A Textual Problem Concerning ‮בּוֹא אֶל‬‎ and ‮בָּעַל‬‎ in Deut 22:13

Abstract

Abstract The presence of συνοικέω in LXX Deut 22:13 does not account for the verb in the MT (‮בּוֹא אֶל‬‎), especially given how systematic Greek translators were in rendering this Hebrew expression, even in its sexual meaning, into verbs of movement. The existing scholarly literature has tended to overlook this discrepancy between the LXX and the MT. Attention has been paid primarily to the disagreement between the latter and the corresponding quotation in the Temple Scroll (11Q19). This article refutes the arguments that take for granted the deliberate change of MT ‮וּבָא אֵלֶיהָ‬‎ into ‮ובעלה‬‎ by the author of the Temple Scroll and proves that the oddity of the Greek translation is preferably explained by the hypothesis of a Hebrew Vorlage common to the LXX and the Temple Scroll and distinct from the MT. Additionally, this article offers another case of textual variation—albeit in postbiblical literature—between sexual ‮בּוֹא אל‬‎ and ‮בָּעַל‬‎.