ONKELOS, surnamed the Proselyte, a famous rabbi of the first century, and author of the Chaldaic Targum on the Pentateuch. He flourished in the time of Jesus Christ, according to the Jewish writers, who all agree that he was, at least in some part of his life, contemporary with Jonathan Ben Uzziel, author of the second Targum upon the prophets. Prideaux thinks that he was the elder of the two, for several reasons, the chief of which is the purity of the style of his Targum, in which it comes nearest to that part of Daniel and Ezra which is in the Chaldaic, and being the truest standard of that language, is consequently the most ancient, since that language, as well as others, was in a constant fluctuation, and in every age continued deviating from the original. Nor does there appear to be any reason why Jonathan Ben Uzziel, when he undertook his Targum, should pass over the law, and begin with the prophets, except it be that he found Onkelos had done this work before him, and with a success which he could not exceed.
Azarias, the author of a book entitled Meor Enaim, or the "light of the eyes," tells us, that Onkelos was a proselyte in the time of Hillel and Samnai, and lived to see Jonathan Ben Uzziel, one of the prime scholars of Hillel. These three doctors flourished twelve years before Christ. These three doctors flourished twelve years before Christ, according to the chronology of Gauz, who adds, that Onkelos was contemporary with Gamaliel the elder, St Paul's master, who was the grandson of Hillel. However, he same Gauz, by his calculation, places Onkelos a hundred years after Christ, and, in order to adjust his opinion with that of Azarias, extends the life of Onkelos to a great length. The Talmudists tell us that he assisted at the funeral of Gamaliel, and was at a prodigious expense to render it magnificent. Prideaux observes, that the Targum of Onkelos is rather a version than a paraphrase, since it renders the Hebrew text word for word, and for the most part accurately and exactly, and is by far the best of the kind; wherefore it has always been held amongst
the Jews in much greater esteem than the other Targums; and being set to the same musical notes with the Hebrew text, is thereby capable of being read in the same tone with it in their public assemblies. From the excellency and accuracy of the Targum of Onkelos, Prideaux also concludes that he must have been a native Jew, since, without having been bred up from his birth in the Jewish religion and learning, long exercised in all the rites and doctrines of both, and being also thoroughly skilled in both the Hebrew and Chaldaic languages, as far as a native Jew could be, he could scarcely have been thoroughly adequate to the work which he executed. The same author also thinks, that the representing him as a proselyte may have proceeded from the error of supposing him to have been the same with Akilas or Aquila of Pontus, author of the Greek Targum or version of the prophets and Hagiographia, and who was indeed a Jewish proselyte.