The Hebrew Bible says "the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were fair" (Genesis 6:2). Targum Onkelos changes "sons of God" to "sons of rulers." This single substitution eliminates an entire mythology.
The Hebrew phrase bnei ha-Elohim—"sons of God"—generated enormous speculation in the ancient world. Were these angels? Divine beings? Fallen celestial creatures who mated with human women? The Book of Enoch built an elaborate mythology around this reading. But Onkelos will have none of it. The "sons of God" were powerful men—aristocrats, rulers, the elite class. Their sin was not cosmic rebellion. It was the abuse of political power to take whatever women they wanted.
Onkelos also adds interpretive brackets that reshape God's famous declaration: "My spirit will not continue to judge man forever, since he is nothing but flesh. His days shall be one hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3). Onkelos explains: "This evil generation shall not exist before Me forever, since they are flesh and their deeds are evil. I will give them a period of one hundred and twenty years for them to repent." The 120 years is not a new human lifespan. It is a grace period—a window for repentance before the Flood.
The "giants" (Nephilim) of (Genesis 6:4) become simply "mighty ones" and "men of renown"—no supernatural origin, no half-divine hybrid creatures. When God "regretted" making humanity, Onkelos writes that God "was comforted in His Word"—not that God experienced regret as a human emotion, but that a decision was reached through the divine Word. Every choice Onkelos makes serves the same purpose: keeping God transcendent and keeping humanity fully, irreducibly human.