The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

GROSSFELD Onqelos, Halakha and the Halakhic Midrashim 245
arise only in relatively rare instances, and the normally accepted procedure
for the official translation of the Torah was to render the sense
of the Hebrew text both idiomatically and as close as possible to the
literal meaning, but without being enslaved to it. 61
These situations then would lead one to date the original composition
of the Aramaic version of the Torah known to us as Targum
Onqelos to a period somewhere between the beginning and the middle
of the second century CE. This is not to say that the proselyte Onqelos
started from scratch in creating such a translation. There are a
sufficient amount of references scattered throughout rabbinic literature
that lead us to believe that an Aramaic Pentateuch translation,
perhaps even more than one, were in circulation in Palestine, as can
be seen from the reference to the existence of a Job Targum during
the^days of Raban Gamliel the Elder 20-50 CE (t.Sab. XIII [XIV]: 2;
b. Sab. 115a). Now if an Aramaic translation for a Hagiographa book
existed, certainly one for the Torah must have been in circulation in
oral or written form, and not only during Raban Gamliel the Elder's
time, but most probably a few centuries before his time as well. Thus
Onqelos had raw material to work with. Utilizing these already
existing Aramaic Pentateuch versions, he re-shaped them in accordance
with the official line of rabbinic authority, namely that of
R. Aqiba. With the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt leading to the
destruction of the cultural centers in Judea, this Aramaic Pentateuch
version, along with that of Jonathan to the Prophets and the Mishnah,
were transferred to Babylonia. There Onqelos underwent further edition
and development during the following centuries on the basis of
the Mishnah and Talmud (Kahle) to serve the needs of the Babylonian
Jews. It finally became the authoritative text, which in the official literary
Aramaic, established the correct Jewish understanding of every
passage of the Torah, and was regarded as of the highest authority
among the Jews. As such the Targum was then brought back to
Palestine together with the Babylonia Talmud about 1000 CE. 62 In
fact, Z. Frankel 63 dates Onqelos to the Early Amoraic Period;
specifically to the Beth Midrash of Rab (m 'in toso) in Babylonia. He
is probably right in so far as the further redaction of Onqelos is concerned,
but not as far as the original composition goes. Consequently
61. See above n. 13.
62. For which see Kahle, The Cairo Geniza, pp. 194-95.
63. For which see n. 26 above.