Abstract
A
Florentino García Martínez is best known for his work at Groningen on the Dead Sea Scrolls. For the past decade, however, he has also held a research chair in Leuven with its Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual Criticism. This Festschrift reflects that interest in particular, and several of its 29 articles have been contributed by doctoral and postdoctoral scholars there. Following a tribute to the honorand with full CV and bibliography of his works, the articles (which all focus especially on the LXX when related to particular passages) are: H. Ausloos and B. Lemmelijn, ‘Canticles as Allegory?’ (not according to the LXX), J.-M. Auwers on Cant. 1.2–4, R. Bieringer on the use of parakaleo in LXX Isaiah, E. Bons on Amos 6.6, D. Büchner on Leviticus 3, R. Ceulemans on ‘The Greek Christian Afterlife of the Minor Versions’, J. Cook on ‘Hellenistic and/or (Pre-)Rabbinic Traditions in the Septuagint’ of Genesis and Proverbs, H. Debel on Eccl. 8.10, D. de Crom on ‘Articulation in LXX Canticles’, C. Dogniez on inverse translation in Zechariah, G. Dorival on the rendering of ‘according to the lilies’ in the LXX of some psalm titles, K. Hauspie on the comparative and superlative in LXX Ezekiel, M.M.S. Ibita on the characterization of the woman in Genesis 3 (MT and LXX), J. Joosten comparing some linguistic features of the DSS and LXX, M. Karrer, U. Schmid and M. Sigismund on citations of Isaiah in Luke/Acts, W. Kraus on Heb. 3.7–4.11 as a midrash on Ps. 94 (95), M. Labahn on the Genesis Paradise narrative in Revelation, J. Lust on gillûlîm in Ezekiel, T. Muraoka on Hosea 6, A. Pietersma on ‘Greek Jeremiah Reconsidered’, É. Puech on some new readings in 4QSama, J.-S. Rey on a recently discovered bifolium of manuscript C of Ben Sira from the Cairo Genizah, A. Schenker on Josh. 22.9–34, R. Sollamo on the Greek rendering of liphnê in Deuteronomy, J. Trebolle Barrera on a combined textual and literary-critical analysis of some passages in Joshua and Judges, A. van der Kooij, who compares LXX Isaiah and Daniel, P. van Hecke on the LXX rendering of yesh and ‘ên, H. van Rooy on the minor versions in Ezekiel, and E. Verbeke on Hebrew hapax legomena in LXX studies.
H.G.M. W
B
This book is a translation of the substantial introductions to the first three of a projected five volumes of the final report of the United Bible Societies’ Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. These three volumes were the work of B. before his death in 2002. The translation was undertaken by S. Pisano, P.A. Pettit, J.E. Cook and, especially, S. Lind. A brief introduction to the whole is provided by J.A. Sanders, one of the six scholars who made up the working committee, with due tribute paid to E.A. Nida as well as to B. himself. There is a wealth of erudite material here that would be otherwise difficult to access. In addition to a full presentation of the work of the committee, its procedures and methods, it also includes the history of textual criticism down to the time of J.D. Michaelis, a survey of many translations of the OT and a detailed discussion of all the main witnesses to the text of the OT, including a great deal of information on Masoretic manuscripts, their relationships and text-critical value (over 150 pages), the ancient versions and the relevant material from Qumran. All this discussion serves in part to defend the committee's extremely cautious attitude towards conjectural emendation for which they were criticized by B. Albrektson, among others, and readers may not find all the arguments on this equally compelling. Nevertheless, the points made need to be carefully pondered by all who engage in textual criticism and it must be hoped that this translation will help to make B.'s enormous breadth of knowledge and powerful analysis more widely known.
H.G.M. W
C
This welcome addition to the series follows the now well-established form: meaty introduction followed by translation with textual and exegetical notes. Attention is drawn to the complexity of Greek Esther's textual history, with its two versions, LXX and L (‘Lucianic’ is preferred to the more prevalent ‘Alpha Text’). The introduction is a valuable resource (almost a mini-monograph). It covers textual traditions, both Hebrew and Greek (in that order!), as well as the Vetus Latina and the Vulgate. A translation of the VL is given as an appendix and is a great asset. At every level of discussion the witness of the various traditions is set out clearly but without attempts to resolve all the complexities of their interrelationships, and a great deal of useful detail is lucidly presented, often with the help of charts. The section on early reception history is shorter than usual as, apart from the debates over canonicity, the book of Esther did not attract much attention (the earliest complete commentary dates from the ninth century ce). The translation of both LXX and L is helpfully given on facing pages, although it is a pity that chapter and verse numbers are not provided, according to normal Bible d'Alexandrie practice. The verse-by-verse notes make it clear which text they refer to, and help to keep a grip on the characteristics of each text and of its relationship to the Hebrew.
J.M. D
C
The provenance of LXX books has increasingly become a debated issue, as scholars have moved beyond the literary portrait of Aristeas that presents the LXX as a product of Alexandria. The two authors of this volume seek to establish the provenance of certain LXX books from both internal and external evidence, tackling topics that will be familiar to anyone who has read their work. Van der Kooij first presents the translators of the Pentateuch as scholars from Jerusalem, who undertook the work as part of the community in Alexandria, having been trained in the Temple. We thus see a translation in Alexandria that nonetheless had Jerusalem connections. Next he considers Isaiah, expanding upon I.L. Seeligman's theory that the translation was connected with the high priest Onias's escape to Egypt and founding of the Leontopolis temple. Van der Kooij argues that the translation was produced in the Heliopolite nome, although the translators also had Palestinian connections. Cook argues that the anti-Hellenistic stance of Proverbs allows one to place it in Palestine, even if it might later have been taken to Egypt (as the Greek version of Esther). By contrast he makes a case for Job having been translated in Alexandria owing to its similarity to other literature from that location. In all, this book raises important questions regarding the provenance of translations. Not everyone will be convinced by every argument, but the method and questions should be considered seriously, and an important outcome is the emphasis on the close relations between Jerusalem and Alexandria in the period.
J.K. A
D
This book is a revised version of the author's doctoral dissertation submitted to University College London in 2008. It was produced as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar’ (2004–2009) and supervised by Dr Willem Smelik. The targumic Toseftot to Ezekiel shed light on the literary and linguistic history of the Zohar because most are supplements to Ezekiel's vision of the Merkavah (Ezek. 1). D. provides, for the first time in English, a critical edition, translation and commentary of each of the Ezekielian Toseftot (on vv. 1.1, 1.3, 1.8, 1.12, 1.26, 28.13 and 37.1–14). Further, she provides a critical assessment of the linguistic profile, date, provenance and Sitz im Leben of each. D. is clear, meticulous and incisive throughout. This study fills a critical lacuna in English scholarship. It will be of interest to many beyond the world of targum studies, including those with an interest in Aramaic dialectology, Jewish mysticism, Jewish liturgy, Early Jewish exegesis, or the book of Ezekiel.
W.A. T
G
This was the fifth fascicle of BHQ to appear and, although published in 2010, only now comes to the Book List for notice. The overall format of this edition is now quite familiar: the front matter is standardized; the masorah is presented along with the critical apparatus on the text itself; the introduction to the main textual witnesses with commentary on selected readings appears in the asterisked pages. G.'s work on the Peshitta of the Twelve has been used with appreciation for quite a few years, and his long experience of close engagement with the text is welcome in the editor of these books for BHQ. By comparison with other fascicles, his commentary seems to me to be more pithy—and the bibliography of secondary literature also shorter—although the range of coverage seems more full. This remains impressionistic, however. What is certain is that G.'s edition will be used with gratitude by all those working on the Twelve for many years to come.
D.J. R
K
This volume consists of nine papers presented at a conference held in Leiden in 2008 entitled ‘The Old Greek of Isaiah: Issues and Perspectives’. The primary focus of the conference was on the textual and conceptual coherence of LXX Isaiah, but the papers addressed a variety of issues from various angles pertaining to LXX Isaiah. An introduction by Arie van der Kooij is followed by the following contributions: ‘What happens in the end? Evidence for an Early Greek Recension in LXX Isaiah 66’ (D. Baer); ‘The Septuagint of Isaiah and the Issue of Coherence: A Twofold Analysis of LXX Isaiah 31.9b–32.8’ (A. van der Kooij); ‘Le recours aux commentaires patristiques pour l’étude de lexique d'Isaïe LXX’ (A. Le Boulluec); ‘“C'est moi qui établis la lumière et fis l'obscurité, qui fais la paix et fonde les malheurs”: théologie du choix des thèmes verbaux des participes (présent vs aoriste) se rapportant à Dieu, dans la Septante d’Ésaïe’ (P. Le Moigne); ‘Papyrological Perspectives on the Septuagint of Isaiah’ (M.N. van der Meer); ‘Problems and Perspectives on the Study of Messianism in LXX Isaiah’ (R. de Sousa); ‘BOYΛH and BOYΛEYEIN in LXX Isaiah’ (R.L. Troxel); ‘LXX Isaiah and the Use of Rhetorical Figures’ (M. van der Vorm-Croughs); and ‘Between Scripture and History: Technique and Hermeneutics of Interpreting Biblical Prophets in the Septuagint of Isaiah and the Letters of Paul’ (F. Wilk). There are several indexes; the Hebrew and Greek word indexes are most helpful and make the volume more accessible. All of the essays are important contributions to the study of LXX Isaiah and are worthy of close study.
S.L. B
L
Arising from a project largely managed in Oxford in the first half of 2010, the eleven papers in this volume aim to put the Jewish Greek versions of the Bible, especially as used by Jews, firmly back on the scholarly agenda. E. Tov struggles to discern where variants arising during the stages of literary composition and editing can be distinguished from those arising during transmission in Jewish antiquity. L. Cuppi argues that the lack of personal names in Greek Proverbs was not a matter of omission. In the light of the Cairo Geniza fragments of Kings T.M. Law very constructively reconsiders the versions, especially the so-called Kaige revision, with special attention to 2 Kings/4 Reigns. For word plays in Genesis and target-orientated translation in the Psalms respectively M. Graves and T. Edwards show that Aquila was more creative than is commonly thought. A. Salvesen looks again at Aquila and Symmachus in the Pentateuch in an attempt to align them with recent ideas on second-century rabbinism, putting Aquila under the rabbinic umbrella but excluding Symmachus. T. Rajak convincingly calls into question the significance of Justin Martyr for textual matters. W. Smelik argues that Novella 146 provides clues that Justinian was fair when ruling in real circumstances on which Bible version Greek-speaking Jews might use. R. Ceulemans suggests that for Christian scholars of the pre-Islamic period Origen's Hexapla was the regular means of access to the versions of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. J. Krivoruchko considers Greek loanwords in rabbinic literature. A detailed list of known biblical translations and glossaries of Judaeo-Greek is the major contribution of S. Sznol's study on the importance of glosses. In this volume the reader senses that the parameters of the general revolution in the study of the Greek Bible set in motion by the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls is now being tested acutely, not least in terms of its ramifications for the evidence of the first millennium CE.
G.J. B
L
L. argues that P967 and the MT of Ezekiel represent two ‘variant literary editions’ (p. 301) of the book. She means by this phrase that P967 has its own ‘literary Tendenzen’ (p. 64) that result in substantially different meanings for key pericopes and produce a distinct theological profile. These Tendenzen are reflected in four ‘intertextual centers’ (p. 64) where the two texts vary: Ezekiel 12–13, 32.17–32, 36.23c–38 and 38–39. P967, she concludes, works with different spatial concepts from MT regarding purity, is open to foreign nations joining Y
C.A. S
M
This highly diverse collection of papers focuses on the textual and lexicographic nature of sacred texts, primarily the Old and New Testaments in various language traditions and the Qur'an. Accordingly topics covered include Coptic, Arabic, Syriac and the New Testament. Those papers of most relevance to the Book List are John F. Elwolde, ‘Sirach 51:15a (19b–20a): Towards a Text-critical and Lexicographical Solution’; Gregor Geiger, ‘“Abraham, mein Freund” (Jes 41, 8): Wer ist wessen Freund?’; Francisco Jiménez Bedman, ‘Semantic Quality in Qumran: On the Vocabulary of 3Q15’; Jan Joosten, ‘The Graeco-Semitic Vocabulary of the New Testament: A Plea for a New Research Tool’; Julia G. Krivoruchko, ‘Greek κατἀστημα between Josephus and the Constantinople Pentateuch’; José Martinez Delgado, ‘From Bible to Lexicography through the Masora on al-Andalus: The Use of the Sefer'okla we-'okla among the First Andalusi Hebrew Philologists’; Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, ‘Sacred Readings, Lexicographic Soundings: Cosmology, Men, Asses and Gods in the Semitic Orient’; Massimo Pazzini and Rosario Pierri, ‘The Middle Voice in Exodus-LXX’; Helen Spurling, ‘The Biblical Symbol of Edom in Jewish Eschatological and Apocalyptic Imagery’; Sofía Torallas Tovar, ‘Translation and Beliefs: Interferences in a Debated Passage of the OT (1 Sam. 28) in Sahidic and the Use of Greek Loan Words in the Coptic Bible’; Ángel Urbán, ‘Emphatic Use of the Adverb oukéti in the New Testament’. Although the volume has no one theme, the quality of contributions is consistently high and repays a careful reading.
J.K. A
O
O.'s work has focused largely on the LXX of Psalms, and this is therefore a welcome offering from one experienced in that translated book. After an introduction that lays out the method used and something of the history of LXX Psalms study, ch. 2 draws out some of the features of Psalms 42–43, both in Hebrew and in Greek. The next substantial chapter comprises verse-by-verse commentaries on each psalm. This is a highly detailed work that will be useful for text critics wishing to see in detail the complex textual picture. The fourth chapter offers a conclusion by summarizing many of the aspects of translation technique (including consistency, accuracy and stylistic features), but, given the small sample of psalms studied, many of these features are only treated briefly. The volume overall is data-rich, and will repay close reading by those wishing to learn more of the LXX. The conclusions are necessarily preliminary and might disappoint those hoping to gain a broader perspective on the Greek Psalter.
J.K. A
S
The story of Cain and Abel, popularly described as the first fratricide, is one of the most famous biblical stories. S. investigates how it is told in the MT and in the other ancient versions. S.'s book is a slightly modified version of his 2010 Cambridge PhD dissertation. In his introductory chapter he reviews the art of translation in the ancient world and ancient Jewish translation traditions, and presents the ancient versions: Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Vulgate, Peshitta and the Targums, including subchapters on historical literary criticism and methodological considerations. He then goes on to investigate how they tell the story, with the following arrangement: ‘Son of Adam or Seed of Satan?’ (Gen. 4.1–2), ‘Cultic Transgression, Moral Failure and the Pathos of Rejection’ (vv. 3–6), ‘Sin Couching at the Door: The Choice between Good and Evil’ (v. 7), ‘Filling the Gaps: Creating the Context for Fratricide’ (v. 8), ‘Trial and Punishment: The Wandering Murderer’ (vv. 9–13), ‘The Plea: Bearing One's Sin’ (vv. 13–14), and ‘A Sign of Mercy, a Sign of Justice’ (vv. 15–16). The book ends with a summary and conclusions. His final conclusions are more a summary than conclusions. But the book is well ordered and well written. Certainly a valuable contribution.
H. H
S
This is S.'s revised PhD thesis, in which he addresses the topic of the translators’ intentions through a detailed examination of the LXX Psalms 104, 105, 110, 111, 112. As S. notes in his preface, there is a presupposition ‘that one can be reasonably certain that both target and source texts are recoverable from the manuscript evidence’ (p. v). Chapter 1 offers an excellent discussion of the principles and techniques of translation, and provides a rationale for a pragmatic position on both Old Greek and Vorlagen. Chapter 2 discusses the meaning and function of ‘Allelouia’ in the Old Greek Psalter, concluding that already in Hebrew it was a fossilized technical term. The bulk of the monograph (chs. 3–7) is taken up by detailed comparative analysis of the Old Greek translation of the psalms considered, and a final chapter reviewing the results. S. concludes that ‘LXX Psalms may be described as an adequacy-oriented translation’ (p. 282), showing a strong tendency towards faithfulness to the original Hebrew. This admittedly technical study represents an important contribution to LXX studies, and will no doubt be important for the fully critical edition of LXX Psalms which its author calls for.
A.G. H
T
The enormous amount of detail in T.'s latest edition, covering the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the ancient Versions, has been updated in the light of material from the biblical Judaean Desert scrolls published in the twenty years since the previous edition. Not only does T. present all this in one volume but systematic assessment of the material, analysing how the data may be used in textual criticism, gives the book its unique worth. T. discusses the value of textual criticism, concluding with a timely discussion of the inevitability of subjectivity. He gives a detailed examination of technical aspects of copying and transmission, includes sections on theory, evaluation of variants and the place of conjectural emendation, and discusses the use of computer-assisted tools. T. emphasizes that his presentation is both broad and detailed, valuable both to the scholar and to the student. In chs. 1–5 T. presents, and makes sense of, a mass of data which the student could not assemble without spending endless hours in libraries. In chs. 6–8 the comprehensive coverage makes dense reading, worth the effort, though directed at the scholar rather than the student. T. undoubtedly could not give as much space to each of the Versions as he does to the Septuagint, and a fuller discussion of the Peshitta would be valuable. The bibliography is divided into the most frequently quoted studies, listed together, and others given in headings and notes in individual chapters; the need for such an arrangement is understood, but many readers would prefer one complete presentation.
G. G
W
W. has devoted around half a century to the study of the Peshitta of Kings and Jeremiah. This volume, long in gestation, is very loosely based on, but in some respects is a complete replacement for, W.'s 1964 doctoral dissertation on the Peshitta of 2 Kings. Part I, the larger part, deals with the relationships between the Syriac manuscripts for Kings and parallel passages in Chronicles, Isaiah and Jeremiah, while Part II deals with the translation character of 2 Kings alone. The principal discovery of the study is that the ninth-century manuscript 9a1 is generally superior to other earlier manuscripts, including the manuscript base of the Leiden edition of the Peshitta. Manuscript 9a1 more frequently agrees with MT than other manuscripts, but W. is able to establish that the agreements with MT do not result from revision towards it, and that in fact 9a1 represents an independent strand of transmission which has also experienced its own corruptions. The work is thorough, overwhelmingly detailed, and a real service to scholarship, though the internal layout is cluttered. The principal message I draw from this study is that scholars using the Leiden edition of the Peshitta must avoid treating it as the earliest available form of the Peshitta.
P.J. W