Deut 32:8 LXX

Jim West jwest at Highland.Net
Mon Aug 23 17:17:26 EDT 1999


At 01:59 PM 8/23/99 -0700, you wrote:

>I am willing to accept all of the evidence in Shanks' argument, the LXX
>reading (if it exists), the scrap from Cave 4 (if it is really Deut
>32:8) but Shank's conclusion that this evidence demonstrates that Israel
>was polytheistic up until late in the first millennium BC is pretty far
>fetched. The readings,
>
>Deut 32:8 LXX :  hUIOI TOU QEOU
>
>the scrap from cave 4 :  b'nai elohim

You are right- it is far fetched.  Benei elohim and huioi tou theou are the
same thing so far as Israel's theologians would have been concerned!

>
>do not support the notion of polytheism. So it is Shanks' use of
>evidence which I am complaining about. 

and rightly.  Take a look at R. Albertz's "A History of Israelite Religion
in the Old Testament Period", or even better, "The Rise of Yahwism" J.C. DeMoor.

>But this is off topic for
>b-greek. My on topic question is just about the reading from the LXX.  I
>would like to hear from some one who has access to the big critical
>edition of the LXX. What manuscripts support:  hUIOI TOU QEOU in Deut
>32:8? I wonder why, if this was a problem reading in the MT, the variant
>was not included in Rahlfs.

I would be curious as to the evidence too.  Rahlfs- of course- was pre DSS.
So he might have thought any LXX ms containing such a reading was bogus
anyway and not included it.

Best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest at highland.net
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest




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