[B-Greek] Greek Term in Bar-Kokhba Habakkuk

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Thu Feb 15 02:29:40 EST 2007


On Feb 15, 2007, at 1:22 AM, Kent Clarke wrote:

> Hello All:
>
> I'm trying to define a term located in the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll
> (50 BCE-50 CE) found in one of the Bar-Kokhba caves. The text is 
> Habakkuk
> 2:3 (the critical text is located in DJD VIII).
The manuscript in question is a Hebraizing recension of the Old Greek 
(LXX) text of the Minor Prophets; therefore,  what you observe about 
'following the Hebrew more closely' should occasion no surprise.  You 
are  correct in your parsing, as well as  in your connecting the verb 
form with FAINW. In fact the dictionary entry is (EN + FAINW =) 
EMFAINW, with standard assimilation of nasal N to labial F (i.e. 
aspirated P). EMFAINW is well attested in Greek literature (see LSJ) 
and occurs twice in the Septuagint: Ps 79:2; 2 Mac 3:16.
Non-assimilation in such cases is common in biblical papyri.
The two Septuagint worthies you mention below are H. B. Swete and 
Alfred Rahlfs
Al

>
> The term is "enphanhsetai (the exact spelling is epsilon, nu, phi, 
> alpha,
> nu, eta, sigma, epsilon, tau, alpha, iota), which I parse as a third 
> person
> singular, future passive indicative form. I have looked in all of my
> lexicons and databases, but have not been able to find it in any 
> inflected
> form.
> Thinking that the epsilon-nu prefixed to phi is uncommon in Greek, I 
> also
> tried to look for "emphanhsetai" with a mu instead of the nu. I did 
> readily
> find "emphaneia" and "emphanhs", meaning "to manifest, reveal, make 
> visible
> etc". The non-prefixed form "phaino" (phi, alpha, iota, nu, omega) 
> fits well
> with this.
>
> I have also checked the Septuagint versions of Sweet and Ralphfs, 
> where they
> both have "anatelei" instead of the above term. This Greek Habakkuk 
> text
> seems to be following more closely the Hebrew MT with the meaning "to
> testify."
>
> I have several questions:
>
> 1) Would all agree with my parsing of the verb?
> 2) Does anyone know if this term (in any inflected form) occurs within 
> other
> extant Greek literature?
> 3) Is my assumption that the nu has been changed into a mu fair (I 
> believe I
> have seen this change take place in other Greek texts, but can't 
> recall "the
> rule" that allows for such a change)? Can we simply call it an 
> orthographic
> change?
> 4) Is my assumption possible that the Habakkuk term corresponds to the 
> idea
> of being "manifest", and so could be translated something like "it 
> shall be
> manifest"?
>
> Thank you in advance for any help or insight!
>
> Warm Regards;
>
> Kent
>
>
> Kent D. Clarke (Ph.D. Bristol)
> Associate Professor of Religious Studies
> Department of Religious Studies
> Seal-Kap House
> Trinity Western University
> 7600 Glover Road
> Langley, BC
> V2Y 1Y1
> Canada
>
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—
Albert Pietersma
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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