Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 26/02/2004 06:05, Philip Engmann wrote:

> I just wish to make a small clarification.
>
> The MT was pointed from the 5th -10th Centuries AD.
>
> The LXX was translated from its Hebrew parent text into Greek in the
> period, 3 BC to 3 AD.
>
> So the LXX was in existence before the MT by at least 200 years.
>
> So the LXX could not have been translated from the MT.
>
> The LXX was translated from a Hebrew parent text.
>
> This LXX Hebrew parent text sometimes differed from the MT parent-text,
> i.e. the proto-MT, and sometimes agreed with it.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Philip Engmann
>
>  
Thank you for the clarification. I could have written "the LXX was 
translated from the proto-MT" - with the exceptions that I went on to 
note. More specifically, I could have written "the LXX was translated 
from a text essentially identical to the consonants of the MT". The 
existence of such a text is attested at least back to the 1-2 centuries 
BCE. Also, although the vocalisation of the MT was not written down in 
full detail until many centuries CE, there are good indications that 
that vocalisation was well known and transmitted by oral tradition from 
BCE times. I could even claim that the vocalised MT did exist from these 
times, but unwritten.

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