Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

My LXX (Rahlfs edition) has two versions of Tobit. In one version, 
which apparently follows Alexandrinus and Vaticanus, 14:4 starts 
something like this: "Go away to Media, my son, for I am persuaded by 
what the prophet Jonah said about Nineveh, that it will be 
overthrown..." There is a further mention of Jonah in 14:8: "And now, 
my son, leave Nineveh, for everything which the prophet Jonah has 
spoken will take place."

The second version of Tobit in my LXX, apparently following 
Sinaiticus, has a much longer text for 14:4, which starts "and hurry 
off to Media, for I believe the word of God that Nahum spoke about 
Nineveh, that all these things will take place and overtake Assyria 
and Nineveh. Indeed, everything that was spoken by the prophets of 
Israel, whom God sent, will occur. None of their words will fail, but 
all will come true at their appointed times..." This latter 
translation is taken from NRSV which appears at least here to be a 
translation of the Sinaiticus text. There is no mention of Jonah in 
14:8. From just 14:4, I would guess that these texts started as 
different translations of the same (Hebrew?) original, for they use 
near synonyms in Greek e.g. "go away" vs. "hurry off", "I am 
persuaded" vs. "I believe" which are unlikely to have arisen by 
corruption of a Greek text.

So we see that Jonah is mentioned in Alexandrinus and Vaticanus, but 
instead Nahum in Sinaiticus. Possibly Nahum was substituted for Jonah 
because someone saw the inconsistency you have spotted. Or possibly 
the other way round, someone replaced the less well known (but more 
appopriate) Nahum with the better known Jonah.

Even if the reference to Jonah is original, it does not necessarily 
mean that the author of Tobit knew of another version of the Jonah 
story. The author may want to present the death of Tobit as 
contemporary with the preaching of Jonah, with Tobit advising his son 
to flee within the 40 day period of Jonah's warning (Sinaiticus 
suggests less urgency, that Tobias should wait for his mother's death 
before fleeing, see 14:10 in NRSV); in fact (as we see in Tobit 14:15) 
Nineveh was destroyed some time later. Another possibility is a 
theological interpretation of Jonah which saw the fall of Nineveh, as 
prophesied by Jonah, as being delayed by the temporary repentance 
described in that book but as actually taking place later, thus making 
Jonah a genuine prophet rather than one whose only prophecy ("Nineveh 
will be overthrown") was not fulfilled.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Jonah and Tobit
Author:  soren AT enteract.com at internet
Date:    28/07/1999 21:10


THis is a question which may belong on b-greek to which (for reasons that=
 will appear] I don't belong.

I am part of a group studying Sefer Yonah (the Book of Jonah).  In the = 
course of that study, we became aware that the end of Tobit (in the LXX = 
but not in the MT) refers to Jonah.  The passage, however (Tobit 14:4 ff)=
 seems to show that while the author of Tobit was aware of a Jonah story =
about Nineveh, he did not have our Jonah story in which Nineveh is eventu= 
ally spared.  Goodspeed, the editor of the translation I used (since I = 
don't know Greek) says that "The THree great manuscripts of the Greek Bib= 
le differ in their texts of TObit. The present tradition follows traditio= 
n in presenting the text of the Vaticanus and Alexandrinus.  The Sinaitic= 
us may represent an older text".

So, the question is: Is there an English version of this Sinaiticus text = 
and where does one obtain it?  Needless to say, anyone aware of studies = 
of the relationship of Jonah to Tobit is also encouraged to come forth = 
with this information.  My e-mail address is: soren AT enteract.com.

Thank you in advance


Stephen Oren
Chicago, IL



---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org 
To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
$subst('Email.Unsub')
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.