Archaic Chronologies and the Textual History of the Old Testament

1974 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph W. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Greek

Recent studies in the chronology of the monarchical period have demonstrated that the variations between the chronologies of MT and LXX are not the result of isolated misreadings, but are a product of different chronological calculations. These studies have been important not only for historical reconstruction, including new proposals for identification of kings involved in various war, but they have shed a good deal of light on the history of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures and LXX, including the Old Greek and the proto-Lucianic and kaige recensions. Furthermore, it is now possible to assign priority to one chronological system over another, and to understand why the different systems arose.

Text-Critical Issues in Ezekiel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
Textual History ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
Old Greek

This chapter helps to orient the reader to the most important textual witnesses to the book of Ezekiel, and to the recent scholarly discussion about them; it then presents several representative text samples, to illustrate Ezekiel’s text history. Research on this book’s complicated textual history has developed significantly in the last half-century. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provided invaluable new data for understanding the history of the biblical text in the period of the Jewish Second Temple. New paradigms have emerged for research into the Old Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (a.k.a. “the Septuagint”). All of this has dramatically affected how scholars evaluate the text of Ezekiel.

The martyrdom of Daniel and the Three Youths

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-227
Author(s):  
Alexey Somov
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rewritten Bible

This article investigates the legend about the persecution and martyrdom of Daniel and his three companions at the hand of a wicked Persian king. This story is found in Eastern Orthodox liturgical, hagiographical, and homiletical texts and is based on extracanonical traditions similar to those of the “rewritten Bible” in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. The article investigates how the canonical story about Daniel and the Three Youths developed into this account of their martyrdom for Christ. The origins, liturgical function, and textual history of this legend are discussed, as well as its structure and tradition-history. My analysis demonstrates that this legend combines a martyrological account (similar to other stories about Jewish martyrs, for example, Daniel 3, 6; 2 Macc 7) with a reinterpretation of stories about biblical heroes. The legend also includes a resurrection story based on an unexpected exegesis of Matt 27:52–53 and 1 Cor 15:6.

Septuagintas betydning som en hellenistisk udgave af Det Gamle Testamente

2011 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
Mogens Müller
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Greek ◽  
The Church

The understanding of the role of the old Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, has undergone great changes in the last decennia. From looking upon the Hebrew text as the original and the Greek text as only a translation, it has now been common to view the Greek version as a chapter in a reception history of biblical traditions. By being used by New Testament authors and in the Early Church the Septuagint gained canonical status – alongside the Hebrew Bible. Thus the Old Testament of the Church in reality consists of both versions. The article argues for this also pointing to some of the theological consequences of viewing the connection between the two parts of the Christian Bible from the perspective of reception history.

Another Stage in the Redactional History of the Bel Story (Dan 14:1-22): The Evidence of Polemic against Foreign Priests and the Focus on Daniel in the Old Greek

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 481-496
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Trotter
Keyword(s):  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Greek

Abstract It is the contention of this paper that a comparison between the Theodotion and Old Greek versions of the Bel narrative (Dan 14:1-22) gives indications about some specific stages of the textual history of the story. Many of the distinctive elements in the Old Greek story suggest that in its core narrative the Old Greek represents a more thoroughly modified version of the story and even a variant literary edition. In the Old Greek, evidence of the development of the Bel narrative can be seen in its very concentrated focus on (1) the deception of the priests of Bel and (2) the centrality and cunning of Daniel. Both of these emphases in the Old Greek are interconnected and, it will be argued, result in a more pronounced tension between Daniel and the priests of Bel as well as a concentration of control almost exclusively with Daniel in the Old Greek.

The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Art History ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
History Of

The Septuagint is the term commonly used to refer to the corpus of early Greek versions of Hebrew Scriptures. The collection is of immense importance in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. The renderings of individual books attest to the religious interests of the substantial Jewish population of Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and to the development of the Greek language in its Koine phase. The narrative ascribing the Septuagint’s origins to the work of seventy translators in Alexandria attained legendary status among both Jews and Christians. The Septuagint was the version of Scripture most familiar to the writers of the New Testament, and became the authoritative Old Testament of the Greek and Latin Churches. In the early centuries of Christianity it was itself translated into several other languages, and it has had a continuing influence on the style and content of biblical translations. In the Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint leading experts in the field write on the history and manuscript transmission of the version, and explain the study of translation technique and textual criticism. They provide surveys of previous and current research on individual books of the Septuagint corpus, on alternative Jewish Greek versions, the Christian ‘daughter’ translations, and reception in early Jewish and Christian writers. The handbook also includes several ‘conversations’ with related fields of interest such as New Testament studies, liturgy, and art history.

The Non-Masoretic Hebrew Vorlage of the Old Greek Ezekiel (LXX967/LXXB), Other Non-Masoretic and Proto-Masoretic Ezekiel Texts: Evidence from Quotations of and Allusions to Ezekiel in Second Temple Judaism

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-351
Author(s):  
Karin Finsterbusch
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
First Century ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Textual History ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Greek ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract In Second Temple Jewish Literature, more than a hundred quotations of and allusions to Ezekiel are preserved. Although only a few of them are text-critically relevant, these cases may help to shed light on the complex textual history of the book. In this article, eleven cases of quotations and allusions are analyzed in detail: Six cases should be regarded as evidence for the existence of the non-masoretic Hebrew Vorlage of the Old Greek Ezekiel. In two of these cases, non-aligned textual elements appear as well. Taken together with two non-aligned cases in the Damascus Document, these quotations and allusions substantiate the assumption that even more non-masoretic Ezekiel texts were in use until the beginning of the first century BCE—alongside proto-masoretic Ezekiel texts, which are attested by three cases of quotations and allusions.

scholarly journals The Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project (THEOT): Goals and Initial Findings

Textus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-110
Author(s):  
Daniel Assefa ◽  
Steve Delamarter ◽  
Garry Jost ◽  
Ralph Lee ◽  
Curt Niccum
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article offers an introduction to the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT) project. This includes a description of the background to THEOT and its primary purpose of mapping the history of the transmission of the Ethiopic Old Testament. The bulk of the article summarizes the project’s preliminary findings, generally, and, in particular, about Ethiopic Psalms, Song of Songs, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Haggai. Some attention is also given to evidences of contact with the Hebrew text tradition, although the Ethiopic is clearly a daughter version of the LXX.

scholarly journals “Old Testament Awareness” and the Textual Tradition of the Explicit Quotations of Isaiah in Codex Bezae’s Acts

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-378
Author(s):  
Ronald H. van der Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Acts Of The Apostles ◽  
Subsequent Change ◽  
Textual Tradition ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of

This article investigates the textual history of the explicit quotations of Isaiah in the Acts of the Apostles of Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis (Acts 7:49-50; 13:34; 13:47) by introducing the concept of “Old Testament awareness.” This concept can be defined as the degree to which a nt tradition, at any stage of its transmission history, is aware of a quotation stemming from the ot. ot awareness can be identified in the layout of Codex Bezae (e.g., the indentation of text in the manuscript to indicate ot quotations), the text of quotations (e.g., readings that can be shown to be a subsequent change towards an ot tradition) and the context of the quoted text (e.g., the quotations’ introductory formulae). Through assessing the ot awareness of Codex Bezae’s explicit quotations of Isaiah, different stages in the transmission history of the text of these quotations in Codex Bezae’s Acts can be identified.

The Promises to David and their Entrance into Christianity—Nailing down a Likely Hypothesis

1973 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Duling
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Hebrew Scriptures ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of

The fundamental outlook in what follows is that there is a fairly consistent, compact, yet expanding and developing promise tradition which is founded on the promises to David (and his descendants) in the Hebrew Scriptures; that this tradition in certain ways has been rejuvenated and strengthened in the early Christian period; and that it enters Christianity in connection with the application of these promises to Jesus' resurrection apart from the title Son of David itself, a title whose acceptance and adaptation in early Christianity appears on both historical and redaction critical grounds to be relatively late. The hypothesis is not totally new. My intention will be to put some older information into what will hopefully be an illuminating perspective, to draw out some implications from the perspective itself, and to nail down the hypothesis of the use of Old Testament texts in connection with the resurrection of Jesus a little tighter. I have not undertaken here to trace out a history of tradition in the New Testament such as can now be found in C. Burger's excellent study,Jesus als Davidssohn, though the direction of the paper will support the legitimacy of his starting point in early Christian formulae.

LXX Jeremiah 25 and 36 in the light of Jewish literature of the time: On the word usage related to exile and diaspora

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arie Van der Kooij
Keyword(s):  
History Of The Book ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Word Usage ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Old Greek

This article is not meant to contribute to the debate on the textual history of the book of Jeremiah but intends to examine specific data in the Old Greek version (Septuagint [LXX] Jeremiah) in the light of Jewish literature at the time of the translator. The angle of approach concerns the word usage related to exile and diaspora in LXX Jeremiah 25 and 36, on the one hand, and 2 Maccabees 1–2 and Tobit 14, on the other hand. I shall argue that the latter two texts display a usage of the terminology involved that at the same time is related to a particular view of the post-exilic age. After a brief discussion of the terminology involved from a broader perspective, LXX Jeremiah 25 and 36 are looked at from a perspective obtained from the analysis of the two contemporary texts.Contribution: This article fits within the scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies since it contributes to research regarding historical thought (source interpretation, reception of and traditions about Jeremiah) and hermeneutics.

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