...
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/
Thanks Peter,
I am no expert in DSS dating, and I have no fixed position.
But I wonder, what is the difference between the DATE OF PRODUCTION of a text and the DATE OF THE OLDEST SURVIVING MSS of the same text?
For example, the DATE OF THE OLDEST SURVIVING MSS of 4QDeut/q/ is the "second half of the first century BCE or perhaps the beginning of the first century CE" (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert vol 14, p. 138), according to its editors, Patrick Skehan and Eugene Ulrich. (Thanks Soren).
Would you say that this date differs from the DATE OF PRODUCTION of 4QDeut/q/ ?
Philip Engmann
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.