A Linguistic Inquiry Solves an Ancient Crime: Re-examination of 2 Samuel 4:6*

2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Mastéy
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Personal Attitude ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
2 Samuel

AbstractSecond Samuel 4 describes the assassination of Ish-Bosheth, the last successor of Saul, by two of his brigade commanders. Verse 6 in this chapter gives the account of the actual killing. The verse has long been reckoned as problematic from the linguistic and literary points of view. Traditional Jewish commentators tried to solve the textual problem by means of syntactical completions. The Septuagint gives a different account here, which most scholars have adopted as original. A few, however, have raised the possibility that the Greek version is actually an attempt to solve the difficulties in the Hebrew text. In this article, I attempt to show that the Masoretic text is accurate and completely comprehensible. Furthermore, it sheds light on the entire scene, and brings to the front the personal attitude of the biblical narrator towards David and his kingship.

On Word Order in the Vulgate 3: Discontinuities in the Order of Noun and Modifier

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 213-226
Author(s):  
Roland Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Intermediate Area ◽  
Simple Combination

SummaryThe following study will show that in the Vulgate there are far from few discontinuous orders present without any indication in the Hebrew text. These instances include the following patterns: first many examples whose intermediate area is constituted by particles connecting the sentence. They have already been partly coined in the Septuagint, but also, especially in the case of quoque, formed by Jerome to avoid the simple combination of the original and the Greek version. In cases when other words stand in the intermediate area Jerome, even in poetical texts, finds new ways to emphasize the first element of a hyperbaton. Similarly, he often resorts to this method in original texts.

Bathsheba in Contemporary Romance Novels

2020 ◽  
pp. 405-423
Author(s):  
Sara M. Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Reception History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Kings 1 ◽  
Romance Novels ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
1 Kings ◽  
2 Samuel

The biblical texts about Bathsheba have notorious gaps, even by the laconic standards of Hebrew narrative. Post-biblical receptions of the story flesh out the terse chapters of 2 Samuel 11–12 and 1 Kings 1–2, ascribing feelings and motives to Bathsheba and David that are not contained in the Hebrew text. This essay examines the intersection of reception history and feminist biblical scholarship by considering eleven novels about Bathsheba from the twentieth and twenty-first century. These novels expand Bathsheba’s character beyond the text, but in fairly gender stereotypical ways, such that feminist readers of the novels may be left wanting more.

scholarly journals The Tyrian King in MT and LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Lydia Lee
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Israelite Religion ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Fluid Boundary

The biblical prophecy in Ezekiel 28:11–19 records a dirge against the king from Tyre. While the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) identifies the monarch as a cherub, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) distinguishes the royal from the cherub. Scholarly debates arise as to which edition represents the more original version of the prophecy. This article aims to contribute to the debates by adopting a text-critical approach to the two variant literary editions of the dirge, comparing and analyzing their differences, while incorporating insights gleaned from the extra-biblical literature originating from the ancient Near East, Second Temple Period, and Late Antiquity. The study reaches the conclusion that the current MT, with its presentation of a fluid boundary between the mortal and divine, likely builds on a more ancient interpretation of the Tyrian king. On the other hand, while the Hebrew Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15 resembles the Hebrew text of the MT, the Greek translator modifies the text via literary allusions and syntactical rearrangement, so that the final result represents a later reception that suppresses any hints at the divinity of the Tyrian ruler. The result will contribute to our understanding of the historical development of the ancient Israelite religion.

The Books of Samuel

2021 ◽  
pp. 215-224
Author(s):  
Anneli Aejmelaeus
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Books Of Samuel ◽  
Textual Research

The textual history of the books of Samuel, both in Greek and in Hebrew, is laden with problems that the researcher needs to be acquainted with, whatever the focus of textual research. The Septuagint translation shows a close word-for-word correspondence to its Hebrew Vorlage, however, not without occasional freedom of translation, especially in lexical choices and grammatical forms, as well as erroneous translation due to defective knowledge of Hebrew. The Hebrew Vorlage used by the translator differed at times substantially from the later Masoretic Text, used for comparison during the early textual history of the Septuagint text as well as in research today. Not only is the Masoretic Text corrupted but it underwent editorial changes until the turn of the era. Textual differences caused by both the translator and the editors of the Hebrew text must have occasioned the repeated revisions of the Greek text by Jewish and Christian scribes.

scholarly journals The Anti-Bogomil Anathemas in the Synodikon of Tsar Boril and in the Discourse of Kosmas the Presbyter against the Bogomils

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Totomanova
Keyword(s):  
Original Form ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
National Library ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Romanian Academy ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Different Sources

During the last dеcade the history of the Synodikon of the Оrthodoxy in Medieval Bulgaria has been tackled upon from different points of view. The author of this paper provided substantial evidence proving that the Synodikon of Tsar Boril did not survive in its original form. By the end of the 14th c. the original translation was amended and edited in order to be installed in a canonical-liturgical compilation (archieratikon) that includes texts and services related to the Feast of Orthodoxy. The compilation is kept in the National Library in Palauzov’s collection No 289. Additional information about the different sources of some rubrics of the Synodikon, which do not correspond to its Greek version, was also provided. Recently we have discovered that the text, preserved in a collection of Damasckin type from the beginning of 16th c. (Drinov’s copy) represents indeed a compilation: its first part (the canonical one) contains the translation of the Palaeologan version of the Synodikon, which survived also in a triodion from the Library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. The second part of the compilation however coincides with the text of the Synodikon of Tsar Boril with all amendments related to the Bulgarian history – rulers, patriarchs, bishops and nobles. This “Bulgarian” part of the Synodikon includes a series of anathemas against Bogomils, that do not have Greek correspondences and generally repeat the anti-Bogomils anathemas taken from the Letter of Patriarch Kosmas in a simpler language more understandable to the faithful. This paper is tracing the connection between these anathemas and the Anti-Bogomils anathemas in the Discourse of Kosmas the Presbyter against the Bogomils.

The Double Text of Jeremiah Revisited

2021 ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Alexander Rofé
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Book Of Jeremiah ◽  
The Church

From the time of the Church Fathers, it has been recognized that the Greek translation (LXX) of the book of Jeremiah is shorter than the received Hebrew text (MT). Modern assessments of this textual situation have viewed the LXX as between one-eighth and one-sixth shorter than the corresponding Masoretic text of the book of Jeremiah. Since manuscripts have been found at Qumran that seem to confirm the antiquity of the shorter LXX recension, many explanations for this editorial discrepancy have focused on the phenomenon of editorial expansion within the Masoretic tradition. This chapter presents a range of counter-evidence demonstrating that the LXX has been subjected to a sustained process of editorial concision.

On the Vorlage, Tendenz, and Scribal Negligence of AT Esth 1:10–15

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Lydia Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Sitz Im Leben

Abstract In this article, a section of the Alpha-Text Esther story (1:10–15) is brought to the foreground to reveal the hitherto unrecognized hints that point to the Hebrew Vorlage, the literary Tendenz, and the scribal negligence unparalleled in either the Septuagint or the Masoretic text. All these literary phenomena suggest that the Alpha-Text and the Masoretic text versions reflect two variant archetypes of a Hebrew text, but this does not mean that both archetypes cannot overlap at places. When the archetypes do overlap, some of the unique readings in the Alpha-Text actually reflect later exegeses or misunderstandings that are dependent on the readings preserved in both the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. The later exegeses in particular help locate the Sitz im Leben of Alpha-Text Esth 1:10–15 in the Hasmonean period and thereafter when the Jewish-gentile relationship is strained.

‘May YHWH avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you’ (1 Sam. 24:13): Mapping land and resistance in the ‘biographical’ notes of the ‘Book’ of Psalms

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-435
Author(s):  
David Willgren
Keyword(s):  
Masoretic Text ◽  
2 Samuel

The ‘biographical’ notes of the Masoretic ‘Book’ of Psalms are often understood as placing the psalms in dialogue with 1-2 Samuel, and casting David as a pious exemplar. As David prayed psalms in his distress, so can anyone. Indebted to an influential article by Brevard Childs, many scholars also see early traces of midrashic exegesis. However, this is not entirely persuasive, and to inquire into these issues, the article proceeds from the observation that many of the ‘biographical’ notes cluster around similar events. In most of them, David is fleeing from Saul. Following a survey of the ‘biographical’ notes in both the Masoretic text and the Septuagint, it is argued that the often-suggested connections between the psalms and 1-2 Samuel are quite weak, and that a better way to understand the addition of ‘biographical’ notes is found when reading them in light of a resurfacing Saulide–Davidic rivalry in post-exilic times.

Elijah and the ‘Voice’ at Horeb (1 Kings 19): Narrative Sequence in the Masoretic Text and Josephus

2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-94
Author(s):  
Max Rogland
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
The Common ◽  
1 Kings ◽  
The Voice

Abstract This study examines the peculiar narrative sequence in the Masoretic Text of 1 Kgs 19.11-13, in which Elijah appears to delay obeying the “still small voice”. It examines Josephus’ version of the account, which presents a different narrative sequence, arguing that it represents a reading of the Hebrew text that is grammatically and exegetically superior to the common interpretation.

scholarly journals Reflective Understanding

Wisdom ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 176-202
Author(s):  
John Kekes
Keyword(s):  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Attitude ◽  
The Social ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Do So

Reflective understanding involves the evaluation of our personal attitude formed of our changing, often faulty, and frequently conflicting beliefs, emotions, desires, experiences, and evaluations. Their evaluation proceeds from two points of view. One is that of our personal attitude. The other is the point of view of the various modes of evaluations that jointly form the evaluative framework of the context in which we live. Both kinds of evaluations may be faulty. Reflective understanding involves the critical evaluation of the reasons for and against the prevailing social evaluations that follow from our personal attitude and of the reasons for and against our personal attitude that follow from the prevailing social evaluations. The test of the adequacy of our personal attitude is our satisfaction with our life. And the test of social evaluations is the continued long-term allegiance of those who follow the social evaluations, although they need not do so.

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