Septuagint

Scholars have commonly located the source of Paul’s analogy for the resurrection body in 1 Cor 15:39–49 in the enumerated creatures of Genesis 1. Some interpreters have suggested Sir 43:1–10 lies behind the reference to the variegated glory of the celestial bodies mentioned in 1 Cor 15:41. Paul seems to list each of the respective terrestrial creatures and their bodies in a hierarchical order, as he does with the celestial bodies, relating the resurrection body to the later. Rather than the eschatological egalitarianism presumed in some attempts to appropriate Pauline eschatology for theological purposes, this text suggests that Paul envisioned the imminent resurrection of the dead would result in a kind of celestial hierarchicalism, a point often overlooked by interpreters. In this paper, I will argue for an alternative source for the celestial hierarchicalism apparent in the formulation of Paul’s resurrection mythos in 1 Cor 15:41, namely, an apocalyptic reception of Exodus tradition rooted in the hierarchical ascent of the cosmic mountain in Exodus 24 and its later reception. As is the case for other apocalypticists before, contemporary with, and after Paul, this paper will provide further evidence that Paul's own particular construal of Jewish eschatological mythoi, while recognizable, would place him squarely alongside other Jewish contemporaries who operate at the fringes of their own tradition in the wider ancient Mediterranean religious landscape.

Although the long-standing debate about the meaning of hilastērion in Rom. 3.25 has led to no consensus, readings are nearly always either (1) metaphorical (hilastērion as place of atonement/expiation) or (2) metonymic (hilastērion as a means of atonement/ expiation). However, in many Second Temple Jewish texts, the word refers to a place of divine revelation. Proposing a fresh semantic typology of the word’s usage, this article argues that there is no unambiguous metonymic usage of the word, and that references to atonement in Lev. 16 are secondary to the revelatory function of the 'mercy seat'. Attending to overlooked intertextual complexities, it suggests that the hilastērion was the site where God promised to reveal the definitive interpretation of his law. The revelatory function of the hilastērion possesses prima facie plausibility as a reading of Rom. 3.21-26, which is driven by the theme of God's self-revelation in Jesus.

Michael Segal, “Interpreting History in Qumran Texts,” in M. Kister, M. Segal, and R. Clements (eds.), The Religious Worldviews Reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature (STDJ 127; Leiden: Brill, 2018), 212–244.

LXX can be studied in its wider historic and cultural context. Sometimes it is not enough to say that a certain expression or a word was translated in a certain way. It is also important to regard LXX as a coherent text, not as a sequence of words and phrases. As a text, it had its own esthetics and played a non minor role in the history of Greek literature, especially in the Christian tradition.
A careful analysis makes us believe that at least some of the LXX translators tried to imitate in a sense some formal features of the original Hebrew poetry, such as rhythmic and phonetic repetitions. In fact, the difference in translating prose and poetry (however we define these two groups of the Old Testament texts) is not as prominent as the difference between individual translators’ style.
The tendency to choose similarly sounding words obviously influenced translators’ choice. In many cases, as exemplified in the second chapter, the quest for more phonetic and rhythmic similarity seems to be the best explanation for some non-standard equivalents found in LXX. At least one can be sure that these features, so far mostly neglected by modern scholars, were not neglected by the LXX translators, even if they applied them unconsciously.
The statistical analysis presented in the third chapter proves that the degree of rhythmic repetitions in some LXX texts is above the random distribution and their degree in classical metrical poetry. To some extent, however, these features coincided with similar features in the Greek rhetorical prose. If we approach them in the wider context of the history of Greek literature, we will also see that this experiment had a great future. This sort of poetry was widely imitated by early Christian hymn writer; in the end, a new system of versification was established; now it was based on counting syllable and stresses.
It is hoped that this survey will be useful in two respects. First of all, it may enrich our understanding of LXX and broaden the methods of its analysis which are employed by modern scholars. Those who study the LXX translation technique or are involved in the Old Testament textual criticism can approach the LXX evidence more carefully, taking some new nuances into consideration. On the other hand, the study of the history of Greek literature and, in general, cultures of Pax Romana in the last centuries B.C. – first centuries C.E. can more profoundly consider this example of cultural interaction. It may also present an interesting typological parallel to scholars who study other literary traditions.

Ephesians 3:16-19 is filled with syntactical oddities. My survey of the scholarly literature indicated that 3:17 has received less attention than the other verses. It is also enigmatic on the issue of the portrayal of Christ’s habitation in their hearts. The grammar seems to indicate a request for Christ to take up habitation (inception), while its context suggests they are already indwelt by Christ (2:22).

A majority of the consulted commentators understand the inception of Christ’s habitation and the inception of salvation as being equal. Naturally and sensibly an inceptive interpretation creates a problem for them, and so they interpret the prayer as a request for Christ’s work in the Ephesians. However, the verb κατοικῆσαι is an aorist tense verb, which leads a minority of the consulted commentators to interpret the habitation as inceptive. The majority view favours the context in forming an interpretation, while the minority view favours the grammar. This study seeks to contribute to the literature available on Ephesians 3:17 by inquiring into the nature of Christ’s habitation in this verse. The hypothesis is that the minority view is correct.

The first step is a philological analysis of κατοικέω and some cognates in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The second step is a conceptual and historical analysis of divine habitation in Second Temple Jewish Literature and the New Testament. The third step is a theological and exegetical analysis of Ephesians 3:17 and its context. Verbal aspect plays a major role in the exegetical section.
Verbal aspect indicates that Ephesians 3:17 is a prayer for Christ to take up habitation, which indicates that the minority view is correct. However, the communicative purpose behind the verbal aspect is in line with a durative reading, lending some credence to the majority view. Paul’s communicative purpose (aim) in asking for Christ to take up habitation in the Ephesian believers was found to be spiritual insight and maturity. The significance of the study is that it contributes to the literature available that specifically focus on Ephesians 3:17 and it also solves the enigmatic contradiction between the grammar and context of κατοικῆσαι in Ephesians 3:17.

The article offers a reflection on the first part of the saying 52 of the Gospel of Thomas. The disciples state that 24 prophets spoke ‘in’ Jesus. What does it mean? A number of scholars felt that the context of the saying suggests that the prophets spoke ‘about’ Jesus and thus translated the phrase as ‘all of them spoke of you.’ However, none of these scholars offered any explanation for such an interpretation. The author’s suggestion is that the Coptic expression used in saying 52 renders ἐν σοί of the Greek Vorlage. The Coptic translator found in the Greek text an expression λαλεῖν ἔν τινι. The preposition ἐν in this expression had an unusual meaning ‘about’, specific to the translation Greek. The Coptic translator did not understand the meaning of the phrase and rendered ἐν with its usual Coptic equivalent.

The intention of this paper is to examine how the rich imagery and varied terminology the Hebrew Book of Psalms or the Siracides used for wicked and evil persons is translated into Greek. Equivalents ἁμαρτωλός, ἀσεβῆς and ἄδικος are the most common terms for wicked persons, thus the translation seems rather impoverished; there is no specificity concerning what kind of wrong is intended, but the three Greek words cover several or most of these specific terms: murder, adultery, robbery, unjust acts etc. But this is not the whole story. When one takes into consideration other terms both in the Hebrew and in the Greek texts, some interesting features emerge. First, the Hebrew words that seem at first to have a rather specific meaning in certain contexts, may have developed more general ones in others which may have influenced the Septuagint translations. In the same way, these Greek adjectives are not necessarily to be taken solely as indicating wickedness or evil in their most general sense, but they have more specific characteristics, as well.

St. Gregory of Nyssa (335 – 394) builds on an ancient Jewish-Christian tradition which interprets the love relationship depicted in the Song of Songs as a narrative about the relationship of God and his beloved people. A peculiar feature of Gregory’s exegesis is a very wide meaning of “God’s people” – it denotes all humankind, all human nature. In his Commentary on the Song of Songs the image of the garden of the Canticle with its two lovers blends with another garden. That is the whole earth where there is God who loved humankind so very much that he became a human.
Ancient exegetes, however, who viewed the Song of Songs as a prophetic writing perceived in it also other prophetically relevant themes. The Bridegroom of the Song of Songs is the Messiah, Christ, and according to prophets he was to suffer and die. And so the authors were sensitive to possible intertextual links between the Song of Songs and the gospel Passion texts – annointment with aromatic oils, coronation, the garden of suffering and death, looking for the Lord, resurrection in the garden... This line of interpretation, too, is widely present in Gregory’s work. After all, his Commentary is an adapted series of homilies he pronounced in the Great Lent as preparation for the celebration of the mysteries of the Easter, the feast of the Lord’s Resurrection, which is the completion of the Incarnation.

Karen Jobes is well known for her Invitation to the Septuagint (Baker 2000) co-written with Moises Silva, now in a second edition (Baker, 2015). That previous volume is an excellent handbook for the study of the Septuagint (LXX), but it lacks any exercises for students in the text of the LXX itself. This new volume from Kregel is intended to assist a student read through significant sections of the Septuagint.

This reader includes about 700 verses from nine books from the Greek Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Ruth, Additions to Esther, Psalms, Hosea, Jonah, Malachi and Isaiah). Her Exodus examples are divided into two separate chapters (Exod 14-15 and the Ten Commandments from Exodus and Deuteronomy). These selections give the student a wide range of experience in several genres as well as distinctive LXX styles.

The heterogeneity of the Septuagint is sometimes ignored in the exegetical and theological study of the Bible. However, the Septuagint displays features that vary according to each book that it contains. The objective of this article is to present the state of the research on the LXX of each work in this corpus, just as the points still in debate and thus, to show the multiplicity that constitutes the LXX. This heterogeneity concerning the textual, linguistic and, in some cases, theological character of each book of the LXX must be taken into account by the biblical scholar intending to use it

The Greek term for almsgiving (elemosune) is found in the LXX translating two different words from the Hebrew Scriptures, besides the many times it appears in the deuterocanonical books. This research evaluates the semantic progression of this Greek term through the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, Second Temple Judaism, and New Testament writings. This study focuses on the significance of the change of meaning of the concept of almsgiving from the perspective of the alms receiver or beggar

The Old Greek translation of Job is evinces a fluid translation technique, whereby G (the translator) has left some autobiographical details in the course of describing Iob's life and dilemma. This paper examines individual passages where these details emerge and offers a summary of them.
This paper was read in an IOSCS session at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, in San Antonio, Nov. 19-22, 2016, specifically on the 19th. It has just now appeared in print (27.11.2023): in Marshall P.S., Meade J.D., Kiel J.M. (eds.), Like Nails Firmly Fixed (Qoh 12:11): Essays on the Text and Language of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures Presented to Peter J. Gentry on the Occasion of His Retirement, Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, 115 (Leuven: Peeters, 2023), 243–60.

Les frères Radu et Șerban Greceanu, traducteurs de la Bible roumaine de 1688, fondent leur version sur l’édition aldine de la Septante et plus précisément sur l’une de ses rééditions, celle de Frankfort, en 1597. À y regarder de plus près et en prenant comme exemple la traduction du livre de Job, des écarts peuvent être constatés, ainsi qu’une certaine conformité avec d’autres éditions concurrentes. Il semble même que la traduction roumaine témoigne d’un modèle portant des traces de révisions ou de remaniements de la traduction grecque d’après l’hébreu, ce qui, bien entendu, ne peut avoir été possible que par d’autres intermédiaires, par d’autres traductions grecques.

Det sägs att Bibeln är världens mest lästa och spridda bok, och inom ramen för dess pärmar framstår Psaltaren som en av de mer tongivande rösterna. Martin Luther (1545) föreslår till exempel i en inledning till hans översättning av Psaltaren att Psaltaren skulle kunna ses som ”en liten bibel … för att den som inte kan läsa hela bibeln ändå här skall få nästan hela innehållet i en liten bok”. Citatet kan sägas belysa två viktiga aspekter av Psaltarens beskaffenhet. För det första har Psaltaren, som utgörs av ett antal självständiga kompositioner (psalmer), kanoniserats och förmedlats till vår tid i vad som kan betraktas som en sammanhållen form – en bok. För det andra innehåller Psaltaren, trots denna tydliga ram, ett inte självklart entydigt innehåll. Snarare är det så att det här återfinns en mångfald av röster från antika trosgemenskapers interaktion med den gud som i Gamla testamentet går under namnet JHWH. Ibland är dessa röster överens, ibland inte. Resultatet blir en spännande dynamik mellan bokens sammanbindande effekt och innehållets svårtämjda karaktär, och i denna artikel ska jag försöka bringa klarhet i hur detta förhållande bäst kan förstås.

Il Dizionario Teologico degli scritti di Qumran ha per obiettivo di contribuire in misura sostanziale alla conoscenza
e allo studio della letteratura di Qumran.
Vengono passati in rassegna nella loro specificità
tutti gli scritti rinvenuti nelle grotte del Mar Morto e nel Deserto di Giuda.
Grazie a Qumran è possibile accedere a nuove concezioni teologiche:
figure bibliche specifiche (Melchisedek, Mosè, Aronne, Sadoq, Levi)
vengono associate a nuove concezioni,
le quali mettono in grado di riconsiderare da nuove prospettive
molti ambiti problematici relativi a giudaismo e Nuovo Testamento.

This article presents the topic of the conference that was held at Polis Institute in January 2015 and the different contributions that were made there and that have been published in the proceedings. The article presents as well the conclusions were reached on the library of Alexandria at the end of the conference.

In the study of the Hebrew Bible, the categories of syntactic dependence or independence of a clause has been generally limited to coordination (sometimes called parataxis or juxtaposition) and subordination (sometimes called hypotaxis), respectively. There are those who have noted the difficulty of clearly distinguishing between coordinate and subordinate clauses in some cases. For instance, Andersen concluded that it is “...hard, and probably unnecessary to draw a boundary line between coordination and subordination”. For example, certain conjunctions are observed to head both coordinate and subordinate clauses (the most relevant for this study being causal כי). While progress has been made in describing the characteristics distinguishing these divergent uses, there is much room for refinement. Specifically, a theoretically grounded account is still lacking for what makes such conjunctions coordinate or subordinate, which can then be leveraged heuristically in the analysis of the clause complex and descriptively in grammatical treatments.

https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004402911/BP000004.xml

This is an abstract for my PhD dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2015), in which I analyzed the discourse-pragmatic functions of a selection of Greek discourse markers in the documentary papyri and the Septuagint within a cognitive-functional framework. I then apply my findings to the study of Septuagint translation technique, with particular reference to The Twelve Prophets.

This paper challenges a popular translation of Tob.8:7, arguing that Tobiah is not referring to a lack of passion in taking Sarah but is instead insisting that their union is legitimate, in line with how the term porneia is used in
Tob. 4:12 and other evidence.

The Septuagint version of Esther (OG) poses significant challenges to the SBLCS commentator. Not only is the Greek narrative substantially longer than that of the Masoretic text (MT), but where it does parallel the Hebrew the relationship between the two is not always transparent. There is moreover some likelihood that OG underwent redaction subsequent to its translation from the Hebrew. Complicating matters further is the existence of the so-called L text (Alpha text = AT), preserved in only four manuscripts, which was once thought to be Lucianic. While the textual history underlying OG and AT is far from obvious, the current consensus denies that one is a straightforward recension of the other. If one's aim is to comment on the text-as-produced, Esther proves resistant. One way of proceeding is to distinguish between the text that comes down to us, the received text, a heterogeneous entity with a complex history, and the material shared by OG and MT, where there is sufficient transparency to delineate the methods of a translator (G) working with a source text. The focus of the commentary would be the latter. While the overall design of the text-as-received would not be lost sight of, it would not be the primary object of analysis. Rather one would begin with the parallel material and proceed inductively, speaking to the question put by the Guidelines: what has the translator done, and why. Issues in the history of the text would thus be bracketed. In the following commentary I employ this methodology. The pericope I have chosen—the discovery by Mardochaios of a plot against the Persian king by two eunuchs—exemplifies the problems raised by a composite text.

Augustine’s support for the Septuagint as the true Christian Old Testament never waned, but his understanding of the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint did develop over his career. His earliest statements assume that the Seventy translators faithfully rendered the Hebrew text, with any discrepancy resulting from ambiguity in the source text. His correspondence with Jerome convinced him that there was more to it than that. Augustine’s mature writings evidence an innovative theory whereby both the Hebrew text and its Greek translation could be correct, guiding the reader to spiritual insight, even if they said different things.

This chapter discusses the fraught relationship between Second Sophistic discourse and koinē fiction of the second and third centuries ce. Taking its point of departure from a comparison (synkrisis) of Dio of Prusa’s first oration On Kingship and the α-recension of the Greek Alexander Romance, the chapter goes on to argue that Second Sophistic
discourse and koinē fiction are not just two different bodies of contemporaneous writings that happened to appear side by side. Rather, they remain engaged in an intertextual agon where literary production in koinē—as opposed to Attic—Greek constitutes a dialectical negation of the overtly imperialist political agendas and monologic cultural
objectives that inform Second Sophistic composition. Further consideration of the Life of Sekoûndos and the Story of Aseneth shows how koinē fiction of this period not only aggressively contests the goals and priorities of the Second Sophistic, but pointedly turns its norms and ideals inside out.