[B-Greek] LXX: ESAIAS 65:20
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Mon Mar 21 19:41:32 EST 2005
As for the main question you raise—no, I don't see how one could make
the Greek mean what the Hebrew is thought to mean (see for example
NRSV). What happened is that ESA translated the participle of Hebrew
ChT) (''to sin") according to its stock meaning "to sin," that is,
"to miss the mark" in a religious or moral sense. Not surprisingly,
that mistake causes some semantic problems, which ESA tries to
ameliorate in two ways: (1) by setting up a contrast with what precedes
(see DE), and (2) by slipping in KAI (which has no formal basis in the
Hebrew. The resultant sense would seem to be that whereas one hundred
will be considered young (for pious people?), for the sinner to die at
a hundred will constitute a curse. Whether to read KAI as a conjunction
or as an adverbial gives rise to Silva's alternative renderings.
Personally, I tend to favour reading it as an adverbial.
Al
On Mar 21, 2005, at 6:46 PM, Justin Buol wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am working on a paper concerning Isaiah 65, and am having some
> difficulties with verse 20:
>
> KAI OU MH GENHTAI EKEI AWROS KAI PRESBUTHS hOS OUK EMPLHSEI TON CRONON
> AUTOU ESTAI GAR hO NEOS hEKATON ETWN hO DE APOQNHiSKWN hAMARTWLOS
> hEKATON ETWN KAI EPIKATARATOS ESTAI
>
> The difficulty I am having centers around hO DE APOQNHiSKWN
> hAMARTWLOS. I have noticed that a lot of translations of the Hebrew
> favor talking about someone "failing to reach 100 years," and I am
> aware that hAMARTANW and its cognates have the same basic meaning as
> well.
>
> So I am wondering, is that a legitimate understanding here? "The one
> who dies missing one hundred years..."
>
> Also of note is Moises Silva's NETS translation of the last part:
> "but the one who dies a sinner will be a hundred years old and
> accursed."
>
> Silva offers an alternative rendering of "the sinner who dies a
> hundred years old will also be accursed."
>
> Is there any preference between these? The implications of "the one
> who dies a sinner..." appear to me to soften the distinction between
> the "disobedient" ones and the chosen ones who serve the Lord. The
> distinction between the two groups seems quite strong in the rest of
> 65, 64, other preceding chapters. In fact, would translating
> hAMARTWLOS
> as sinner even mesh with the rest of vv. 17-25, which all talk about
> the new Jerusalem being a renewed existence of justice and peace?
>
> Well, I hope that was not full of too much rambling. Thanks in
> advance for your thoughts.
>
> Justin Buol
> Senior
> Bethel University
> ---
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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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