[B-Greek] Micah 6:8b
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Wed Nov 4 14:49:36 EST 2009
Dear Eddie (if I may),
It seems I implied more in my response to Cornell than I
intended. :-) My sole concern was that Cornell, as Carl had warned,
seemed to fail to distinguish between, on the one hand, the Masoretic
Text (and its translations into English) and, on the other hand, the
Septuagint Text (and its translations into English).
While it is true that the LXX (by and large) is a translation of a
Hebrew text much like our MT, the two are separate linguistic
entities and therefore have to be read on their own terms. Thus in
Micah 6:8b, Hebrew HSN( is thought to mean 'modest' or 'humble'. The
Greek translator apparently did not understand what the word meant and
translated it by ETOIMON, which has to do with 'being ready or
'prepared'. As a result, the Greek text does not mean what the Hebrew
text means, and one CANNOT appeal to nuances of the Hebrew word to
modify the meaning of the Greek. Simply put, a Greek word (X), used
to translate a Hebrew word (Y), does not thereby take on the meaning
of the Hebrew. A secondary concern of mine was that neither the Greek
text as cited nor as translated corresponded to either Rahlfs or (more
importantly) Ziegler.
Since the question of "better text" was not raised, the issue of
precedence was not addressed. In this particular case, however, I see
no good reason to posit a parent text for the Greek at variance with
MT. In Micah 6:8b the Greek text can readily be accounted for by the
translator's unfamiliarity with the Hebrew word in question. There is,
however, no question that, on countless occasions, the LXX textually
deserves precedence over the MT (as reflected in NET and other English
translations).
You are of course quite correct that the biblical text cited in the NT
is almost always the Greek rather than the Hebrew and, furthermore,
the so-called Septuagint text rather than other Greek translations. At
some point in its reception history the Septuagint became Sacred
Scripture. Thus from the perspective of the New Testament the Greek
translation is typically dubbed the Old Testament. Note, for example,
that the diplomatic text of Swete and Brook-McLean is labeled The Old
Testament in Greek. More surprisingly, perhaps, Rahlfs edition of 1935
and the volumes of the Göttingen Septuaginta are labeled Vetus
Testamentum, even though their aim is to present the ORIGINAL text of
the LXX (III BCE onward). As I see it, a distinction between the
Greek text as produced, on the one hand, and the Greek text as
received, on the other, is axiomatic. What the text as produced means
is one thing; what the text as received means may be quite different.
Al
On Nov 4, 2009, at 10:25 AM, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
> Dr. Pietersma,
>
> Just to clarify a somewhat insignificant point, but the NET Bible,
> according to what I've been told, does not only use the Hebrew text
> in translating the OT. It relies quite often on the Greek text; it
> has to. The Hebrew text does not always take precedent in deciding
> the correct wording. Also, the NET Bible uses commentary and other
> ancient sources in deciding the wording of OT words and phrases. A
> former student of Dr. Hall Harris at DTS has given me the above
> data, so I must admit it is not first-hand, but I do know that there
> is simply no way to use the Hebrew texts in many OT places since the
> texts are so poorly preserved, even in using other ancient sources,
> such as the DSS. The Greek OT is not to be so quickly dismissed in
> my opinion since we know that the Apostles often quoted from them
> rather than the Hebrew text. In fact, in the book of Hebrews, which
> has more OT quotations than any other NT book, there is not one
> citation from the Hebrew text. They ALL come from the LXX, and these
> quotations are given to proved the author(s) point.
>
>
> Please help me understand your position better since as you can see
> my understanding is very weak. If you feel it appropriate, feel free
> to reply offlist, but I'm sure there are many others on this list
> that would like to know this. I've even stopped responding to many
> postings out here because I got a lot of OFFLIST requests for more
> information and, unfortunately, I don't have original source
> information to give. I'm out here to learn, not to teach!!
>
> Eddie Mishoe
> Pastor
>
>
—
Albert Pietersma PhD
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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