[B-Greek] Psalm 39:7 LXX

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Sun Dec 21 17:04:16 EST 2003


On Dec 21, 2003, at 12:40 PM, Ben and Jo Crick wrote:

> On Sat 20 Dec 2003 (20:59:52), albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca wrote:
>> That Kirkpatrick and Westcott in 1903 would cite "the Septuagint" as
>> reading SWMA in Ps 39:7 is precisely what one would expect since their
>> exemplar of the "the Septuagint" clearly read SWMA. Since Rahlfs'
>> critical edition of 1931 it has been clear, however, that SWMA belongs
>> to the RECEPTION HISTORY of the Old Greek text, but NOT to its
>> CONSTITUTIVE CHARACTER.
>> Are you suggesting, Ben, that we return to "the Septuagint" of 1903
>> and thus collapse reception history and constitutive character?
>
>  I would love to afford to obtain a Rahlf's, but I have to make do with
>  Brenton. It would be nicer still to return to "the Septuagint" of 290 
> BC  ;-)
True enough, but the pristine Septuagint will always remain an ideal. 
Yet the critical editions, based as they are on all extant evidence and 
years of in depth study of a book's textlinguistic make-up by the 
editor , are a far better approximation than any manuscript.
>  Meanwhile we still have the mystery of how an ear became a body; I 
> suggested
>  it might be a Synechdoche. It seems that the writer to the Hebrews 
> had SWMA
>  in his exemplar in the late 1st century AD.
It seems to me, the mystery only arises when one tries to explain why a 
translator would want to avoid translating 'ear' but opted for 'body' 
instead, the more since 'ear' makes excellent sense in light of the 
verse as a whole (an obvious echo of what is expressed in e.g. Ps 
50:18-19 and I Rgns 15:22), and the more since that sort of translating 
is not in line with the Greek translator of Psalms.
On the other hand, since the VAST majority of changes/errors in 
transmission history are mechanical, and given the textlinguistics of 
the Greek Psalter, I for one  can see no good reason for doubting the 
SWTIA > SWMA error.  To give a technologically modern version of 
Ockham's rule: KISS.
What remains in doubt, however, whether the author of Hebrew had SWMA 
in his source text, or whether he indulged in creative exegesis.
Al
>
>  Ben
> -- 
>  Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick  ZFC Yb
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—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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