[B-Greek] Septuagint Gen 15:2
Albert Pietersma
albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Wed Sep 1 15:47:03 EDT 2010
What the Septuagint is doing is trying to make some sense, within
rather strict parameters, of "a very difficult piece of Hebrew" --- to
quote Wevers in Notes on Genesis (p. 203). BN MSQ, as he notes, is a
hapax legomenon and its meaning is unclear and much disputed.
Evidently G didn't understand it either but was intent on making
grammatical sense. So he translates and transcribes: hO YIOS MASEK,
i.e. the son of Masek. The next phrase BYTY ("of my house") G reads
as appositional to MASEK and as a feminine: THS IOKOGENOUS MOY ("my
homebred female servant"). The son of Masek is then further identified
as the Damascene Eliezer. Thus the sense of the whole string is: "as
for the son of Masek, my female homebred servant----he is Eliezer
Damascenus." Therefore, according to this passage, Masek is a
domestic of Abram and the mother of Eliezer.
Al
On Sep 1, 2010, at 12:36 PM, Daniel, Robert S wrote:
> 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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—
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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