LE X I C A L
Many of the resources for Septuagint study have already been cited. Hatch and Redpath’s concordance should be underscored as the most efficient port of entry into the treasures of the Septuagint. Peter Katz and Joseph Ziegler spearheaded the task of indexing afresh the hexaplaric authors.2* Swete’s Introduction still wears well on introductory matters. Richard R. Ottley’s A Handbook to the Septuagint (London, 1920) includes a helpful glossary.
20 Ernst Wiirthwein, The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica, trans. Errol1 F. Rhodes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979; reprinted, 1992, with “Addenda”), 73.
21 P. Katz and J. Ziegler, “Ein Aquila-Index in Vorbereitung:’ VT 8 (1958): 264-85
74 Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study The Greek Old Testament 75 Johann F. Schleusner’s Novus thesaurus philologico-criticus: sive lexicon in
LXX, et reliquos interpretes Graecos ac scriptores apocryphos Veteris Testamenti, 5 ~01s. (Leipzig, 1820-21), has been reprinted photomechanically, but his work is merely an amplification of J. Christian Biel’s Novus thesaurus philologicus sive lexicon in LXX, ed. E. H. Mutzenbecher; 3 ~01s. (The Hague, 1779), and displays throughout the unlexical procedure of Biel. For statistical analysis one must use F. Rehkopf, Septuaginta-Vokabular (Giittingen: Vanden- hoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), which exhibits in columnar form the complete vocabulary of the LXX as exhibited in the Hatch-Redpath concordance. In addition to furnishing statistics on usage, the layout permits ready identifica- tion of the Hebrew or Aramaic equivalents, and calls attention to occurrences in the New Testament.
Along with others, Takamitsu Muraoka looked to the future, “Towards a Septuagint Lexicon, in VI Congress of the International Orgunizution for” Septuagint and Cognate Studies, ed. Claude E. Cox; SBLSCS 23 (Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 1987), 255-76, with emphasis on the Minor Prophets. In 1992 some of the dreams became reality in the first part of A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuugint, covering the letters A-I (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1992). The compilation was done by J. Lust, E. Eynikel, and K. Hauspie in collaboration with G. Chamberlain and draws on the files of CATSS (Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies, ed. R. A. Kraft and E. Tov). A statistical feature improves on Xavier Jacques, Index des mats apparent& dans la Septante, Subsidia biblica (Rome, 1972); English: List of Septuagint Words Sharing Common Elements (Rome, 1972). Somewhat along the lines of the Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (see below, chap. 7), the work by Lust et al. is a modest stepping stone to a large-scale lexicon. Especially helpful in the introduction is the review of previous lexical work.
GR A M M A T I C A L
Mirabile dictu, no complete grammar of the Septuagint is yet available. Only a few have even entertained the challenge, of whom Henry St. John Thackeray especially stands out for his A Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuugint (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1909), which unfortunately covers only orthography, phonology, and morphol- ogy, but makes use of the papyri. Somewhat less valued is Robert Helbing’s Grammatik der Septuaginta: Laut- und Wortlehre (Gdttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1907), but his work on syntax, Die Kasussyntax der Verba bei den Septuaginta: Ein Beitrag ZUY Hebraismenfrage und ZUY Syntax der xoiv?j (Gottingen, 1928) is given better marks. Conybeare and Stock, Selections from the Septuagint (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1905), includes an introduction, a discussion of grammar, and selections of readings from the Septuagint for
the beginner in Septuagint studies. Swete’s “The Septuagint as a Version,” chap.
5 in his Introduction, is also intended for the beginner.
The rationale behind Greek structure for Hebrew expression in the Greek versions has long been a source of perplexity. One of the more determined investigators of the problem is Martin Johannessohn, three of whose instruc- tive articles are frequently cited in BAGD: “Der Gebrauch der Kasus und der Prapositionen in der Septuaginta” (Diss., Berlin, 1910); “Das biblische xai ky&vve~o und seine Geschichte,” Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung 53 (1925): 161-212; “Das biblische xai i??oG in der Erzahlung samt seiner hebraischen Vorlage,” Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung 66 (1939):
145-95. We are also grateful for a collection of seventeen essays by Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen published during the years 1965-86 on renderings of a variety of Hebrew constructions; the selection was made and edited in his honor by two students, Anneli Aejmelaeus and Raija Sollamo, and is titled Studien
ZUY Septuaginta-Syntax: Zu seinem 70. Geburtstag am 4 Juni 1987 Annalas Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Ser. B, 237 (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiede- akatemia, 1987).
A work edited by D. Fraenkel, U. Quast, and J. W. Wevers, Studien ZUY Septuaginta - Robert Hanhart zu Ehren: Aus Anlass seines 65. Geburtstages, Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 20 (Gdttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1990), contains specialized studies relating to grammar and sources of readings in various text traditions.
TE X T U A L-C R I T I C A L
Before attempting reconstruction of the Hebrew text, one must read Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research (Jerusalem:
Simor Ltd., 1981), and his Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1992). See also Peter Katz, The Text of the Septuagint: Its Corruptions and Their Emendation, ed. D. W. Gooding (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1973).
Tov, with R. A. Kraft and P. J. Parsons, has fulfilled scholars’ expectations with the full and official publication of a work that will have far-reaching effects on textual criticism of the LXX, The Greek Minor Prophets Scrollfrom Nahal Hever (8HevXIIgr): The Seiydl Collection I, Discoveries in the Judean Desert 8 (Oxford, 1990).
TH E FU T U R E
Robert A. Kraft, who misses no opportunity to pull scholars into the electronic age through reports in the Religious Studies Review, has now, together with
76 Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study
Emanuel Tov, and with the assistance of John R. Abercrombie and William Adler, ushered in a new era in Septuagint studies with the production of the first volume, Ruth, in the series Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies (CATSS); SBLSCS 20 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986).
TR A N S L ATI O N S
The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament with an English Translation and with Various Readings and Critical Notes (London and New York: Samuel Bagster and Sons, n.d. [ca. 1956]), includes the translation of the LXX according to Codex Vaticanus, prepared by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee-Brenton and published in London in 1844. It is more reliable than the overadvertised reissue of The Septuagint Bible: The Oldest Version of the Old Testament, trans. Charles Thomson; ed. rev. and enlarged by Charles Arthur Muses (Indian Hills, Colo., 1954).22
22 The extravagant advertising claims made by the publisher of this edition are scathingly reviewed in Biblica 37 (1956): 497-500. For a sketch of the life of Charles Thomson (1729-1824), see John H. P. Reumann, “Philadelphia’s Patriot Scholar:’ in his The Romance of Bible Scripts and Scholars: Chapters in the History of Bible Transmissions and Translation (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1965); see also his comments on Muses’s edition, pp. 142-43; for references to reviews and responses by Muses, see ibid. p. 227, endnote 27.
C H A P T E R F I V E
The Use
of the Septuagint
u 0
F WHAT USE is the Septuagint to me in my Biblical studies?” The question echoes in the halls of biblical inquiry. “I have my Rahlfs;what do I do with it?”
There is enough in the LXX to appeal to almost anyone. Lovers of sound textual criticism will find here a deep sea of alluring opportunity. Students of theology will be intrigued by the subtle alterations of the text effected by the Alexandrians. Old Testament interpreters will appreciate the light shed by this version on obscure words and syntax. Philologists will note the evolu- tion of meanings. As for New Testament expositors, lavish are their endow- ments; they will have new visions, dream new dreams.
It is well that users of the LXX thoroughly familiarize themselves at the outset with the varying systems of reference in the printed texts of the LXX occasioned by departure from the chapter and verse divisions found in the MT and vernacular versions. These variations are traceable, in part, to the vagaries of printers before the divisions of the biblical text had been more or less standardized and, in part, to deviations of the LXX text from that of the MT.
The major differences between the divisions of the LXX and the MT are to be found in the Psalms and Jeremiah. Since Psalms 9 and 10 of the MT are printed as one psalm in editions of the LXX, the enumeration from Psalm 10 to Psalm 146 in the LXX is one chapter short of the MT. A division of Psalm 147 (MT) into Psalms 146 and 147 in the LXX restores the MT chapter division.
The dislocations in Jeremiah are more complicated, but with a little patience one can easily master them. It must be remembered that the MT divides Jeremiah into fifty-two chapters. The LXX introduces its translation of chaps.
46-51, with liberal rearrangement of the contents, at 25:13 and continues with its enumeration as if no transposition had taken place. Jeremiah 25:13b, 15-38 (MT) is picked up again (chap. 32 LXX) after chaps. 46-51 (MT) have been translated, but the editors of the LXX, in order to maintain the
77
The Use of the Septuagint 79 78 Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study
versification of the MT, must begin a new chapter and omit the numbers 1 to 12. The words &au txpocpfizeuo~v Ispeptac &cl x&a r& &8vq, which form a part of 25:13 (MT), were dropped in the LXX’s translation of that verse but are recovered here and marked off as v. 13. Since 25:14 (MT) is not trans- lated, the verse number is omitted in order that the enumeration of both texts in 25:15 and succeeding verses might correspond. From that point on through chap. 51 the LXX’s chapter enumeration is seven figures higher than that of the MT. Chapter 52 in the LXX coincides with that of the MT, since only chaps. 46-51 had suffered a shift. Rahlfs marks all departures from the MT’s division of the text with $I& Except in works such as Bauer’s lexicon where versions other than the LXX are the exception, it is customary, when citing the LXX, to give in parentheses the MT’s enumeration wherever it varies from the Greek version.