[B-Greek] LXX, Josh 10:1-2

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Fri Mar 7 19:27:44 EST 2003


Dear Rodney,
As you note, there are a number of discrepancies between MT and Rahlfs, both in
terms of quantity of text and in terms of the number of certain verbs. Since I
see no obvious reason for doubting Rahlfs' judgment I'm prepared to accept it
as Old Greek. That then could mean either that the translator (G) changed his
text in the process of translating or that he was translating a text different
from MT. I suspect that the latter is the case, but some point could no doubt
be argued.
1. EFOBHQHSAN.  Note that the verb in MT is plural as well. That the Greek verb
might be changed to the singular (as you note) is not surprising, since
following verb HDEI is singular. (See also the note in NRSV!)  The reference
would then be  King A. and the HDEI would contain the reason for his fear. As
EFOBHQHSAN stands it is the inhabitants of Gabaon that is the subject (as you
suggest).They defected BECAUSE they were afraid, but here G since follows H and
leaves the causal connection implicit.
2. Other plural verbs. Note that the comparative sentence in v.1 has EPOIHSAN
... EPOIHSAN, even though MT has singulars. I suspect this is related to the
fact that in the Greek one reads at the the end of the next clause:PROS IHSOUN
KAI PROS ISRAEL, and not just ISRAEL as in MT. IHSOUS + ISRAEL = plural
3. Lastly HDEI GAR, which technically is not in MT. My suspicion is, however,
that it has something to do with what we do have in MT and which is also
reflected in the Greek, namely KY (YR.  (YR  might be mistaken for YD(, thus
based in part on a confusion of daleth and resh.  YD( > HDEI.  One might say,
therefore, that G contains a doublet: (a) KY (YR = HDEI GAR; (b) KY (YR  = hOTI
POLIS. Whether G or MT has the older text is of course another question.

One might gloss the Greek as: "Now when A. king of Jerusalem had heared that
Jesus had taken Gai and had destroyed it-----as they had treated Jericho and
its king, so they had treated Gai and its king----and that the inhabitants of
Gabaon had deserted to Jesus and to Israel, and (=because?)  they (the
Gabaonites) had been very much afraid among them (the Israelites),    for he
(A.) knew that Gabaon was a great city like one of the metropolises  and all
its men were mighty, A. 'then' sent" etc.  Thus in my reading of the text, the
chief clause does not come until v.3, and typically begins with hebraistic KAI
(<W).
Al


bgreek at ntresources.com wrote:

> As we read through Josh 10 in class today I noticed something that I hadn't
> previously. Verse 1 begins with a 1st sg verb (A. heard that..., HKOUSEN),
> and then the rest of the verse tells what he heard. But then v 2 picks up
> with a 3d plural verb: "they were terrified..." (EFOGHQHSAN) and then shifts
> back to 3d sg, "for he knew" (HDEI).
>
> Is this just an inconsistency by LXX translators? Or is it intended to carry
> the plural referent from the end of v 1 which describes the Gibeonites
> defecting to Israel (3d pl, AUTOMOLHSAN), i.e., they defected and they were
> terrified? (That would seem to be the strictest grammatical way to read this
> sequence of shifts in number.) But the sense of the context doesn't seem to
> support that--the fear is most naturally attributed to Adoni Zedek &
> company, not the Gibeonites. (Hebrew text is also clear that it was AZ & co
> who were afraid.)
>
> The Hebrew text doesn't seem to pose this number shift problem, for it does
> not have the sing ref "he knew that" in the 2d clause of v 2. There v 1
> begins sing., and v 2 shifts to plural for the entire verse.
>
> There is no textual variant listed in Rahlfs, but I do see that the
> Cambridge LXX gives a variant here of EFOBHQH (3d sg) which would avoid this
> discrepancy, so apparently this problem has been noted previously in the
> scribal tradition.
>
> ====================================================
> Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Associate Prof/NT
> Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA,USA
> NTResources.com  PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
> Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
> ====================================================
> ---
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--
Albert Pietersma
Dept of Near&Middle Eastern Civilizations
4 Bancroft Avenue
University of Toronto
Toronto M5S 1C1
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
homepage http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~pietersm/




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