This review is from the perspective of a Christian who loves studying the Old Testament.

The book itself appears to be very well made, as is appropriate for a Bible. It has a fancy, textured cover, sewn binding, and thick cream colored paper. It also has a bookmark, which is extremely helpful for people like me who must make their way slowly through this book.

If you are not familiar with Onkelos, as I was not, it would be helpful to read more about him (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onkelos) before proceeding. (He is also known by his Greek name Aquila).

This is the first volume published in a series on Onkelos' Aramaic translation of the five books of the Law of Moses. The volumes on the other four books are yet to be published. Each will apparently contain the Hebrew Massoretic text, Onkelos' translation in Aramaic, Rashi's translation in Aramaic, an English translation of Onkelos' Aramaic translation, and a Commentary.

Another stumbling block (at first) for those less familiar with Semitic languages is the layout. Obviously, the book reads from right to left. At first, this feels a bit awkward when reading the English sections. In the Introduction, you must jump from the lower right corner of one page, to the upper left corner of the next page. Furthermore, In the body of the text, it took me a while to determine what the various blocks of text on each page was. After familiarizing myself with the layout, it became one of the aspects of this book that I appreciated most.

The largest text at the top of the right-hand page is the text of Leviticus in Hebrew. Immediately below that is the text of Rashi, which was all but unreadable to me because I have no prior experience with it. At the upper-right of the left-hand page is a block of Aramaic text, which is Onkelos' translation. Next to (and sometimes under) it, at the upper left of the left-hand page is the English translation of Onkelos. Both the right-hand and left-hand pages have a horizontal line running across the middle of them. Below this line is the commentary, which primarily deals with Onkelos' translation technique and exegetical decisions. The commentary is keyed to the English text by means of bold type. Whatever words are dealt with in the commentary are also bold in the English text above.

For me, there was a large learning curve before I could profit from reading this book. However, the effort was well worth it. The commentary is especially helpful as it approaches the text from a different perspective than I am accustomed to. Additionally, having the primary sources on the same page for immediate reference makes this volume very, very useful. I recommend it, even those who don't know Hebrew or Aramaic. The English translation and and commentary by themselves are definitely well worth the read. ( )

This book represents the third in a five-part series rendering the Targum Onkelos in English. The book is designed both to fulfill the rabbinic requirement to read a the weekly Torah section in the Targum and to provide scholars with an accessible work that explains much of the complexity of Leviticus and the Targum Onkelos of Leviticus.

To this end, the work provides the Hebrew text of Leviticus with the commentary of Rashi underneath (both vocalized), along with both the Aramaic of Targum Onkelos (vocalized) and an English translation. The haphtarah readings in the prophets are also provided, both for each section of Leviticus and for special days. These haphtarah readings are based on the Aramaic, not the Hebrew, and the authors provide introductions to each that explain both the text and the various changes the translator made.

The running commentary on the text is quite helpful, providing both linguistic information about the Hebrew original and the Aramaic translation along with the various ways in which the text was understood in rabbinic and scholarly schools from the halakhic Sifra all the way through modern times. The authors are not afraid to point out times when the rabbinic interpretations seem to deviate from the basic meaning of the text.

The work is designed to be accessible to more than just scholars; introductions are provided explaining the purposes of the authors, the relationship of Saadiah Gaon to the Targum Onkelos, the disputation within Judaism regarding the need for sacrifices, and the main differences between Targum Onkelos and the original Hebrew text. The commentary also attempts to provide similar explanations so that a person who has no knowledge of Aramaic can still see many of the differences between the Targum and the original Hebrew. The authors make the argument that the translator of the Targum Onkelos does his work around 400 CE, and that he strives to provide an accurate rendering of the text, and is not prone to inserting halakhic understandings or expansions within the text. Comparisons are often made to the two other Targums-- Neophyti and Pseudo-Jonathan-- and how they differ.

Each chapter concludes with a "Onkelos highlights" section that emphasizes a certain point made previously in the commentary. Many chapters are followed with "Beyond the Text" questions that are purely directed for a Jewish audience, and which are a bit alienating to a non-Jewish reader.

The work is quite magisterial, and the expertise of the authors is evident throughout. I would have liked for more of the introductory material that is alluded to from the previous two volumes (Genesis and Exodus) to be present in this volume, and some of the arguments that the authors seek to make could have been made without dominating the material at times. Nevertheless, this handsome edition will benefit both layman and scholar alike who seek to better understand the Targum Onkelos and the history of interpretation of the book of Leviticus. ( )

This volume is the third in a series on Targum Onkelos. It's a high-quality book: very nicely typeset and attractively laid out on thick paper and a stitched binding. It's also a one-of-a-kind series providing the text of the Hebrew Torah, the text of the Aramaic Targum Onkelos, the Rashi text, a brand new English translation of the Targum text, detailed commentary highlighting the differences between the Hebrew and Aramaic, and much more.

This looks like a great series that anyone serious about studying the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Torah would do well to consult. ( )

My first reaction when I found out about this book was to wonder "What's the point?" It's a translation into English of a translation into Aramaic of the Torah; how would that differ from a direct translation into English?

What I failed to appreciate was that Onkelos's translation was often not a literal conversion of the Hebrew into Aramaic. When he felt that a literal translation would be misleading, he would add or substitute language to promote what he considered the correct understanding of the text. This translation not only preserves Onkelos's changes, but highlights them by using bold type and, in the commentary, explains how and why Onkelos altered the Hebrew text.

The translation itself is of high quality; it is both readable and for the most part faithful to Onkelos. (See below for why I say "for the most part.") I found myself learning new approaches to learning while reading this book, and highly recommend it.

The introductory material was fascinating, including a summary of the positions of various major commentators regarding the origins and purpose of the sacrifices. I understand that the volumes on Genesis and Exodus have more information about the translators' approach to Onkelos in their introductions.

I was very impressed with the typography of this volume. Typography happens to be a hobby of mine, and it was a pleasure to look at the attention to detail. Most of the fonts used are beautiful, including the use of "st" and "sp" ligatures; there's hanging punctuation; the paper is high-quality cream. I don't care for their Rashi font, though; it's beautiful but it's even harder for me to read than usual Rashi script.

There were a few minor ways in which I found myself wishing that the authors and publisher had made different choices:

My biggest typography complaint is that the layout is too close to the usual; with the Hebrew text largest, and Onkelos in smaller type on the side. This makes it hard to compare them; I had to keep my place in four text streams (Hebrew, Onkelos, English, and the commentary) at the same time.

Although the translation is supposed to be faithful to Onkelos, there are a few places where the translators have not translated quite literally, which surprised me. For example, on Lev. 19:4 the commentary explains that "Scripture uses the term elil twice in this passage.... Since the term is so close to el and since the average Targum reader might suppose that the verse is ascribing divinity to idols or suggesting that many gods exist, our targumist substitutes disparaging nouns that literally mean 'a fearful thing' and 'a mistake.' ... The targumist uses two distinct terms for Scripture's 'gods' because of his usual, oft-noted preference not to repeat words." Which raises the question of why they translated the verse as, "Do not turn after idols or make idols of cast metal for yourselves."

The commentary does not limit itself to explaining those cases where Onkelos has altered the Hebrew text. It also brings down explanations from Rashi, Sforno, and others. Unfortunately, all cases where there is a commentary are indicated by boldface in the English without distinction. Since the real value of this volume is in the explication of Onkelos's choices, I wish that they had downplayed the other sources.

Conversely, there are cases where an extended explanation is placed in the appendix; I would rather have had those integrated into the main commentary flow.

At the ends of chapters, the authors repeat one of their commentaries in a box labeled "Onkelos Highlights." And there are often lists of questions titled "Beyond the Text". I cared for neither of these, since the "Highlights" are mere recapitulation and don't really add to the reader's understanding, and the questions are often "dangerous" in that they can lead a naive reader using the book without a teacher to believe that non-normative answers are, in fact, what Onkelos intends us to take away from the text. Since their thesis is that Onkelos's changes to the Torah text were intended to eliminate heterodoxy, this seems ironic.

The book includes the haftarot for each parsha, with a translation based on the Targum; unfortunately, only the Hebrew and not the Targum are printed, and the differences between the two are not highlighted in the same way that they are in the Torah texts. That is disappointing, since it means that the English is not a translation of the Hebrew and the intermediate stage of the Aramaic isn't there to bridge the two.

However, these are mostly quibbles. Rabbis Drazen and Wagner have constructed a book that succeeds both as a work of scholarship accessible to the lay reader and as a contribution to limud Torah. ( )