Wever's Note's on Greek text of Genesis

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Fri Dec 17 16:27:18 EST 1999


To: Clayton Stirling Bartholomew,

<< Can anyone tell me in 25 words or more what is valuable about Wevers' 
Note's on Greek text of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus? Are these titles likely 
to be useful to someone who uses the LXX a lot? >>

Wevers' notes are written "for students who were not particularly versed in 
Septuagint studies, but who were serious in wanting to use it as a resource 
for studying the Hebrew text" ("Genesis," ix). Thus the issues discussed in 
Wevers' notes are usually concerning (the philology of) the Greek text in 
relationship to the Hebrew text. It is written for the advanced student. It 
is assumed that one knows how to read Hebrew and Greek. Wevers' notes are 
not designed to teach an intermediate student how to better read Greek, 
although an intermediate student might find Wever's notes of some value if 
he or she was attempting to read through one of these LXX books. But the 
central stress of these notes is placed on understanding how the LXX 
translators translated the Hebrew text. For an intermediate student wanting 
a better grasp of Greek, these notes might be seen to be of little value.

One thing which strikes me as odd is that Weavers offers his suggestions 
for textual readings for "Gen" [= LXX Genesis], but this is a list of 
corrections for the critical text of the Gottingen Genesis, so the student 
who only has Rahlfs' LXX is left wondering what the difference between 
Rahlfs' and the Gottingen Genesis might be (there was no such list for 
Exodus). Another little oddity, Exodus was Weavers' first "Notes," his 
notes on Genesis came later. That is probably not important, but if one 
opens up his notes on Genesis, one will see reference to his volume on 
Exodus. There is also no bibliography.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree), 
what do I know?"




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