Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 04/03/2004 13:16, Philip Engmann wrote:

> The DSS have long been trumpeted as being the oldest known biblical
> Hebrew manuscripts; manuscripts which outdate the MT by about 1000
> years. However DSS dating does not seem to be compared much to LXX
> dating? Some authors even cite the DSS as independent witnesses where
> LXX and MT[1] texts differ, as though the witness of the DSS would
> finally settle the discrepancies between LXX and MT. 
>
> It would appear that the LXX could be older than DSS. Using the criteria
> that the oldest text is usually more authentic, DSS fails as an
> independent witness authenticating either MT or LXX.
>
>
> 1.      The Septuagint has its origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was
> translated between 300-200 BC.[2]
> 2.      The seventy-two (altered in a few later versions to seventy or
> seventy-five) translators arrived in Egypt to the Ptolemy's gracious
> hospitality, and translated the Torah (or Pentateuch: the first five
> books of the Hebrew Scriptures) in seventy-two days. Although opinions
> as to when this occurred differ, scholars find 282 BC an attractive
> date.[3]
> 3.      The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) are discovered manuscripts from
> Qumran, which date from around 168 BC to about 68 AD.[4]
> 4.      So LXX is older than the DSS by about 100 years.
>
>  
You are comparing two different things, the date of production of LXX 
against the date of the oldest surviving MSS of the Hebrew text. To make 
a fair comparison, you need to compare date of production of both or 
date of oldest MSS of both.

Date of production: As an original text must always be older than its 
translation, the Hebrew text must be older than the LXX - unless you try 
to argue that the Hebrew is a translation from the Greek.

Date of oldest MSS: Large parts of the Hebrew Bible are preserved in the 
DSS. Only a few scraps of the LXX are preserved; the earliest MSS of 
substantial parts of the LXX are 4th-5th centuries CE if I remember rightly.

So the Hebrew text clearly wins on both comparisons of age, for what 
it's worth.


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