Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

At 11.30 25/10/99, you wrote:
>At 10:34 AM 10/23/99 -0700, you wrote:
>><p>2) Produce a new Hebrew Text to replace the older Greek LXX and serve
>>as a standard text for all the Jewish and Hebrew people. The Text of the
>>Sopherim was no longer usable it seems because it was not generally
available
>>for the Jewish and Hebrew people. This text is what we know today as the
>>Masoretic Text or the M T.
>
>The problem with this is that among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which pre-date
>Christianity, that plurality of texts are MT and not LXX (which makes up a
>very smallamount of texts.) Your thesis here does not seem to fit the
>evidence.

Sorry, Moshe, this doesn't fit the facts as I understand them. There are
various indications from within the DS OT texts that the traditions were
not well delineated, ie texts that show MT tendencies may also have certain
LXX or Samaritan traits.

Of course, of the LXX at the time of Josephus there was only some form of
the torah translated. Josephus tells us one of the reasons for his
antiquities is to provide the other Hebrew literature to the world in Greek
(see his preface to the Antiquities). There are only a few fragments of
pentateuchal texts from Qumran.


Cheers,


Ian