Aquila of Sinope

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Aquila (Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ʿăqīlas, fl. 130 CE) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; Template:Langx) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a proselyte,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". and disciple of Rabbi Akiva.

Relationship to Onkelos

Opinions differ on whether he was the same person as Onkelos,[1][2] who composed the leading Aramaic translation of the Torah known as the Targum Onkelos. The names "Onkelos the proselyte" and "Aquilas the proselyte" are frequently interchanged in the Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud.[3]

It is unclear how much (if any) of the Aramaic translation was based on the Greek.

Greek translation

Only fragments of this translation have survived in what remains of fragmentary documents taken from the Books of Kings and the Psalms found in the old Cairo Geniza in Fustat, Egypt, while excerpts taken from the Hexapla written in the glosses of certain manuscripts of the Septuagint were collected earlier and published by Frederick Field in his influential work, Script error: No such module "Lang"., Oxford, 1875.[4] Epiphanius' On Weights and Measures[5] preserves a tradition that he was a kinsman of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who employed him in rebuilding Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, and that Aquila was converted from Roman paganism to Christianity but, on being reproved for practicing astrology, converted from Christianity to Judaism.[6] He is said also to have been a disciple of Rabbi Akiva (d. ca. 132 CE). Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

In Jewish writings he is referred to as Aqilas (Template:Langx) and Onqelos (Template:Langx). Aquila's version is said to have been used in place of the Septuagint in Greek-speaking synagogues. The Christians generally disliked it, alleging that it rendered the Messianic passages incorrectly, but Jerome and Origen speak in its praise.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Origen incorporated it in his Hexapla.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

The Hexapla were the only known extant fragments of the work until 1897 when fragments of two codices were brought to the Cambridge University Library. These have been published: the fragments containing 1 Kings 20:7-17; 2 Kings 23:12-27 (signed as AqBurkitt) by Francis Crawford Burkitt in 1897, those containing parts of Psalms 90-103 (signed as AqTaylor) by C. Taylor in 1899.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". A fuller discussion appears in the Jewish Encyclopedia.[4]

The surviving fragments of this translation and other translations forming part of Origen's Hexapla are now being republished with additional materials discovered since Field's edition by an international group of Septuagint scholars. This work is being carried out at the Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity as The Hexapla Project[7] under the auspices of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies,[8] and directed by Peter J. Gentry (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Alison G. Salvesen (University of Oxford), and Bas ter Haar Romeny (Leiden University).

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Cf. Jenny R. Labendz, "Aquila's Bible Translation in Late Antiquity: Jewish and Christian Perspectives," The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 102, No. 3 (Jul., 2009), pp. 353-388: "Owing in large part to A. E. Silverstone's 1931 study, Aquila and Onkelos, scholars have long accepted the notion that Aquila is identical to Onkelos, a character mentioned numerous times in the Tosefta and to whom the Aramaic Bible translation is attributed in the Babylonian Talmud. However, there is no basis for this claim. As early as 1937, Leon Leibrich published a review of Silverstone's book that pointed to flaws in his logic, textual analysis, and assumptions, as well as to blatant inaccuracies in the work. Based on Leibrich's review and other points that space does not permit me to delineate here, it is clear to me that Onkelos bears no relation to Aquila...Moreover, already in the sixteenth century, the Italian scholar Azariah de Rossi set out to clear up this confusion and prove that the two were not the same. Sefer me 'or eynayim (ed. David Cassei; Vilna: 1866) 383-93 (Imre vinah, ch. 45); English translation in The Light of the Eyes: Azariah de' Rossi (ed. Joanna Weinberg; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001) 571-85"
  3. ↑ Cf. Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 10b (Commentary Korban Ha-Edah, ibid.) and Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 3a; Epiphanius' On Weights and Measures (Syriac version), ed. James Elmer Dean, University of Chicago Press: Chicago 1935, p. 30
  4. ↑ a b Jewish Encyclopedia, F. C. Burkitt, AQUILA
  5. ↑ chapters 13-16; ed. Migne, 2 259-264
  6. ↑ Epiphanius' "Treatise on Weights and Measures" - Syriac Version (ed. James Elmer Dean), University of Chicago Press c1935, pp. 30-31. Click to see online translation of Epiphanius' Treatise on Weights and Measures
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Website of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies

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