"... Virtually all modern Onkelos commentators are convinced that if they analyze the Onkelos text carefully they will uncover halakhah and exegesis, elements of the Oral Law. They refuse to accept the view that the Aramaic translation was written only to inform the general non-Hebrew-speaking population of the plain meaning of the Torah text. Onkelos did deviate from a literal rendering of the Pentateuch in thousands of instances, but only for the reasons described in our introduction, which do not include teaching the Oral Law. Indeed, at times he translated passages contrary to accepted rabbinic halakhic interpretation when he felt that his reading of the passage’s plain meaning warranted it ..."