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1000 results for “OT_TC_Amateur”
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העדרים vs. הרעים
This is a transposition of ע and either r->dr (near dittography) or dr->r (near haplography). Hebrew r and d are so similar that they are often confused, but this is a particularly clear case of that confusion extending to haplography or dittography.
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Here's a fun one: near synonyms due to near #haplography or #dittography in #Genesis 28:8
When Jacob goes to Harran, to his uncle Laban, there's a well with a big stone, so the shepherds gather the flocks to water there during the day.
The shepherds explain:
They cannot leave
MT: עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ כָּל־הָ֣עֲדָרִ֔ים
(until all the flocks are gathered)
SamP: עד אשר יאספו כל הרעים
(until all the shepherds are gathered)Only the last word is different
1/? -
Here's a fun one: near synonyms due to near #haplography or #dittography in #Genesis 28:8
When Jacob goes to Harran, to his uncle Laban, there's a well with a big stone, so the shepherds gather the flocks to water there during the day.
The shepherds explain:
They cannot leave
MT: עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ כָּל־הָ֣עֲדָרִ֔ים
(until all the flocks are gathered)
SamP: עד אשר יאספו כל הרעים
(until all the shepherds are gathered)Only the last word is different
1/? -
Here's a fun one: near synonyms due to near #haplography or #dittography in #Genesis 28:8
When Jacob goes to Harran, to his uncle Laban, there's a well with a big stone, so the shepherds gather the flocks to water there during the day.
The shepherds explain:
They cannot leave
MT: עַ֣ד אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ כָּל־הָ֣עֲדָרִ֔ים
(until all the flocks are gathered)
SamP: עד אשר יאספו כל הרעים
(until all the shepherds are gathered)Only the last word is different
1/? -
Today I learned:
(1) Cambridge University Library has posted the oldest known #Samaritan Pentateuch manuscript online,
(2) Samaritan manuscript script looks crazy but is really regular, &
(3) with squinting at the Samaritan script Wikipedia page, I can read Samaritan!https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01846/287
#HebrewBible #SamaritanPentateuch
#manuscript_digitization -
Today I learned:
(1) Cambridge University Library has posted the oldest known #Samaritan Pentateuch manuscript online,
(2) Samaritan manuscript script looks crazy but is really regular, &
(3) with squinting at the Samaritan script Wikipedia page, I can read Samaritan!https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01846/287
#HebrewBible #SamaritanPentateuch
#manuscript_digitization -
Today I learned:
(1) Cambridge University Library has posted the oldest known #Samaritan Pentateuch manuscript online,
(2) Samaritan manuscript script looks crazy but is really regular, &
(3) with squinting at the Samaritan script Wikipedia page, I can read Samaritan!https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01846/287
#HebrewBible #SamaritanPentateuch
#manuscript_digitization -
In #Nehemiah 10:30 (=10:29 English), where MT reads ʾaddîrēyhem, LXX reads καὶ κατηράσαντο αὐτοὺς. Might this represent Hebrew ʾaddîrûhem, interpreted as an (Aramaic) Aphʿel of ndr? Apparently the verb ndr does not have a hiphʿil form in use in Biblical Hebrew.
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Obviously the precise numbers will shift around a bit depending on what divisions one picks for the columns, but it is hoped that this shows that there is more variation in which name refers to God in chapters 2-8 of Genesis than in the Abraham and Isaac stories, at least.
I wonder if these sorts of differences in agreement may be a faint echo of compositional processes.
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In order to visualize the drop and then upward shift, it is necessary to have units of comparison. Chapters won't work, because different chapters have different numbers of references to God.
Since I've collected just over 280 references to God in Genesis 1:1-28:13, I divided this sample into 8 divisions of 35 references (corresponding to uneven lengths of text), and calculated what percentage of each division is unanimous across witnesses.
See chart:
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Reviving my analysis of names of God in #Genesis, after the initial chapter (where all witnesses agree in >90%), there is a sharp drop in agreement in the first ten chapters, and then, as we move into the patriarchal narratives, a greater degree of unanimity.
I'm defining unanimity as all witnesses possess the translation equivalents, except Vulg replacing a second "and God did" with "who did" is merely stylistic, so does not break unanimity.
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#Nehemiah 6:16
Where MT reads wyrʾw (“and they saw”), OG, Pesh, and even Vulg read “and they feared” (#Hebrew wyyrʾw, +/- y).KJV and NASB follow MT; NIV and NRSV follow the other versions.
#HebrewBible -
An odd gender-swap:
#Nehemiah 6:14 (MT) lists Nehemiah's opponents Toviyah and Sanballat, as well as an otherwise unattested "prophetess No`adyah."In OG, Pesh, and Vulg No`adyah is a (male) prophet. The difference is one letter (הַנְּבִיאָה֙ vs. הנביא).
Did MT uniquely add a letter to make an opposing prophet female? Or did all of the other versions drop the letter in favor of the more common masculine form, making her male?
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Vulg in English: And Tobiyah & Sanballat had hired him. For he received a price, that I might be terrified
#Syriac Pesh has a longer reading, with the redundancy:
ܛܘܒܝܐ ܘܣܡܒܠܝܛ ܘܚܒܪ̈ܘܗܝ܂ ܐܓܪܘ ܘܫܕܪܘܗܝ ܥܠܝ ܠܡܩܛܠܢܝ ܡܛܠ ܕܐܓܝܪܐ ܗܘ܂ ܡܛܠ ܕܐܕܚܠ
Tobiya, Sanballat, *and his companions* hired *and sent* him *against me to kill me*, so that he was hired so that I would fear
2/?
#HebrewBible -
#Nehemiah 6:12-13 includes a curious redundancy in MT:
וְטוֹבִיָּ֥ה וְסַנְבַלַּ֖ט שְׂכָרֽוֹ׃ לְמַ֤עַן שָׂכוּר֙ ה֔וּא לְמַֽעַן־אִירָ֥א
Tobiyah & Sanballat hired him so that he was hired so that I would fear.I notice that #Latin Vulg seems to agree with MT in the redundancy:
et Tobias et Sanaballat conduxissent eum. Acceperat enim pretium, ut territus facerem1/?
#HebrewBible -
Also important, no source for this section refers to God as anything other than "God" (#Hebrew אלהים, #Greek Θεός, #Syriac ܐܠܗܐ, #Latin Deus).
All of this changes once we move into Genesis 2:4ff. Of the 34 references to God in Genesis 2:4-4:26, only 17 achieve unanimity (barring Vulg omissions), only 50%, and sometimes which name is used for God is different. In 2:4-22, where MT has "LORD God," OG only has "God" (except 2:4, 15-18).
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Reading chapters 1-4 of #Genesis in #Hebrew, one is struck by the abrupt shift from calling God Elohim (1:1-2:3) to YHWH Elohim (2:4-3:32, except the serpent) to just YHWH (chap. 4). Such shifts persuaded scholars there were different documents.
But how stable are these differences across the different witnesses?
It first must be acknowledged that the #Latin #Vulgate often omits "God", to avoid too much repetition.
1/? -
Reading chapters 1-4 of #Genesis in #Hebrew, one is struck by the abrupt shift from calling God Elohim (1:1-2:3) to YHWH Elohim (2:4-3:32, except the serpent) to just YHWH (chap. 4). Such shifts persuaded scholars there were different documents.
But how stable are these differences across the different witnesses?
It first must be acknowledged that the #Latin #Vulgate often omits "God", to avoid too much repetition.
1/? -
Reading chapters 1-4 of #Genesis in #Hebrew, one is struck by the abrupt shift from calling God Elohim (1:1-2:3) to YHWH Elohim (2:4-3:32, except the serpent) to just YHWH (chap. 4). Such shifts persuaded scholars there were different documents.
But how stable are these differences across the different witnesses?
It first must be acknowledged that the #Latin #Vulgate often omits "God", to avoid too much repetition.
1/? -
Another article on the subject of writing in ancient #Israel / #Judah :
Matthieu Richelle, "Elusive Scrolls: Could Any Hebrew Literature Have Been Written Prior to the Eighth Century BCE?" Vetus Testamentum 66 (2016): 556-94. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44647541I appreciate when scholars say we know less than we think, but then his conclusion seems more positive than his argumentation to that point.
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As a follow-up, I found:
Brian B. Schmidt, ed. Contextualizing Israel’s Sacred Writing: Ancient Literacy, Orality, and Literary Production (Society of Biblical Literature, 2015).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1647cmz
#HebrewBible #AncientNearEast #ANE -
Is there any good social history of writing in Canaan/Israel/Judah/Edom/Moab/Ammon before 500 BCE? (I'm not looking for Egypt or Mesopotamia.) How many people were reading and writing, in what contexts, for what purposes?
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What interests me is the question how, if the DSS/OG reading is original, the shorter MT reading could have appeared. The proposed reconstruction of 4QSam-a's text reads:
והנער
[עמם ויביאוהו לפני יהוה וישחט אביהו את ]הזבח [כ]אשר
[יעשה מימים ימימה ליהוה ............... וי]שחטwith a long gap.
But if that's original, how can one explain the shorter reading?
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Most such explanations can go either way, which is why #TextualCriticism is difficult and often inconclusive.
In this case, one of the #DeadSeaScrolls supports OG over MT (which doesn't solve the issue, since variations occur among DSS).
4QSam-a:
בי]ת יהוה שילה והנער
]הזבח [כ]אשר
וי]שחטSo a full line comes between the second-to-last word of 1 Sam. 1:24 and the start of v.25, w/ two words echoing OG.
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Pesh: ܘܛܠܝܐ ܛܠܐ ܗܘܐ܂
But in 1 Samuel 1:24(-25) the OG preserves a much larger reading: καὶ τὸ παιδάριον μετ᾿ αὐτῶν. καὶ προσήγαγον ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, καὶ ἔσφαξεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ τὴν θυσίαν, ἣν ἐποίει ἐξ ἡμερῶν εἰς ἡμέρας τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ προσήγαγε τὸ παιδάριον ("and the child was with them. And they approached before the Lord, and his father slaughtered the sacrifice which he was making from tine to time to the Lord, and he brought forward the child.")
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The principles lectio brevior potior and lectio dificilior which tell us to prefer shorter and more difficult readings are not universally valid. Many accidental errors result in short difficult readings, e.g. 1 Samuel 1:24 MT: וְהַנַּ֖עַר נָֽעַר ("and the boy was a boy").
The thing about difficult readings in scripture is that readers try HARD to make sense. Here almost all English versions translate "the child was young."
1/? #TextualCriticism #HebrewBible #1Samuel #translation #Bible
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The principles lectio brevior potior and lectio dificilior which tell us to prefer shorter and more difficult readings are not universally valid. Many accidental errors result in short difficult readings, e.g. 1 Samuel 1:24 MT: וְהַנַּ֖עַר נָֽעַר ("and the boy was a boy").
The thing about difficult readings in scripture is that readers try HARD to make sense. Here almost all English versions translate "the child was young."
1/? #TextualCriticism #HebrewBible #1Samuel #translation #Bible
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The principles lectio brevior potior and lectio dificilior which tell us to prefer shorter and more difficult readings are not universally valid. Many accidental errors result in short difficult readings, e.g. 1 Samuel 1:24 MT: וְהַנַּ֖עַר נָֽעַר ("and the boy was a boy").
The thing about difficult readings in scripture is that readers try HARD to make sense. Here almost all English versions translate "the child was young."
1/? #TextualCriticism #HebrewBible #1Samuel #translation #Bible
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The story of David's first attempt to move the ark is told twice, with some textual differences. 2 Sam 6:5 mentions the initial celebrations "with all [instruments of] cypress wood," while 1 Chr 13:8 says "with all strength, and with songs."
2 Sam 6:5: בְּכֹ֖ל עֲצֵ֣י בְרוֹשִׁ֑ים
1 Chr 13:8: בְּכָל־עֹ֑ז וּבְשִׁירִ֤יםThe only differences are transpositions of letters and a different word division, but it raises questions whether cypress or songs were involved.
#2Samuel #1Chronicles #HebrewBible -
The story of David's first attempt to move the ark is told twice, with some textual differences. 2 Sam 6:5 mentions the initial celebrations "with all [instruments of] cypress wood," while 1 Chr 13:8 says "with all strength, and with songs."
2 Sam 6:5: בְּכֹ֖ל עֲצֵ֣י בְרוֹשִׁ֑ים
1 Chr 13:8: בְּכָל־עֹ֑ז וּבְשִׁירִ֤יםThe only differences are transpositions of letters and a different word division, but it raises questions whether cypress or songs were involved.
#2Samuel #1Chronicles #HebrewBible