Translating Anger : A comparison of the Masoretic and Greek text of the Septuagint of the Book of Proverbs1

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-336
Author(s):  
Petra von Gemünden
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Basic Emotion ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Greek Translation

Abstract What particularities can be observed in the translation of notions of “anger” from the Hebrew to the Greek language, from a Semitic to a Hellenistic culture? This question is examined in an exemplary manner with reference to the oldest sapiential book of the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Proverbs, and its Greek translation in the Septuagint, since ProvLXX is a particularly free, receptor language oriented translation. Four tendencies can be detected in the LXX-translation of this basic emotion: the tendencies to theologization, to ethicization, to psychologization and, most clearly, the tendency to politicization.

The Slavonic Book of Esther: Translation from Hebrew or Evidence for a Lost Greek Text?

1994 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horace G. Lunt ◽  
Moshe Taube
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
Old Greek

Fifty years ago, Charles C. Torrey, writing about Esther, asked on the pages of this journal, “Why is there no Greek translation of the Hebrew text? Every other book of the Hebrew Bible, whatever its nature, has its faithful rendering (at least one, often several) in Greek. For the canonical Esther, on the contrary, no such version is extant, nor is there evidence that one ever existed.” It is common knowledge that the extant Greek versions of Esther, both the longer Septuagint text and the shorter A-text, are textually distant from the Hebrew Masoretic version. Indeed, the distance is so great that when a passage in the Complutensian edition (5:1–2) does correspond to the Masoretic text, Robert Hanhart confidently labels it as “newly translated.” His characterization seems justified in this case; the two verses required a new translation because the original Septuagint text had been removed, along with the apocryphal addition D, and put at the end of the book in accordance with the Latin tradition. Hanhart correctly states, “It is improbable that such an intervention, which sacrifices the inner coherence of the Greek text to the benefit of the Masoretic text, belongs to old Greek tradition,” indicating “a scholarly re-working according to the Masoretic text in the period of the Renaissance”; his confidence, however, rests on the fact that scholarly literature contains nothing about a Greek Esther that resembles the Masoretic text.

Symmachus

2021 ◽  
pp. 467-479
Author(s):  
Michaël N. van der Meer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Old Greek

The discussion of the third of the Jewish revisers, Symmachus, focuses on the questions of authorship, religious affiliation, and political purposes of his Greek translation/revision of the Hebrew Bible. Special attention is given to the idea that this Symmachus was identical to a pupil of Rabbi Meir. Furthermore the motives behind the new revision are explored: it may well be that this new Greek version of the Hebrew Bible not only sought to bring the Old Greek translations into closer agreement with the standardized Hebrew text (MT) and accommodate the unintelligible Greek version of Aquila to a more lucid and understandable Greek text. The translation may also have tried to convey a policy of quietism and cohabitation with the Roman Empire as opposed to the more militant and messianic overtones in the works of its predecessors.

Haggai and Zechariah in Greek Psalm Superscriptions

Textus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Michael Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Do So

Abstract The multiplication of psalm superscriptions in the Greek Psalter vis-à-vis the MT raises a question about whether such additions were prompted by the Hebrew or by the Greek text. The present article attempts to answer this question specifically regarding the addition of the names of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah in LXX-Pss 110; 111; 137; 138; 145–150 (= MT 111; 112; 138; 139; 146–150). The thesis is that these names were added secondarily and exclusively within Greek tradition, but the basis for the decision to do so in each case can be traced back to the main body of the Hebrew psalm behind the Greek translation in one of three ways. Thus, the superscriptions are not only part of the history of interpretation of the Greek Psalter but also part of the history of interpretation of the Hebrew text behind it.

scholarly journals The Book of Obadiah in the Septuagint

2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 63-116
Author(s):  
Barbara Strzałkowska
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Text Content

The Book of Obadiah, although short (it has only 21 verses; the shortest in the Hebrew Bible), is at the same time very difficult. The difficulties are manifested in its linguistic and textual layers, but above all in what concerns its content, theology and interpretation. The Greek translation of Obad contained in the LXX is particularly important because it represents a way of understanding the Book going back to pre-Christian, Hellenistic times, which strongly emphasised the theme of threats to Israel from other nations. In the Greek translation (LXXObad), the cursing character of the Book is radicalised and the guilt of the enemies (Edomites – Idumeans) is highlighted. The article presents the Book of Obadiah in its historical context (both the Hebrew original and the Greek version), and presents its text, content and character in the Septuagint version. It compares it with LXXJer 29 (LXX numbering) and shows how the challenging theology of the Book was understood among the Jews of Hellenistic Alexandria. The universalisation of the message of the Book by the LXX translation was later continued in its patristic and rabbinic interpretations.

The Text of Jeremiah: Re-Examining the Evidence from Kings

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
James Frohlich ◽  
Henk de Waard
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Hebrew Version ◽  
Old Greek ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Parallel Texts

Abstract Jeremiah 52 largely parallels 2 Kgs 25, and Jer 40–43 contains various sentences that are also found in 2 Kgs 25:22–26. The present article compares these parallel texts, in order to determine the relationship between the Masoretic text of Jeremiah and the book’s Old Greek translation. It concludes that this relationship is complex, but that the agreements between the Greek text of Jeremiah and the Hebrew text of Kings support the view that the Old Greek of Jeremiah reflects an early Hebrew version of the book.

How to Edit an Elusive Text? The So-called Poem of Solomon (1 Kgs 8:12–13 MT // 8:53a LXX) as a Case Study

Textus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-228
Author(s):  
Matthieu Richelle
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
The Creation

AbstractThe creation of an eclectic edition of the Hebrew Bible is complicated by the hypothetical nature of reconstructing its textual evolution, and the uncertainty involved in retroversion from Greek to Hebrew. These issues are especially apparent in the case of the so-called “poem of Solomon” (1 Kgs 8:12–13 MT // 8:53a LXX), which I examine here as a case study to demonstrate that even such a difficult text can be dealt with responsibly in a critical, eclectic edition. Specifically, I show how such an edition can adequately address the retroversion of the Greek text, the existence of two versions of the poem, and the location of this poem in the chapter.

Pentecostal Canon of the Bible?

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Marius Nel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Pentecostal Movement ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jewish Christians

Classical Pentecostalism is traditionally regarded as a restorationist movement that justified its origins and explained its new practices as a continuation of the early church, as a work of the Spirit. For that reason, the gifts of the Spirit (charismata) were purportedly restored to the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement. Early Pentecostalism also claimed that they followed the early church in its hermeneutical prerogatives of reading the Bible through the lens of their charismatic practices. The article poses the question whether Pentecostalism in its restorationist urge should not reconsider its canon, since it differs from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible used by the early church, to include the books found in the Septuagint, the translation used by early non-Jewish Christians. It suggests that Pentecostals reconsider their biblical canon in the light of their restorationist urge rather than groundlessly following the Protestant canon as their predecessors did by using the Apocrypha as deuterocanonical, implying that it is accepted for personal and ecclesial edification but not for judging the genuineness of gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not (1 Cor. 12.10) and establishing the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines.

I nomi dell’amore: Un’indagine sulla traduzione latina del Commento al Cantico dei Cantici di Origene

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vito Limone
Keyword(s):  
Song Of Songs ◽  
Latin Translation ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
Latin Language

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to compare the Greek fragments of Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs and the Latin translation by Rufinus. In particular, in Commentarius in Canticum Canticorum, prol. 2,20 the Latin text lists four names of the love: amor and cupido with regard to the physical love, and dilectio and caritas with regard to the spiritual love. In Greek fragments there are only “agape” with regard to the spiritual love and “eros” with regard to the physical love. Then, this paper aims to compare the Greek language through which Origen expresses the love in the fragments with the Latin language in which Rufinus translates Origen’s original text, so Rufinus seems to have complicated the original Greek text of Origen. Moreover, the paper lists also other important words through which Origen expresses the love in the fragments, i.e. “philia” and “philanthropia.”

How Not to Use 3 Reigns: A Plea to Scholars of the Books of Kings

2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. M. Law
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
The Other ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
1 Kings

AbstractThe authors of two recent monographs have attempted to discredit the view that the Greek translation of 1 Kings was based on a Hebrew text that differed from the MT. One argues that the translator was responsible, while the other suggests the divergences are the result of inner-Greek revisional activity. While these arguments are not entirely original, they are the latest attempts to challenge the more commonly held view that the Greek translator did in fact translate faithfully from a Hebrew text at odds with the MT. This article assesses these arguments, and concludes with a plea to scholars writing Hebrew Bible commentaries on the books of Kings.

Agustín y la Biblia griega en las 'Enarrationes in Psalmos'

Augustinus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Caruso ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saint Augustine ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Latin Text ◽  
Greek Language ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Saint Jerome ◽  
Enarrationes In Psalmos ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Point Of Departure

The article presents a summary of the ideas of different scholars concerning the real knowledge that Saint Augustine had of the Greek Language, to point out that the competence of Saint Augustine was increasing over the years. It also addresses the relationship between Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome regarding the translations of the Bible, and the value that Saint Augustine attributed to the LXX text. Subsequently, some examples taken from the 'enarrationes in Psalmos' help to stress the work of the augustinian emendatio of the Latin text, taking as point of departure the Greek text, as well as the use the Greek text in Augustine’s own textual interpretation of the psalms.

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