[B-Greek] Septuagint Gen 15:2

Daniel, Robert S rob.daniel at hp.com
Wed Sep 1 12:36:32 EDT 2010


Gen 15:2
λέγει δὲ Αβραμ δέσποτα τί μοι δώσεις ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπολύομαι ἄτεκνος ὁ δὲ υἱὸς Μασεκ τῆς οἰκογενοῦς μου οὗτος Δαμασκὸς Ελιεζερ
LEGEI DE ABRAM DESPOTA TI MOI DWSEIS EGW DE APOLUOMAI ATEKNOS hO DE hUIOS MASEK THS OIKOGENOUS MOU OUTOS DAMASKOS ELIEZER

Can somebody explain what the Septuagint rendering is doing here? Did the translator take “Masek” to be a proper name? Or would Hellenistic Jews have understood hUIOS MASEK to mean  “ben-mesheq” and understood what that meant? Who exactly are the people the translator has in mind in the second half of the verse? I believe in the Hebrew, “ben-mesheq” refers to Eliezer, who was born in Abram’s house and therefore Abram’s heir by default, unless Abram begets his own son. But what are the implications of the Septuagint rendering? Who does “MASEK” refer to, who does “OIKOGENOUS” refer to, and why the feminine pronoun THS? Does “THS” agree with “OIKOGENOUS”? Does the translator take “hUIOS MASEK”, “OIKOGENOUS”, and ELIEZER, to refer to three (or more?) different people, or one and the same? And what would the verb be in the part of the verse starting “hO DE hUIOS…” if there were one?

Rob Daniel



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