What a marvelous book!
The summaries and commentary therein bring fresh light and brilliant insight to a part of the biblical text that I have often neglected. The authors focus on the biblical text rather than the popular literary criticisms which sustains a positive reflection throughout the book and brings a resonate afterglow in a regular feature of collected insights and questions entitled "Beyond the Text." The relevancy of Scripture is highlighted in this section in ways that often linger in my thoughts for days and render new questions of my own for further exploration.

Onkelos on the Torah: Numbers by Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner is a well researched and produced book that was translated into English with a faithful sense of integrity. Onkelos was a convert to Judaism and wrote the Targun Onkelos that is a translation of the Torah into Aramaic. It is generally accepted that Onkelos completed this translation around 400 C.E. The work was of such scholarly quality that even when first made available the Jewish community accepted this translation as authoritative. The authors and publishers of this series of books have done the English reading world a great service.

This volume is the fourth of the five books of the series which include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, this volume, Numbers and next to be published Deuteronomy; the Pentateuch. What makes this book so valuable is that it includes the Sefur Bemidbar in Hebrew, the Aramaic Text of the original work of Targum Onkelos and its English translation, and Rashi's text in vowelized Hebrew. The authors have done an excellent job with this English translation. We also find the corresponding Readings from the Prophets, the Haphtarot, for this book included in both the original Aramaic and their translation into English from the Aramaic Targumin.

Along with the work the authors contributed with the English translation of Targum Onkelos, they begin the book with an introductory essay on the Book of Numbers and the difficulties involved in the original translation from the Hebrew to Aramaic that Onkelos faced. Throughout the book we find a wealth of commentaries in English on the text from various sources. As well as study aids titled Onkelos Highlights and Beyond the Text segments that explore our topic more deeply and are defiantly written to provoke thought and debate.

There is no question in my mind that this series is a superb study aid and useful resource for anyone who wishes to study the literal meaning of Book of Numbers. The only note I must make is that there are many instances that the authors refer the reader to other volumes for a complete understanding to certain subjects or linguistic elements discussed. So this requires access to the other books in the series. Though with the quality of the work any student of the Bible Text will want the entire series. ( )

My first thought when I saw this book was wow! It's nicely bound, solid, but also a very attractive book with gold lettering and raised designs on the binding. The layout is more or less traditional, with the Beyond the Text and Onkelos Highlights segments layered in intuitively. The font is crisp and black and beautifully legible. The diacritical marks are distinct, and will be appreciated by anyone who wishes to study for extended periods of time.

I have had only a few weeks to familiarize myself with the book, but in the interests of time, I will make a few preliminary comments.

The footnotes are detailed and scholarly, and focus largely on linguistics and history. Where there are multiple meanings, they are discussed in a very straightforward and direct way, making this a valuable book for language students.

The Beyond the Text portions of the book draw the reader in with open-ended questions suitable for both scholars and laymen. It could easily be packaged separately as a series of stand-alone Bible studies for a more informal setting.

Although the intended audience is very clearly Jewish, the book would also fit into Christian settings and serve as a fine introduction to the Jewish tradition of discussion and debate, which may be entirely foreign to certain denominations. ( )

Although I have yet to utilize this volume to its full potential, the format and content both seem to be extremely appealing for biblical scholarship. Bound in an attractive hard back cover, this series continues to prove to be beneficial to those interested in Old Testament scholarship.

This is the fourth of five books presenting the Aramaic Targum Onkelos of the Pentateuch. Previous volumes have featured Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, this edition is Numbers, and the last planned, but not yet published, volume is on Deuteronomy.

This is the fourth of five books presenting the Aramaic Targum Onkelos of the Torah, or Pentateuch; previous volumes featured Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, this edition is Numbers, and the last planned volume is on Deuteronomy.

This book is handsome and well-made. It features introductions describing the purpose of the project, the challenges involved in interpreting Numbers, especially featuring the difficulty of the character of Balaam, some of the difficulties in translating words, and an extended discourse on the letter "hay" and how its presence or lack thereof was interpreted.

The actual text features Numbers in Hebrew, the Aramaic text of Targum Onkelos, Rashi's commentary in Hebrew, an English translation of the Aramaic text, and a running commentary in English describing textual difficulties, the various rabbis and their interpretation of the text, and similar matters. The book also features highlights of what is going on in the text and questions designed mostly for Jews in attempting to apply the text and its interpretation to their lives today. The book also contains the haphtarot for the various sections of Numbers, an appendix that features discussions of some of the questions that arise from a study of Numbers along with more expanded commentary on certain verses or difficulties, a glossary of certain terms, and a selected bibliography.

This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in studying Numbers. There is plenty for the scholar to consider and yet the explanations are composed so that most readers can have a good understanding of what is going on. Practically, the book is best suited for observant Jews, but anyone with an interest in the history of interpretation of Numbers will benefit from this book. ( )