[Avodah] Concordance of Onkelos

[Akiva Miller]

.
In the few years that I've been learning Chumash with Onkelos, I've become
fascinated with his translation style, and I have many conjectures which
would be a lot easier to research if I had the right tools.

For example, consider the Aramaic word "rav" (resh beis), or, with the
definite article, "raba" (resh beis aleph). Onkelos seems to use this exact
same Aramaic word as a translation of several different Hebrew words. For
example, he uses it for a Jewish Nasi (Bemidbar 7:12), an Edomi Aluf
(Bereshis 36:15), and a Mitzri Saris (Bereshis 37:36). [Those are just
examples; these words appear in many pesukim.]

Last week I noticed the word Aluf appear many times near the end of
Vayishlach, and I wondered about its exact meaning. Then I discovered that
in the great majority of cases throughout Tanach, Aluf appears in the
context of Edom. Given that Onkelos translates it the same way as Nasi, I'm
wondering it Aluf might not be a Hebrew word at all, but a
transliteration of the title the Edom gave to their leaders.

This week, I saw the same thing about many of the Egyptians who Yosef came
into contact with. They are described/titled as "s'ris", but Onkelos
translates it consistently as some form of the word "rav". So I started to
wonder if "saris" might *not* be Hebrew for "eunuch" as I had thought, but
simply be the Mitzri equivalent of Aluf. Lo and behold, I was surprised to
find that *none* of my Chumash translations have "eunuch" in this parsha,
and it seems that I have just now stumbled onto something that most of you
already knew. [My memory is awful, but it is likely that in the past, I
noticed that "saris" was translated as minister or chief or something
similar, but I had shrugged it off as a euphemism. Today I have come to
realize that it's not a euphemism for eunuch, but an accurate translation
of the Egyptian title.]

But I'd still love to find a concordance of Onkelos. I'd look for other
instances of "rav", "raba", and "rav'rvei" (the plural). After all, Edom
and Mitzrayim aren't the only other nations mentioned in the Chumash. And
there are lots of other words I'd like to look up also. And if no one knows
of a concordance, does anyone know of a website that has an
easily-searchable text of Onkelos?

Thanks!

Akiva Miller

PS - I just came across Rashi on Bereshis 41:45, who says that Potiphar and
Poti-Fera are the same person, and that he was indeed impotent. But Rashi's
description of how he became impotent seems to confirm my suspicion, that
referring to him as a saris has less to do with biology, and more to do
with politics.
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