing. For as soon as
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it was known that " Onkelos, son of Kalonycos, or Ka- lonymos, had become a proselyte, the emijeror [either Doniitian, Nerva, Trajan, or Hadrian, as Titus was dead] sent a Koman cohort to capture liim and bring him before tlie imperial tribunal ; but he converted the soldiers. The emperor then sent another cohort, charg- ing them not to speak to him. As they caught him and were marching him off, he simply remarked [Xnlsr Slbr J, without its appearing religious or controver- sial], the XIT^E^S carries the tire before the X"n^S''3, the X~i'i''S"'3 before the NOIIT =dux, the dux before S:^"2an = j)yf//wv, the yyf fiioi' before the X^lp = Kufirjr, but who carries the fire before the Kufir]g7 The soldiers replied, Nobody. Now, said Onkelos, the Holy One, blessed be he, carries the fire before Israel, as it is written. The Lord went before them by day in a jnllar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a ijillar of fire (Exod. xiii, 21); and he also converted them. Whereupon the emperor sent a third cohort, charging them very strictly to hold no converse with him what- ever. As they captured him, and were leading him away, he looked at the Mezuza (q. v.), and, putting his hand on it, asked the soldiers what it was. They not being able to say, inquired of him what it was ; whereupon he said. It is the custom of this world for a human king to sit inside his palace and for servants to guard him outside ; whereas the Holy One, blessed be lie, his servants are inside, and he keeps guard outside, as it is written. The Lord watches thy going out and coming in from this time forth and for evermore (I'sa. cxxi, 8) ; and Onkelos also converted this cohort, where- upon the emperor sent no more" {Aboda Sara, 11 a).
The first distinct intimation that Onkelos is the author or compiler of the Chaldee paraphrase which goes by his name is contained in the following pas- sage : " I\. Jeremiah, and according to others, K. Chija bar-Abba, said : The Targum of the Pentateuch was made by Onkelos, the Proselj'te, from the mouth of R. Eliezer and K. Joshua" {Meyilla, 3 a). We are also informed here that Onkelos's paraphrase embodied the orally transmitted Chaldee version of the text which the peo])le generally had forgotten. Being, therefore, the floating national Targum, as well as the compilation of Onkelos, the paraphrase is alternately quoted as we paraphrase ('|3"''35"im2l3), o«r Tarf/um (")T1 ni5"ir, Kiddushin, 49 a), the Targum has it (ITIiJirS), the Tarrjum (aiJir), and as the Targum Onkelos (ClJ^n CbpilX). Thus the Targum is distinctly quoted as the paraphrase of Onkelos (DlbpilX D''5ir) in Pirke Kabbi Eliezer (cap. xxxviii, 28 a, ed. Lemberg, 1858), a Midrash on the principal events recorded in the Penta- teuch, which is ascribed to Eliezer b.-Hyrcanus, but which is not of a later date than the 9th century [see Midrash] ; by Ibn-Koreish, who flourished A.D. 870- 900 [see Ibs-Koreish] ; by Menachem b.-Saruk (born about 910, died about 970), who, in his lexicon entitled CnD'2 rnsn?3, says that (Dlbp2X irS) Onkelos ex- plains ir,Wp "iHixn n'mi (Gen. xllx, 29) by ilITI