The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1749 page)

see
YÜN-MEN WEN-YEN
.

 
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Onias
.

Four Jewish
high priests
of the second
Temple
period. Onias I (4th cent. BCE) is mentioned in
1 Maccabees
12. 20–3; Onias II (late 3rd cent. BCE) was involved in the war between Ptolemy III and Queen Leodice; Onias III (2nd cent. BCE) was deposed by Antiochus IV; and Onias IV, son of Onias III, erected a temple in
Leontopolis
.

 
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Onkelos
.

Translator of the Hebrew
Bible
into
Aramaic
. Onkelos stays close to the Hebrew text, but its choice of words etc., shows that it is related to the Palestinian targum tradition with its incorporation of exegesis.

 
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see
KOSHIN
.

 
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Ontic theories
:

see
ONTOLOGY
.

 
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Ontological argument
.

An argument for God's existence, first formulated by
Anselm
(1033–1109) in his
Proslogion
, chs. 2–3. Anselm argued that since anyone can think of ‘a being than which no greater can be conceived’, such a being must exist at least in the understanding; but if it existed only in the understanding, we could conceive of an even greater being, namely one existing both in the understanding and in reality; therefore, the being than which no greater can be conceived must exist both in the understanding and in reality. In ch. 3 he went on to argue that this being must exist necessarily.

 
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