Who is Onkelos? — Onkelos the Convert

אוּנְקְלוֹס הַגֵּר

1st – early 2nd century CE · Rome and the Land of Israel

The emperor's nephew who walked away from Rome, became a Jew, and put the Torah into the people's language.

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The facts

Name: Onkelos bar Kalonikos, "HaGer" (the convert)
Family: Son of the sister of Titus, the Roman general who destroyed the Temple (Gittin 56b)
Teachers: Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua (Megillah 3a)
Wrote: Targum Onkelos, the Aramaic translation of the Torah
Known for: Converting the Roman soldiers sent to arrest him, with a mezuzah (Avodah Zarah 11a)

Overview

Onkelos the convert (Onkelos HaGer) was a Roman nobleman who gave up wealth, rank and family to become a Jew, studied under the greatest rabbis of his generation, and wrote the Aramaic translation of the Torah that Jews have read every single week for almost two thousand years. He lived in the first and early second centuries of the common era, in the generation after the destruction of the Second Temple.

His translation, Targum Onkelos, is printed beside the Hebrew text in almost every Chumash, usually right across from Rashi. Jewish law asks every Jew to read the weekly parasha "twice in the original and once in the Targum", and the Targum it means is his. A Roman who came from the family that burned the Temple ended up as one of the voices every Jew hears before Shabbat.

On Six1Trey he is one of the Jewish OGz, and maybe the one closest to our own story. He came from the other side. He walked away from power because he found something truer, and he spent the rest of his life making the Torah understandable to ordinary people. Meet the other OGs on the OGz page, starting with Rashi.

Name

The Babylonian Talmud calls him Onkelos bar Kalonikos in one place (Gittin 56b) and Onkelos bar Kelonimos in another (Avodah Zarah 11a). Both are Greek-Roman names, fitting for a man from the imperial world. The title HaGer, "the convert", became part of his name, the way a street name sticks to someone for life. Except his name tells everyone where he ended up, not where he started.

The Jerusalem Talmud and some midrashim speak of Akylas the convert (Aquila in Latin and Greek sources), who translated the Torah into Greek under the guidance of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. Because the stories are so similar, many scholars think Onkelos and Akylas were the same person, or that two converts' stories merged over time. Others think they were two different men. Traditional Jewish learning simply calls the Aramaic translation "Targum Onkelos" and leaves the historians to argue.

A nephew of the emperor

According to the Talmud, Onkelos was the son of the sister of Titus, the Roman general and later emperor whose army destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple in the year 70 (Gittin 56b). In other words, he was born inside the family that had just burned the House of G-d.

The Talmud tells a strange story about his search before converting. It says he used necromancy to consult the dead: first his uncle Titus, then the prophet Bilaam, then the spirit of a Jew who had sinned against his own people. He asked each one the same questions: Who is most important in that world? Should I attach myself to them? Titus admitted that the Jewish people are most important, but advised him to attack them instead, because their commandments are too many to keep. Bilaam, the enemy of Israel even after death, told him not to seek their good. The last one told him to seek their good and not their harm, because whoever touches them touches the apple of G-d's eye.

Whatever you make of the story's details, its message is clear. Onkelos heard every voice, including the loudest voices of hate, and the truth still won. He knew exactly what joining the Jews would cost him, and he did it anyway.

The emperor sends soldiers

The Talmud in Avodah Zarah 11a tells what happened after Onkelos converted. The Roman emperor, embarrassed that a member of the imperial family had become a Jew, sent a squad of soldiers to arrest him and bring him back.

Onkelos spoke with them, taught them verses of Torah, and they converted. The emperor sent a second squad and ordered them not to talk to him at all. As they marched, Onkelos said only this: in this world, a lower officer carries the torch in front of a higher one, and the higher one in front of the governor, and so on up to the ruler. Does the ruler ever carry a torch in front of the common people? No. "Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, holds a torch before the Jewish people, as it is written: 'And Hashem went before them by day in a pillar of cloud… and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light' (Exodus 13:21)." They converted too.

The emperor sent a third squad and told them not to answer anything he said. As they were leading him away, Onkelos put his hand on a mezuzah on a doorpost and asked, "What is this?" They told him to explain it himself. He said: "Everywhere in the world, a king of flesh and blood sits inside his palace while his servants guard him outside. But with the Holy One, blessed be He, His servants sit inside their homes, and He guards them from outside, as it says: 'Hashem shall guard your going out and your coming in, from now and forever' (Psalms 121:8)." That squad converted as well. After that, the Talmud says, the emperor stopped sending soldiers.

Think about what that means for anybody who ever had people sent after them. Three times the powers of the world came to drag him back to his old life. Three times he didn't run, didn't fight, and didn't go back. He simply told the truth so clearly that the people sent to take him ended up joining him.

Student of the sages

Onkelos did not convert and then disappear. He became a serious student of the leading sages of the Land of Israel in the decades after the destruction. The Talmud says that the Aramaic translation of the Torah "was composed by Onkelos the convert based on the teachings of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua" (Megillah 3a), two of the greatest students of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, the man who rebuilt Jewish life after the Temple fell.

He was also close to the house of the Nasi, the leader of the Jewish people. When Rabban Gamliel the Elder died, the Talmud records that Onkelos burned seven thousand dinars' worth of valuable Tyrian coinage in his honor, the kind of honor normally given at the death of a king (Avodah Zarah 11a). A Roman aristocrat treated a rabbi like royalty, because to him that is exactly what the rabbi was.

Later Jewish tradition remembers Onkelos as scrupulous in his observance, stricter with himself than the law required. That is common with converts who come in from far away: they don't take any of it for granted.

Targum Onkelos: the Torah in the people's language

By Onkelos's time, most Jews in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia spoke Aramaic in daily life, not Hebrew. In the synagogue the Torah was read in Hebrew, and a translator (meturgeman) would stand next to the reader and give the meaning in Aramaic, verse by verse, so that everyone could understand. Onkelos produced the version of that translation that became the standard for the entire Jewish world.

Targum Onkelos is remarkable for two reasons. First, it is extremely close to the Hebrew, word for word, so it works as a real translation rather than a retelling. Second, where a literal translation could mislead, Onkelos quietly explains. He was translating for ordinary people, and he knew which verses could be misunderstood.

The most famous example is how he handles verses that describe G-d in physical terms. When the Torah says that Hashem "came down to see the city and the tower" of Babel (Genesis 11:5), Onkelos translates: Hashem "revealed Himself" to bring judgment on the deeds of the city and the tower (Targum Onkelos 11:5). G-d doesn't walk down stairs; He reveals Himself. The Rambam praised exactly this care in his Guide for the Perplexed (Part I, chapter 27): Onkelos was determined that no reader would come away thinking G-d has a body.

Another favorite is in Bereshit. The Torah says that when Hashem breathed the breath of life into Adam, "man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Animals are also living souls, so what makes a human different? Onkelos translates: man became "a speaking spirit" (רוּחַ מְמַלְּלָא, Targum Onkelos 2:7). The power of speech is what makes us human. Every word we say either builds or destroys.

Even the first verse of the Torah carries his voice: בְּקַדְמִין בְּרָא ה׳ יָת שְׁמַיָּא וְיָת אַרְעָא, "In the beginning Hashem created the heavens and the earth" (Targum Onkelos 1:1).

Where to find him on the page

Open a traditional Chumash or a Mikraot Gedolot (the big rabbinic Bible) and look at the top of the page. In the center or the inside column you will see the Hebrew verse in large letters with vowels. Right next to it, in a narrower column in regular square Hebrew letters but in a slightly different language, is Targum Onkelos, one Aramaic line for each Hebrew verse. Underneath, in the curly semi-cursive "Rashi script", is Rashi.

That layout has been the same for five hundred years of printed Chumashim, and for centuries of handwritten ones before that. The Torah, the translation, and the first explanation, together on one page. Every week, a Roman convert and a French rabbi sit on either side of Moshe's words.

On a phone, Sefaria puts all three in one place: tap any verse and open "Targum" and "Rashi" in the connections panel.

Twice the text, once the Targum

The Talmud teaches that a person should "always complete his Torah portions with the congregation", reading the weekly portion twice in the original Hebrew and once in the Targum (Berakhot 8a). The reward, it says, is long life (Berakhot 8b). This practice, called shnayim mikra ve'echad targum, is codified in the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 285), and the Targum it refers to is Targum Onkelos.

That means that every week, all over the world, Jews who keep this custom read the words of a Roman convert alongside the words of Moshe. The Shulchan Aruch also allows reading Rashi's commentary in place of the Targum, and recommends that a G-d-fearing person read both. So the two OGz sit side by side on the page and side by side in the weekly practice: the French rabbi and the Roman convert.

Onkelos and Rashi

Open almost any page of Rashi's Torah commentary and you will find Onkelos there. Rashi constantly opens a comment with "as the Targum renders" or "Onkelos translated", and then explains why Onkelos chose that word. Sometimes Rashi brings Onkelos to support his own reading; sometimes he explains how Onkelos's reading fits a midrash. A thousand years separate them, and Rashi treats Onkelos as a colleague.

For a student, the combination is powerful. Onkelos gives you the meaning of each word in one short line. Rashi tells you what question to ask. Together they are the first two teachers almost every Jewish child meets in the Chumash. Read about the other half of that team on our Who is Rashi? page.

Onkelos in Parashat Noach

This week's parasha, Noach, gives a perfect example of how Onkelos works. At the Tower of Babel, people tried to "make a name" for themselves and build a tower to heaven. When the Torah says Hashem "came down" to see it, Onkelos refuses to let anyone picture G-d climbing down from the sky. Hashem revealed Himself to bring judgment on what they built. The builders wanted to climb up to G-d on their own terms. Onkelos's translation reminds us that G-d is the one who reveals Himself, when and how He chooses.

Read our full teaching on the parasha: Parshat Noach: Righteous on a Corrupt Block, or in Spanish, Parashat Nóaj: justo en un barrio corrupto.

The enemies' children who came home

Onkelos is not the only one. The same chapter of the Talmud that tells his story lists a whole line of people whose families had tried to destroy Israel, and whose children or grandchildren ended up as its teachers.

Nero. In the Talmud's telling, the Roman emperor Nero was sent to lead the war against Jerusalem. On the way he tested his mission with signs, understood that Hashem would punish whoever destroyed His house, ran away, and became a convert. "And ultimately Rabbi Meir descended from him" (Gittin 56a). Rabbi Meir, one of the greatest sages of the Mishnah, the man whose name appears on page after page, came from the line of the emperor who was supposed to burn Jerusalem.

Haman, Sisera and Sennacherib. The Talmud continues: "Some of Haman's descendants studied Torah in Bnei Brak, and some of Sisera's descendants taught children Torah in Jerusalem, and some of Sennacherib's descendants taught Torah in public. Who are they? Shemaya and Avtalyon, the teachers of Hillel the Elder" (Gittin 57b). Haman wanted to wipe out every Jew in Persia. Sisera led the army that oppressed Israel in the days of Devorah. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. Their descendants sat in the study halls and taught Torah to Jewish children, and two of them taught Hillel, the gentlest sage in Jewish history.

Put these stories next to each other and the Talmud is making a point it wants nobody to miss: your family's history is not your destiny. You can be born into the house of the emperor, the house of the general, the house of the gang, and still end up teaching Torah. The only question is which way you walk.

That is a hard message for some people to hear, on both sides. For the person coming in, it says that nothing in your past disqualifies you. For the community receiving him, it says that the enemy's grandson may be your children's best teacher. The Torah commands us to love the ger (Deuteronomy 10:19), and the Talmud shows us what that love made possible.

How to learn with Onkelos this week

You don't need to know Aramaic to start. Here is a simple way to bring Onkelos into your week:

1. Pick one aliyah a day. The parasha has seven aliyot, and the week has seven days until Shabbat. On Sunday read the first aliyah, on Monday the second, and so on. That is the easiest way to finish shnayim mikra ve'echad targum by Friday.

2. Read each verse twice in Hebrew. If your Hebrew is slow, that's fine. Say the words. Even reading along with a recording counts as showing up.

3. Read Onkelos's line once. Most of it looks like Hebrew with different endings, and after a few weeks you will start recognizing words: yat for the Hebrew et, ar'a for eretz, shmaya for shamayim. Sefaria shows the Targum and an English translation side by side (Onkelos on Genesis).

4. Look for where he explains. The places where Onkelos does not translate word for word are the most interesting, like "revealed Himself" at Babel, or "a speaking spirit" for Adam. Ask yourself what he was worried a simple reader would misunderstand.

5. Then read Rashi. Rashi often tells you directly why Onkelos chose his words. Between the two of them, you have the two oldest and most trusted teachers in the Chumash.

If you are Spanish-speaking, the same practice works in Spanish: Sefaria's Spanish-and-Hebrew view lets you read the verse, then Onkelos, then Rashi.

Questions to think about

What did it cost him? Onkelos gave up wealth, status and his family's approval. What would you have to give up to follow the truth all the way?

Why talk instead of run? When the soldiers came, Onkelos didn't flee and didn't fight. He spoke to them. When the past comes looking for you, which of those three do you usually choose?

Inside or outside? Onkelos taught that Hashem guards His people from outside the door while they sit safely inside. What is the mezuzah on your door saying to the world, and to you?

Whose words do you carry? Onkelos learned from Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, and two thousand years later their teaching still reaches us through his translation. Who are you learning from, and who will learn from you?

Why Onkelos is an OG

Onkelos is the patron of everyone who came from the other side.

He grew up in the house that destroyed Jerusalem. He had money, family and a name that opened every door in the empire. He gave it all up, not for a deal and not out of fear, but because he found the truth. When the power he left came after him, he didn't hide and he didn't fight. He talked, and the people sent to drag him back joined him. Then he sat at the feet of the rabbis and did the slow, quiet work of making the Torah understandable to people who didn't speak its language.

That last part is exactly what Six1Trey tries to do: take the Torah and put it in the language of the people who need it, the language of the block, of Bogotá and of Queens, without changing a word of its meaning. Onkelos did it in Aramaic. We are trying to do it in English and Spanish, with music, video and a memoir.

If you are a ger, or on the way, or just someone who left a life behind, Onkelos is your OG. The door he walked through is still open. Read how one man from the streets walked through it in G2G: From Gangster to Ger, and explore the rest of the Jewish OGz.

וְאִתְגְּלִי ה׳ לְאִתְפְּרָעָא עַל עוֹבָדֵי קַרְתָּא וּמַגְדְּלָא
“And Hashem revealed Himself to bring judgment on the deeds of the city and the tower.”

— Targum Onkelos on Bereshit 11:5

Books about Onkelos

Onkelos on the Torah: Understanding the Bible Text — Israel Drazin & Stanley M. Wagner. Gefen Publishing House (multi-volume). A verse-by-verse English guide to how Onkelos translates each phrase, and why.
The Targum Onqelos to Genesis — Bernard Grossfeld. The Aramaic Bible series, Michael Glazier, 1988. A full scholarly English translation of Onkelos on Bereshit, with notes on every departure from the Hebrew.