201) VARIOUS ACCOUNTS OF ‘ONKELOS THE CONVERT’:

A fragment of  Targum Onkelos

INTRODUCTION:

A typical Chumash with Targum Onkelos in Aramaic on the left, next to the Torah text in Hebrew on the right.

 On opening almost any Chumash, one notices an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew text which is often printed directly opposite the words of the Torah. This is known as Targum Onkelos (or ‘the translation of Onkelos’).

According to tradition, Ezra the Scribe was the first to translate the Torah into Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the Jews of Babylon, and when they returned with Ezra to Eretz Yisrael to build the Second Temple, they had forgotten Hebrew and hence the need for an Aramaic translation.

Ezra’s Aramaic translation was lost to history and it was only centuries later that Onkelos produced his Aramaic translation of the Torah.

Onkelos, also known as Onkelos haGer, was a convert to Judaism.

Who exactly was Onkelos - when did he live - what was his story – and how did the translation of a convert get to share centre stage together with the Torah text itself?

ONKELOS IN MEDRASHIC SOURCES:

For a lovely introduction to Onkelos, one can read a short portrait published by Kehot which deals with some of the episodes “in the Talmud and Midrash where we find enough material to put together the life story of this great giant in Jewish history..."

“...Onkelos...was blessed not only with a clear head and exceptional brain, but also with a golden and pure heart and a lofty soul. He soon realized that idolatry is foolish and that the Jewish religion is the real G‑dly religion. On the quiet he began to serve G‑d, the Creator of heaven and earth, and he waited for the opportunity of formally accepting the Jewish religion.”[1]

One can read about how legions upon legions of Roman soldiers sent by Emperor Hadrian, ended up converting to Judaism when they tried to arrest Onkelos for his conversion to Judaism.

In this article, however, we will take a look at some other historical references which add to the tapestry of the very interesting personality of Onkelos.

ONKELOS AND AQUILA OF SINOPE:

Onkelos, as he is known in the Talmud Bavli, is thought to be the same person also known in the Talmud Yerushalmi as  Aquila[2] the convert (of Sinope, Turkey 35-120[3]CE).

According to the Talmud, he was a nephew of Titus. According to Medrash Tanchuma, he was a nephew of Emperor Hadrian.

‘AUTHORISED VERSION’ OF THE PSHAT:

Jewish tradition has it that Onkelos translated into Aramaic the ‘official’ or ‘authorised’ pshat or literal meaning of the Hebrew text of the Torah. He received this ‘correct version’ from Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Yehoshua ben Chanania.

According to some accounts, he was also a student of R. Akiva.

A TORAH WRITTEN IN GREEK:

Onkelos not only translated the Torah into Aramaic but also into Greek.           

There is a Talmudic view that a Sefer Torah written in Ancient Greek can qualify as a kosher Torah scroll which may be read in synagogue.

                                                                   

“The difference between the scrolls of a Sefer Torah and the scrolls of Tefillin and Mezuzot, is that Torah scrolls may be written in any language, whereas Tefillin and Mezuzot must only be written in Hebrew script.

R. Shimon ben Gamliel [disagrees and] says: Torah scrolls may only be written in Greek [and, obviously Hebrew, but not in any other language].”[4]

GREEK AND ARAMAIC TRANSLATIONS:

Onkelos’ Greek translation was so highly regarded in Greek-speaking synagogues, that his Greek Targum soon replaced the older Greek translation of the Torah known as the Septuagint, dating back to 3rd-century BCE. 

[The Septuagint was the early translation of the Torah into Greek by the seventy rabbis who all came up with the same translation despite being placed in separate rooms.]

Furthermore, the Christians too preferred Onkelos’ Greek translation over the Septuagint because they claimed the Septuagint incorrectly translated some messianic passages.

According to Alec Eli Silverstone[5], Onkelos only began to study Hebrew when he was forty years old. Learning a new language at that age and then producing authoritative translations must have been a momentous task.

THE ACCOUNT OF BISHOP EPIPHANIUS:

Silverstone cites the writing Bishop Epiphanius (310-403CE) of Salamis, Cyprus, who claims Onkelos was appointed by his relative Hadrian to oversee the rebuilding of Jerusalem 47 years after the destruction of the Second Temple. Jerusalem was to be re-named Aelia Capitolina.

Epiphanius records that while working in the holy city, Onkelos became so impressed by the “wonders performed by the Apostles” that he converted from paganism to Christianity and was baptized.

However:

“In consequence...of his continued devotion to the practice of astrology, he was expelled from the Church, and, embittered by his treatment, was induced through his zeal against Christianity to become a Jew, to study the Hebrew Language, and to render the Scriptures afresh into Greek with the view of setting aside the Christological passages which were drawn from the Septuagint.”

According to Epiphanius’ account, Onkelos converted to Judaism almost out of a sense of spite for the church which had expelled him.

Silverstone questions the historicity of Onkelos’ alleged conversion to Christianity as, besides Epiphanius, no other source, Jewish or Christian, makes any mention of this conversion.

What is interesting, though, is Epiphanius’ mention of expulsion from the church because of his interest in astrology. 

If this is correct, then it is ironic how Onkelos was able to cross over and later convert to Judaism, where he may have found a wider acceptance of astrology (although this would have been more repressed in the Holy Land than in Babylonia, see here).

THE ACCOUNT OF HUMPHREY PRIDEAUX:

Another account of Onkelos and his motivation to move from paganism to Christianity and then to Judaism can be found in an interesting book[6] by Humphrey Prideaux (1648-1724):

[Note, this is an old English text so read ‘f’ as ‘s’.]

According to this version, as the popularity of the Septuagint became widely accepted by the Christians, it fell out of favour with the Jews.

So, because the Septuagint was no longer as revered as it used to be, it became necessary to write a new Greek translation. The man to do this new translation was Aquila, or Onkelos.

Prideaux goes on to tell about Onkelos’ past. He started as a pagan and was drawn to magic and astrology. When he allegedly witnessed the miracles that the early Christians were able to perform, he wanted to achieve the same spiritual power to perform miracles – so he converted to Christianity.

However, he was not worthy or sincere enough for ‘so great a gift’.

Onkelos was not sufficiently obedient to the church and continued with his magic and astrology and as a result, was eventually excommunicated from the church.

Onkelos then converted to Judaism and became a student of Rabbi Akiva. He became a master of the Hebrew language and compiled two Greek translations of the Torah.

The second translation was more acceptable than the first and this was then used in synagogues by the ‘Hellenistical Jews’ instead of the original Septuagint.

This second edition Greek translation continued to be used until the end of the Talmudic period (500CE) when the custom of reading the Torah in Greek was abolished. From then on the rabbis decreed that it was only to be read in the original Hebrew - but for those who did not understand Hebrew, it was offered with another translation, this time in Chaldee or Aramaic. This Aramaic translation too, was the work of Onkelos (i.e. what we refer to today as Targum Onkelos).

According to this account, Onkelos did three works of Torah translation – two in Greek and one in Aramaic.

The new rabbinical decree that the Torah only be read in the original Hebrew or in the Aramaic translation of Onkelos, was not, however, accepted by the populace and they rebelled against it insisting that the old custom of reading the Torah in Greek be re-established.

Things got so disruptive, Prideaux continues, that Emperor Justinian had to get involved. He ruled from 527 to 565, just at the close of the Talmudic period, and was also known as Saint Justinian the Great, of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Justinian declared that Jews continue to read their Torah in their synagogues in Greek. They could, however, choose between the Greek of the Septuagint or the more recent Greek of Onkelos’ translations (or in any other language of the country in which they lived), defying the decree of the rabbis.

APPENDIX:

RAMBAM AND RAMBAN ON ASTROLOGY:

It is important to remember that the Jewish world was divided over the issue of the efficacy of astrology:

Rambam (1135-1204) the rationalist was vigorously opposed to the belief in any astrological influence over a human being. He also said that he had read all the extant literature on astrology and bemoaned the fact that just because something was widely written about, didn’t mean that it was correct.[7]

Ramban (1194-1270) the mystic, as well as most medieval Jewish philosophers, believed in astrological influences.

It is interesting to note that Ramban claimed that Onkelos converted to Judaism specifically because he was attracted to its mysticism.

It is also surprising that he dated the Targum to just after the time of Aristotle (384-322BCE) and seems to negate the date of around 130CE which is recorded in the Talmud. This places Targum Onkelos about 400 years earlier![8]

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

According to groundbreaking research by R. Israel Drazin, it appears possible that Onkelos may only have translated the Torah into Greek, and it was only much later, at around 400 CE that an Aramaic translation began to circulate. [9]

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[1] Onkelos. By Nissan Mindel. Published and copyrighted by Kehot Publication Society.

[2] Or Akilus עקילס in Hebrew.

[3] Or 130CE.

[4] Megilla 8b.

[5] Aquila and Onkelos. By Alec Eli Silverstone, p. 151.

[6] Old and New Testaments Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighboring ...By Humphrey Prideaux

[7] See: Letter on Astrology, Lerner translation, Pages 227-236.

^[8] I. Drazin, Dating Targum Onkelos by means of the Tannaitic Midrashim, JJS, Autumn 1999.
[9] Thanks to Mendy Rosin for pointing out this important research which could change the way we view 'Targum Onkelos'. 

200) “THE TALMUD OF PERSECUTION” vs “THE TALMUD OF EXILE”:

A section of the Talmud Yerushalmi as found in the Cairo Geniza.

BABYLONIAN INFLUENCES ON THE TALMUD BAVLI PART IV:

YEHUDAI GAON AND PIRKOI BEN BAVLOI:

INTRODUCTION:

The last three articles have dealt with the extended process of editing the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) which was drawn out for over 150 years (encompassing the period of the Savoraim 500-650 C.E), and possibly some centuries longer (taking us well into the period of the Gaonim 650-1038, see here).

By and large, the Editors or Stammaim were anonymous and yet they sometimes appeared to be more powerful than the actual contributors or Amoraim themselves (see here).

However, two well identified Gaonim stand out as being central and crucial to positioning the Talmud Bavli (compiled in Babylonia 180-500) as the ‘official’ or ‘authorised’ Talmud, as opposed to the Talmud Yerushalmi (compiled in Syria Palaestina 180-420, see here).

R. Yehudai Gaon and his student[1], R. Pirkoi ben Bavoi, were the assertive champions - if not aggressive marketers - of the Bavli and without them, it is possible that both the Bavli and Yerushalmi may have remained on a relatively equal footing.

As a result of the Babylonian Talmud becoming the preeminent Talmud, it follows that most of our Halachot are derived from the Bavli specifically. Yehudai Gaon and Pirkoi ben Bavoi were therefore extremely powerful figures as they were the catalysts for the ascension of the Bavli.

YEHUDAI GAON:

R. Yehudai Gaon, who lived in the mid-700s, started out in Pumbedita (Fallujah) but during his advanced years he was sent to Sura as “there is no one there as distinguished as he is for wisdom”.[2] This was an exceptional move because Sura had a tradition not to appoint anyone to a leadership position if they were not born in that city.

During his tenure in Sura, his brother Dudai, served as head of the sister academy in Pumpedita, establishing the family as powerful and influential Babylonian rabbinic leaders.

THE FIRST EXAMPLES OF RESPONSA LITERATURE:

R. Yehudai Gaon was one of the first Gaonim to begin to write Responsa literature (Responses or answers to Halachic questions which emanated from all around the Jewish world).

131 of his responses are still extant. They are characterised by extreme brevity which is taken to indicate his unquestionable decisiveness and authority on matters of Halacha.

As an interesting aside, it was Yehudai Gaon who instituted the blessing which a father recites when his son turns thirteen, which resolves the father from responsibility for his son’s actions. He first said it at his own son’s Bar Mitzvah.[3]

HALACHOT PESUKOT:

Yehudai Gaon authored one of the first textbooks on Halacha, entitled Halachot Pesukot. The original work was lost and all that remained was a summary of its salient features called Hilchot Re’u.[4] It is the earliest surviving example of Halachic material translated from Aramaic to Hebrew.

Then, in 1911 a version of the original Halachot Pesukot was discovered in a Yemenite manuscript, when it went on sale, and was finally published in 1951.

The original Aramaic version of Halachot Pesukot often contains the actual wording of the Babylonian Talmud itself. The work also preserves many of the traditions from the period of the Savoraim (the editors of the Talmud Bavli).

Halachot Pesukot (also called Halachot Rav Yehudai) is also an early example of Halacha presented in an indexed form as opposed to being scattered almost haphazardly throughout the Talmud.

Some suggest this early attempt at codification of Halacha was the result of new influences from the Islamic world which was also undergoing a period of codification.[5]

Tellingly, Halachot Pesukot does not include laws which pertained to the Land of Israel (tithes, shemitta etc.) nor the laws of Korbanot, as they were obviously no longer followed in Babylonia.

It has been said that Yehudai Gaon omitted these laws because he was only concerned about preserving and perpetuating practical Halacha. However, one can also read into to it his view that the Halachic practices of his contemporaneous colleagues in Palestine, were deemed to be inferior (a sentiment as he himself had already clearly intimated) and he wanted to distance himself entirely from the Halachic practices of Eretz Yisrael.

By presenting a popular, authoritative and concise summation of Halachic rulings according to Babylonian custom, the impression was created (overtly or covertly depending on one’s position) that there was only one correct interpretation of Halacha, namely, that of Babylonia.

Dr Ezra Chwat of The Jewish Virtual Library, however, has a more mystical explanation for the need to create such a concise digest of Halacha:

“Essentially, the Talmud discourse is structured not in topical order, but in an associative order, which rambles from one item to the next. The Geonim considered the ancient sages of Israel who composed this esoteric structure to be of so high a spiritual and mystical level that their work could no longer be understood by most scholars of later years.

So, while at the central yeshivot the Talmud retained its original structure, to the rest of the Diaspora it was transmitted in condensed or encyclopaedic form. The original 50 volumes were reduced to a codex that dealt only with the laws pertinent to day-to-day life. Thus the commandments and laws that related to the Temple, for example, were not included.

... This revolutionary step could only have been taken by a Gaon with the stature of absolute rabbinic authority. Such was the position of R. Yehudai ben Nahman (Yehudai Gaon)...”[6]

Either way, this early book on Halacha spread very quickly and widely throughout the Diaspora, and soon the authority of Yehudai Gaon became the yardstick by which practical Halacha got evaluated. Many copies of the book were circulated and soon even abridged versions of the book began to appear making the work even more popular and accessible.[7]

Thus Yehudai Gaon thus began to enjoy a universal authority which was most unusual for that time.[8]

HALACHOT GEDOLOT:

Another primary legal work attributed to Yehudai Gaon was the Halachot Gedolot, although there is some controversy as to its authorship.[9]

ALLEGED BLINDNESS:

The amazing thing about Yehudai Gaon was that he achieved all this, according to some Rishonim, while being blind. Some, however, believe this may have been a polite way of explaining why some of his Halachot differed from the accepted practice at the time (and even from those of Sura, over which he resided).

IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT BETWEEN BABYLONIAN AND PALESTINIAN JEWS:

Yehudai Gaon was one of the first Gaonim to make contact with the Jews of North Africa. It is alleged that he did this not just to foster cordial relations with them but, apparently, with the expressed ideological policy that all Jews, including non-Babylonian Jews, were to be subject to the authority of the Talmud Bavli. And this even included the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, who had their own Talmud Yerushalmi.

There is no doubt that Yehudai Gaon was a most exceptional scholar. As mentioned, he authored one of the first books on Halacha, which significantly only dealt with Jewish law as practised in the Diaspora since the time of the destruction of the Second Temple (70 C.E.).

This, of course, raised the ire of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael who would have been happier with a more Israel-centric system of laws than one developed primarily in the exile.

Besides this, the Jews of Israel who had always relied on the Yerushalmi, opposed the fact that they were forced to play second fiddle to the Bavli because they knew that their traditions were more ancient and went back much further than the Second Temple.

But Yehudai Gaon countered that at that time the Jews of Israel had been weakened by first Roman and then Byzantine persecution. He called the practices of the Jews of the Holy Land “customs of persecution” and demanded that they set aside their practices and follow the Babylonian rites. He also accused the Jews of Palestine of writing ‘Sifrei Torah on untanned hides.’

AN OPPOSING VIEW:

Not everyone agrees with the notion that Yehudai Gaon was altogether successful in minimizing the Torah of Eretz Yisrael at that time.

Yehudai Gaon’ s student, Pirkoi ben Bavoi recorded that his teacher “wrote to Erez Israel regarding...all the mitzvoth which are not observed properly according to the halakhah but according to practice in times of persecution and they did not accept his intervention and they replied to him: ‘a custom suspends a halakhah.’”[10]

Yehoshua Horowitz writes:

“Some scholars assert that these opinions of Yehudai were very much a matter of conjecture and exaggeration. According to Pirkoi ben Baboi...the scholars of Erez Israel opposed him and continued to rely upon their ancient customs and traditions.” 

According to this view, the Jews of the Holy Land were not so readily prepared to succumb to the religious and political pressures from across the border.

THE BAVLI BECOMES THE SOLE AUTHORITY:

Whether the Jews of Israel raised their strenuous objections or not, the fact remains that the Talmud of Babylonia eventually did indeed later become the perceived de facto and sole Halachic authority.

Horowitz continues:

“Thanks to his [Yehudai Gaon’s[11]] activity, however, the influence of the Babylonian academies spread and the Babylonian Talmud became the sole authority for halachic ruling.”

HALACHA IS DECIDED ON TRADITION NOT TEXTS:

Here is another reason as to why the Babylonian rabbis felt they were more authoritative than their counterparts in the Holy land:

“Taking up Yehudai’s mantle, Pirkoi begged the Jews of ninth-century Kairouan [Tunisia[12]] to recognize that applied Jewish law could not simply be derived from the consultation of written texts.

 In keeping with the Talmud’s own instruction, he wrote, a legal teaching was prescriptively authoritative only if a living master asserted that it was one to be implemented in practice. Babylonian Jews, who were instructed by the Geonim, used this method of vetting, claimed Pirkoi, but the Jews of Kairouan did not. 

The latter, he lamented, had been influenced by the practice of Palestinian Jews, a population that wrongly derived applied law from nothing but inscribed rabbinic texts”[13]

It seems as if the Jews of Eretz Yisrael were more academically inclined to determine Halacha based on their reading and understanding of their texts. The Babylonian Jews believed that the truth of a line of transmission was more powerful than the truth of a text. (See here for a modern example of such a phenomenon.) In other words, the student had to have heard a ruling from his teacher who, in turn, heard it from his teacher.

This did not occur in Eretz Yisrael, where the rabbis relied more on the truth of text rather than the truth of its transmission.

POLITICAL POWER AND INDEPENDENCE FROM THE HOLY LAND:

Another motivation behind empowering the Bavli over the Yerushalmi may have had some political innuendo as well:

“The aim of the Babylonian geonim was to impose the Babylonian Talmud and the doctrines of their academies also in Ereẓ Israel and in this way to lessen the attachment of the Diaspora to Ereẓ Israel...

The geonim also attempted to influence the policy of the government toward the Jews via Baghdad Jewry, who had representatives in the court of the caliphs.”[14]

Moshe Gill cites the view that the supremacy of the Bavli over the Yerushalmi was “mainly an expression of Babylonia’s struggle against Palestine after the Abbasid triumph[15], which strengthened the idea of Babylonia’s centrality in the Jewish world.”[16]

THE RISE OF KARAISM:

Perhaps another reason for the rise in influence of the Babylonian Talmud at that time was the fact that Karaism (see here) was beginning to spread amongst the Jewish population. The Karaites were Jews who did not believe in the Oral Tradition and opted for a more literal interpretation of the Torah instead. The sphere of influence the Karaites commanded was later to become extremely significant with estimates that half of the Jewish population were to fall under its persuasion.

Moshe Gill concurs with this view, and explains that the Karaites “used the Palestinian customs as a means of attacking the Babylonian yeshivot”.[17]

So, apparently, the Karaites were trying to side somewhat with the Jews of Eretz Yisrael against the Jews of Babylonia. This may explain why the Babylonian rabbis were trying to impose their authority over both.

Yehudai Gaon was aware of this new movement and may have felt the need to place an emphasis on the importance of the Oral Tradition, and for him, it would only have been the Oral Tradition of the Talmud Bavli.[18]

(For more on the battle between the Talmud Bavli and the Talmud Yerushalmi see here.)    

ANALYSIS:

One difficulty with this thesis that requires further investigation, is that Rambam does seem to imply that the Bavli did indeed experience an organic growth and was widely accepted by the majority of the Jewish people - and to the best of my knowledge, does not allude to any manipulation of due process.

However, if this assessment is historically correct, or even moderately accurate, it shows that there was no natural or organic rise in popularity of the Talmud Bavli, unprompted by outside ideological and political influences, as is often depicted.

Instead, its rise to pre-eminence may have been - at least partially - the result of a carefully marketed, orchestrated and aggressive campaign to denigrate the ‘Talmud of Persecution’ in preference for the ‘Talmud of Exile’.

If this is correct, then we can place a date to the ascension of the Bavli at around the mid-700s, which is about two and a half centuries after the official close of the Talmudic Period.

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[1] Some accounts say a student of a student.

[2] From a letter of Rav Sherira Gaon, edited by B.M. Lewin 1921.

[3] Bar Mitzvah, a History, by Michael Hilton, p. 7.

[4] The title, Re’u is taken from Shemot 16:29; ‘Re’u ki HaShem natan lachem haShabbat...’ Ironically, this was written in the Holy Land and is in the style of the Talmud Yerushalmi. And even more ironically, the original Aramaic Halachot Pesukot contains a few scattered quotations from the Talmud Yerushalmi.

[5] Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, by Moshe Gil, p. 304.

[6] Jewish Virtual Library; The Academies of Babylon.

[7] Some of these abridged versions were entitled Halachot Ketzuvot (meaning established and fixed laws), Halachot Ketuot, Halachot Kettanot (cut or abridged laws).

[8] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Halachot Pesukot.

Here is an interesting section from Rambam's Introduction to his Mishneh Torah, where he references such Gaonic writings:

[9] According to R. Moshe miKotzi, a thirteenth-century French Tosafist, who wrote the Semag (Sefer Mitzvot Gadol), it was Yedhudai Gaon who authored Halachot Gedolot, a key source for the Semag.

However, according to R. David Ganz (1541-1613), a student of the Maharal and a Jewish chronicler, the Semag may have been referring to another Gaon, who went by a similar name, Yehudai ben Ahunai.

Either way, Halachot Pesukot was a pivotal influence for the more elaborate (in terms of including source material and dealing with more theoretical matters like Korbanot etc.) work of Halachot Gedolot.

Halachot Gedolot was the first Jewish book to contain a preface. However, the preface does not say much about the nature of the work but instead praises Torah and its students, and divides the 613 commandments into 365 negative and 248 positive components.

[10] Ginzberg, Ginzei Schechter, 2 (1929), 559.

[11] Parenthesis mine.

[12] Parenthesis mine.               

[13] See .oraltradition.org/fjournaliles/articles/25i/05_25.1.pdf

[14] Jewish Virtual Library.

[15] Emphasis mine.                                  

[16] He goes on to suggest that he disagrees with that view and that the main factor was rather the struggle against the ‘Anan dynasty’ of Karaites headed by Anan ben David.

[17] Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, by Moshe Gil, p. 304-308.

[18] Some reject this hypothesis as Yehudai Gaon would only have become aware of Anan ben David, the founder of Karaism, when he was in his more advanced years. Of course, the idea that history is a process and not an event, so it is feasible that Yehudai Gaon was well aware of Karaite-like stirrings from within the community.