Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Gary,

Let's please not be cynical. Your question is more about the NT than it is 
about the Hebrew Bible.

In any case, it is widely assumed that the writers of the NT used the 
Septuagint (or something like what we call the Septuagint) as their "Old 
Testament", so it would be only natural for them to quote the Septuagint 
version of this verse, which does include the phrase "Be glad, O heavens, 
together with Him, and do obeisance to Him, all angels of God". The Qumran 
version, at least according to Abegg, Flint and Ulrich's The Dead Sea 
Scrolls Bible, is ".... all you gods". If I had to guess, I'd assume that 
the Qumran version is earlier, and that the Greek version(s) that we have 
today, which are all based on manuscripts that are later than Qumran, 
actually "cleaned it up" by replacing "gods" with "angels of God". As to why 
neither version appears in the MT - probably scribal error, simply 
"skipping" a line.

Yigal Levin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Hedrick" <garyh AT cjfm.org>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 1:50 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] 1Q287 and the Tanakh at Deut. 32:43


> I hope it’s still okay to ask questions about the Hebrew text of the Bible 
> on this list.
>
>
>
> Hebrews 1:6 in the NT quotes the OT as saying, “And let all the angels of 
> GOD worship him.” The problem is that there’s nothing like this in the 
> Hebrew Bible—at least, none that I’ve been able to find. Someone with a 
> skeptical mindset might wonder if the author of Hebrews simply made up the 
> quotation because it sounded “biblical” and buttressed his argument.
>
>
>
> But wait a minute, not so fast. The LXX adds the phrase in Deut. 32:43 
> about the angels of GOD (lit., “sons of GOD”) worshiping him (apologies in 
> advance if the Greek font below doesn’t work in some browsers):
>
> εὐφράνθητε οὐρανοί ἅμα αὐτῷ καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες υἱοὶ θεοῦ 
> εὐφράνθητε ἔθνη μετὰ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνισχυσάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι 
> θεοῦ ὅτι τὸ αἷμα τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ ἐκδικᾶται καὶ ἐκδικήσει καὶ ἀνταποδώσει 
> δίκην τοῖς ἐχθροῖς καὶ τοῖς μισοῦσιν ἀνταποδώσει καὶ ἐκκαθαριεῖ κύριος τὴν 
> γῆν τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ
>
>
>
> Also, I understand that 1Q287 (a DSS fragment) preserves the phrase in the 
> Hebrew text of the same passage (although I haven’t been able to find a 
> copy online).
>
>
>
> This presents an interesting situation. Is it possible that the NT 
> actually preserves an older reading of this passage in the Hebrew text 
> than the MT? I realize this also relates to TC, but I thought our b-hebrew 
> listers might also have some relevant insights.
>
>
>
> Gary Hedrick
>
> San Antonio, TX
>
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew


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