[B-Greek] LXX grammar question of Isaiah 48:22, 57:21

Harold Holmyard hholmyard3 at earthlink.net
Sun Apr 6 07:57:07 EDT 2008


Carl Conrad wrote:
> On Apr 5, 2008, at 8:27 PM, John Butzu wrote:
>
>   
>> Greetings!  A while back I happened to stumble across your website and
>> now I seem to have a question that perhaps someone with more years of
>> Koine Greek could help me with.  Here is the question:  In Isaiah  
>> 44:22
>> & 57:21 the same greek word is used (in the LXX) to translate the
>> Hebrew word "Shalom" meaning peace or wholeness.  The word used is
>> chairo (CHAIRW) which is a verb.  I checked the hebrew and sure  
>> enough the word shalom
>> here is a noun.  Why didn't this word get translated as CHARA (Joy)
>> rather than CHAIRW (rejoice, be glad) for this does not even make  
>> sense
>> when you read this passage!  Is this just a mistake on the part of  
>> some tired scribe or am I missing something here in the grammar?
>>
>> Comments, questions, answers welcome!
>>     
>
> I should leave this for Al Pietersma, whose comments on this I'd  
> welcome, but the question seems to me to have a pretty obvious answer.
>
> Supposing that you really meant Is 48:22 rather than 44:22, I've  
> changed the subject-header accordingly.
>
> Is. 48:22 οὐκ ἔστιν χαίρειν τοῖς  
> ἀσεβέσιν λέγει κύριος
> OUK ESTIN CAIREIN TOIS ASEBESIN LEGEI KURIOS
>
> Is. 57:21 οὐκ ἔστιν χαίρειν τοῖς  
> ἀσεβέσιν εἶπεν κύριος ὁ θεός
> OUK ESTIN CAIREIN TOIS ASEBESIN EIPEN KURIOS hO QEOS.
>
> The simple fact is that CAIREIN here means "greet" which is exactly  
> what the Hebrew "shalom amar" means "to say 'peace'" = "to greet."
> The LXX translator understood perfectly well what the Hebrew text  
> means and converted it into Greek properly.
>   



HH: Carl, you may have looked at this too quickly, SHALOM and AMAR do 
not go together in the Hebrew. Perhaps you have explained, though, why 
the Greek is as it is. I would have used the noun CARA rather than the 
verb. But perhaps the verb can have the same meaning as the noun. The 
verb yields: "It is not for the wicked to rejoice, says the Lord." That 
is equivalent to: "There is not joy for the wicked, says the Lord."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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