[B-Greek] Problems with Psalm 82:1 in LXX
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Tue Oct 4 14:19:21 EDT 2005
On Oct 4, 2005, at 1:36 PM, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:
> Dear Al,
>
>> Rather than starting with the premise that the one text must be right
>> and the other text must be wrong, it might be more productive to think
>> in terms of one text being different from the other.
>> The item of difference here is, as you note, that whereas the
>> Masoretic
>> Text (MT) has EL, the Greek text has QEWN.
>> As the Hebrew text stands, it is slightly odd. Since both ELOHIM and
>> EL
>> commonly refer to "God" in the Hebrew Bible, the line seems to say:
>> "God stood/stands in the gathering/assembly of God."
>> Of course, MT becomes less odd if either (1) one reads EL as a
>> predication (therefore, "divine gathering") or (2) one makes EL into a
>> plural (therefore, "gathering of gods"). Either the Hebrew parent text
>> of the Greek or the Greek translator himself opted for (2) "gathering
>> of gods" thus contrasting "THE god" (= "God") with "gods" (= "other
>> divine beings"). (Personally, I suspect the translator of having
>> construed EL as a plural.)
>> Needless to say, one might further ask how the slightly odd text of MT
>> arose, but that is another question.
>
> HH: One possibility is that the Hebrew author was applying ancient
> mythological ideas associated with the name EL to the God of Israel.
> Ugaritic literature shows an assembly over which El presided, with
> the other gods in attendance. The Israelite author might have assumed
> that the other divine beings in the assembly could correspond to the
> angelic beings. Of course, here in Psalm 82:1 these concepts would be
> applied to the national judges, because bringing a matter before them
> was bringing a case before God.
All that is part of the prehistory of what we now have in MT, a
question which I decided not to raise.
There is, of course, also the issue of the Elohistic Psalter.
>
> HH: My own guess about the LXX translator is that if he understood
> the Hebrew ideas, he was simply putting them into the easiest to
> understand Greek wording that would convey some of the mythological
> freight. Israel's judges were being compared to a heavenly council.
Not impossible, but it trades on a greater understanding of Israelite
mythology than I would feel comfortable with attributing to the Greek
translator.
Al
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
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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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