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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "David Kimbrough (CLWA)" <dkimbrough AT clwa.org>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, 'Deborah Millier' <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 22nd Psalm & LXX
  • Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 10:40:02 -0800

On 02/12/2003 10:03, David Kimbrough (CLWA) wrote:

The LXX divides parts of the 22nd Psalm in its 21st and 23rd Psalms. ...

Which part of the Hebrew (and English) Psalm 22 corresponds to LXX Psalm 23? From a quick read of LXX Psalm 23, it seems to be entirely a translation of Hebrew Psalm 24, according to the regular pattern of correspondence.

... The
16th verse of the 22nd Psalm in the MT occurs in the 17th verse of the LXX's
21st Psalm. It reads...

LXX 21:17 Hoti ekuklosan me kunev polloi sunagoge ponhreuomenon periesxon me
orukan xeirav mou kai podav.

This is a very mixed up transliteration. You have not distinguished omega and omicron; some eta's are e and some h; and your use of v for final sigma is very confusing.

"Orukan" means "they dig" (from oruko, "to dig") ...

No, the word is WRUXAN in the standard transliteration, i.e. starting with omega, and with a xi (ksi) as the fourth letter. (I am using the Rahlfs edition, there are no textual variants noted.) It comes from the verb ORUSSW or ORUTTW (yes, starting with omicron). No kappas to be seen. One meaning given in my old and small Liddell and Scott is "to dig through, make a passage through", which could fit with hands and feet, and outer ears.

... , not they pierce like
"nusso" or "peripeiro" or even "ekkenteo" which mean would have been more
ambiguous since it can mean to "put out", "dig out", "to dig through",
"transfix", or "pierce". Oruko is unambiguously "to dig".

ORUKW is unambiguously unknown. (What source are you using for your assertion here?) ORUSSW/ORUTTW seems to have a central meaning of "dig" but can certainly mean "dig out" and "dig through" as explicitly mentioned by Liddell and Scott.

But what does this LXX usage actually teach us? It seems to be unique Greek (in the written record, and presumably excluding later texts dependent on LXX), and we can argue that it is bad Greek, but it is undeniable that someone wrote it. The simplest hypothesis to explain this is that the translator read a Hebrew text (the Vorlage) which was understood to mean "they dug", and put this meaning into Greek rather literally. This is especially simple in this case because two candidates for such a Vorlage are well known, the Nahal Hever text K'RW which (whatever it might originally have meant) could very well have been understood as "they dug"; and the reading KRW which is found (according to BHS) in two manuscripts and which almost certainly means "they dug".

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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