Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: unikom AT paco.net
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53
  • Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 12:40:29 -0700

On 14/05/2004 23:28, unikom AT paco.net wrote:

...
If your point is that the authors of the Septuagint produced the original
wrong Greek translation, I won't argue with this, although of course I
have great doubts that the LXX was produced by Jews, because glaring
errors reveal non-native Hebrew speaker. I'm not accusing modern
Christians of mistranslation, you see; the issue is simply what reading is
correct.


This argument doesn't add up. There were many Jews in the last centuries BCE who were not native speakers of Hebrew, and so non-native speaker of Hebrew does not imply not Jew. (Indeed some people argue that there were no native speakers of Hebrew after the Exile.) It seems most likely to me that the LXX was translated, according to tradition, by Alexandrian Jews, who had become Greek-speaking and who were already losing their understanding of Hebrew. This is sufficient to explain the glaring translation errors. If you are suggesting that it was translated by Christians, that hardly makes sense because the LXX is well attested at Qumran, but there are at most a very few fragments there of any other Christian text. Now if you want to argue that the received text of the LXX has been edited by Christians, you may be on safer ground although I don't think that can be proved.



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






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page