person · P0081
Onkelos אונקלוס
Onkelos is the convert associated by the Bavli with the authoritative Aramaic rendering of the Torah. Rabbinic narrative portrays imperial attempts to arrest him repeatedly failing because he persuaded the soldiers of Israel's faith. His identification with the Greek translator Aquila and the textual history of Targum Onkelos remain scholarly questions.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- אונקלוס
- Also known as
- Onkelos the Convert, Onkelos HaGer
- Era
- tannaim
- Generation
- T2
- Received the mesorah from
- Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah
- Teachers
- Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3820–3890 AM, in the early Yavneh generations
- Academic
- fl. late 1st to early 2nd century CE; the relationship between the rabbinic Onkelos and Aquila traditions is debated.
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈70 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Bavli states that Onkelos the convert composed or established the Aramaic translation of the Torah based on the teachings of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua.
Directly stated in the cited source. |
rabbinic tradition | ★★★★★ | |
| Avodah Zarah portrays Onkelos as a convert whose imperial relative sent detachments to arrest him, but he persuaded successive groups and they converted.
Narrative-aggadic account. |
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| In the same story Onkelos explained the mezuzah to the final soldiers: a human king sits inside while servants guard outside, but God protects Israel from outside.
The cited source supports this summary; minor wording or identification details are interpretive.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The Bavli distinguishes Onkelos's Torah translation from Yonatan ben Uzziel's Prophets translation and says the Torah translation did not cause the land to quake because its meaning had already been revealed.
The cited source supports this summary; minor wording or identification details are interpretive.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| Scholars have long debated whether rabbinic references to Onkelos reflect confusion with Aquila, the Greek translator, and whether the extant Aramaic Targum was attached secondarily to the name Onkelos.
The historical relationship among Onkelos, Aquila, and the extant Targum remains disputed.
|
reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The Bavli identifies Onkelos the would-be convert as "bar Kalonikus, the son of the sister of Titus."
Aggadic identification; Avodah Zarah 11a gives the patronymic "bar Kalonymus" and makes the emperor his relative, and the traditions are not fully harmonized.
|
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Before converting, the Bavli relates, he raised by necromancy the spirits of Titus, Bilam, and (in uncensored texts) Yeshu — each of whom confirmed that Israel is held in highest regard in the world of truth — and then went and converted.
Aggadic narrative; the third figure is censored to "the sinners of Israel" in standard printings.
|
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The traditional placement c. 3820–3890 AM, in the early Yavneh generations, is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction from his attribution to the teachings of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, placing him in the Yavneh-era chain; the cited sources do not state an absolute AM range.
The cited sources establish relative chronology or regnal duration; they do not state the absolute AM range.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |