Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

more bad news for the purveyors of the great language to the west (greek)
and its eastern counterpart (aramaic).

The advocates of those languages keep impressing them on and into the hebrew
synagogue .... but the hebrews don't appear to be cooperating ... century in
... and century out; inside and outside of ארץ ישראל

regards,

fred burlingame

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 10:17 AM, Bryant J. Williams III <
bjwvmw AT com-pair.net> wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> Below is the reply from Dr. Albert Pietersma, editor of the NETS (LXX),
> forwarding the reply of Dr. Cameron Boyd-Taylor, director of the Cambridge
> Project, the manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah and the LXX.
>
> Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Albert Pietersma" <albert.pietersma AT sympatico.ca>
> To: "Daniel Buck" <bucksburg AT yahoo.com>
> Cc: <b-greek AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 4:23 AM
> Subject: [B-Greek] The Cambridge Project
>
>
> Sorry for the delay, but here Cameron's response to the question
> raised by Bryant
> Al
>
> The medieval Jewish Greek manuscripts within the Cambridge corpus
> comprise a broad range of materials, including  glossaries,
> commentaries and scholia, as well as fragments of continuous
> translations. Hence, while one may speak in general terms about the
> significance of the textual evidence, this is always with the
> understanding that there are exceptions. The bulk of the corpus dates
> to somewhere between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE. The current
> consensus is that these manuscripts draw upon a definite tradition
> going back to the ancient Greek versions, and thus almost undoubtedly
> contain genuine readings, particularly of Aquilas version. Yet their
> text-critical value remains highly circumscribed. This has in large
> measure to do with the cultural milieu in which the manuscripts were
> produced. It should be noted that, judging by the epigraphic evidence,
> Greek had ceased to be the official language of the Byzantine
> synagogue by the sixth century CE. The sacred scripture was Hebrew,
> and the primacy of the MT and its progenitors is evident in the
> Cambridge manuscripts. The Greek biblical text evidently functioned in
> an ancillary role to the Hebrew, and, as one might expect, it appears
> to have been relatively fluid. Thus, there is a high preponderance of
> vernacular elements. The texts contain a mixture of late Greek glosses
> together with readings clearly dependent upon the ancient versions. We
> may in fact be dealing with oral rather than literate tradition.
> Jewish scribes had no formal education in Greek grammar and thus no
> reservations about writing it down exactly as they heard and spoke it.
> The spelling in these manuscripts thus tends to be phonetic, and the
> morphology and syntax of the Greek has become more or less assimilated
> to contemporary usage. As a consequence of these factors, while there
> are echoes of the Old Greek, and certainly readings derived from
> Aquila, the medieval Jewish manuscripts do no not, as a rule,
> represent a source for ancient readings. They cannot be used to fill
> gaps in the textual evidence. If they are used by textual critics at
> all, it will be as supportive evidence, confirming readings that may
> be in doubt, or correcting attributions to the ancient versions. Their
> primary interest is with respect to the reception history of the Greek
> biblical text with Byzantine Judaism.
>
> Cameron Boyd-Taylor
>
>
> Albert Pietersma PhD
> 21 Cross Street,
> Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
> Email: albert.pietersma AT sympatico.ca
> Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm
>
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