OT Textual Criticism AmateurIn 2 Samuel 20:25, OG testifies to a form with a second ש, as in 1 Kings 4:3 for every witness *except* the OG. MT 2 Samuel suggests some w/y confusion, as well as the loss of the second ש in every non-Greek version. Pesh's ܪܝ might be an intra-Syriac confusion from ܘ (w). OG's Σαβὰ in 1 Kings 4:3 is weird.
I was delighted to come across the suggestion that Sheshbazzar in #Ezra and 5 is Jeconiah's son Shenazzar in 1 #Chronicles 3:18. Collins' Introduction mentions it in passing, but says they are two different names. But are they? Or is one just a scribal error?
The difference is two letters: ששבצר vs. שנאצר.
LXX 1 Esdras has a mixed form Σαναβάσσαρος (=שנבצר) in 2:11, 14; 6:17, 19.
#Jeremiah 38:6a seems to me ungrammatical in the MT:
וַיִּקְח֣וּ אֶֽת־יִרְמְיָ֗הוּ וַיַּשְׁלִ֨כוּ אֹת֜וֹ אֶל־הַבּ֣וֹר׀ מַלְכִּיָּ֣הוּ בֶן־הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ
"They took Jeremiah and they threw him into the pit - Malkiyahu the king's son."
It cannot be "the pit of Malkiyahu" because הבור has a definite article.
Indeed, the Masoretes seemed to want to help readers exclude reading it as "the pit of" by adding a vertical line after "the pit."
Perhaps compare #Genesis 22:14:
MT: בְּהַ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה יֵרָאֶֽה
LXX: ἐν τῷ ὄρει Κύριος ὤφθη
Pesh: ܒܛܘܪܐ ܗܢܐ ܡܪܝܐ ܢܚܙܐ
Vulg: In monte Dominus videbit
In LXX, God was seen, whereas in MT/Pesh/Vulg, God will see.
(It's unclear to me whether LXX Gen 22:14 presumes reading perfect נראה or yiqtol יֵרָאֶ֖ה)
I don't see other places where אל אלהים means "God of gods" except possibly Joshua 22:22 (interpreted thus by Pesh, not MT, LXX, or Vulg).
On the other hand, if MT's vowels are right, who is the subject? How do we get from a plural verb in the first half of the verse to a singular here?
LXX commonly interprets words as referring to God, while the Masoretes may have been uncomfortable about God "appearing" if they could avoid it.
A fun little variant was pointed out to me by a friend:
MT Ps 84:8: יֵרָאֶ֖ה אֶל־אֱלֹהִ֣ים בְּצִיּֽוֹן
LXX: ὀφθήσεται ὁ Θεὸς τῶν θεῶν ἐν Σιών
Pesh: ܢܬܚܙܐ ܐܠܗ ܐ̈ܠܗܝܢ ܒܨܗܝܘܢ (= LXX)
Vulg: parebunt apud Deum in Sion
The only difference is the vowel in אל. The vowel in אל determines whether it is a noun (construct "God of") or a preposition ("to"), and thus whether the next word אלהים is "gods" or "God."
As a mark of my amateur status, TIL about TC: a journal of biblical textual criticism!
https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/tc/issue/volume/30
And even cooler, they are entirely open access, so you can read the articles even if you are not at a theological research library!
I read a chapter about #HebrewBible #TextualCriticism in the 19th C, and now I better understand the background between the separation of textual criticism starting where literary criticism ends, which I see in the work e.g. of Tov, but I still think the division is artificial and misleading.
Actually it turns out that he vs. heth is the most common letter confusion in #Samaritan #Genesis. That surprises me, but I've found twenty such confusions among proper names. I suspect the lack of pronunciation difference helps.
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#HebrewBible #TextualCriticism #SamaritanPentateuch
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#HebrewBible #TextualCriticism #SamaritanPentateuch