Targum Onkelos
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The Targum Onkelos (אונקלוס, also: Onqelos ) is a translation of the Torah from Hebrew into Aramaic , which became official in Judaism early on. Onkelos is the alleged "author of the last authoritative Aramaic translation" and is said to be identical with Aquila (Bible translator) , who created a completely new, literal translation of the Bible into Greek.
The basic text probably comes from the 2nd century . As in Palestine the Hebrew language was gradually replaced by the Aramaic, came to worship the problem is that people do not understand the Hebrew texts. For this reason, interpreters were used, so-called Meturgemanim , who sometimes translated very freely orally from Hebrew into Aramaic. Later they wanted to record more precise transmissions and created the Targumim for this purpose .
The Targum Onkelos is first quoted in the Babylonian Talmud and called "our Targum". Since the learned schools of Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia did not begin their activity until the 3rd century AD, the editing of Targum Onkelos cannot be scheduled earlier.
In Babylonian sources, Onkelos is often equated with Aquila . Onkelos and Aquila both lived in the 2nd century, were both proselytes and wrote translations of the Bible , but in different languages. The Aramaic translation of Onkelos has survived in full, but the Greek translation of Aquila only in fragments. The Italian scholar Azaria dei Rossi was the first to try to unravel the confusion between the Aramaic translator Onkelos and the Greek translator Aquila. This is not an easy task as facts and legends are intertwined here.
literature
- Nathan Marcus Adler : Sefer Berʼeshit - Devarim: ʻim targum ʼOnḳelos ... Wilna 1875. (Five-volume commentary on Targum Onkelos)
- Abraham Berliner: Targum Onkelos. Pentateuchus. 1884. (Critical text edition)
- A. Silverstone: Aqila and Onkelos. Manchester 1931.
- Encyclopedia Judaica . Volume 12, pp. 1405-1406.
Web links
- Targum Onkelos on sefaria.org (Aramaic with English translation)
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Maier : Judaism. From biblical times to modern times. Kindler, Munich 1973, quoted from the licensed edition Ex Libris Zurich, p. 315.
- ^ Paul VM Flesher, Bruce D. Chilton: The Targums: A Critical Introduction (= Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture ). Baylor University Press, Waco, Texas 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-21769-0 , pp. 9, 142 f., 327 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed June 26, 2015]).