'Eξιλ <tex-math>$\acute{\alpha}$</tex-math> σασθαι: Appeasing God in the Septuagint Pentateuch

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) I. STATING THE PROBLEM The simplex verb ... and its compound ... indicate in Greek literature action appease, placate, propitiate, and are found in both religious and secular realms. The group (hereafter the word or the verb) expresses process by which a person could restore to kindness an aggrieved deity or fellow mortal, who would typically appear as direct object of verb. Septuagint this sense occurs to a limited extent.1 cultic portions of Pentateuch, however, in its meaning propitiate becomes a contextual difficulty. Such a meaning does not equate to ... (pivel), which there does not mean appease but rather something like of impurities.2 Moreover, Greek verb does not appear in syntax familiar to Greek readers. Instead of a human or deity appearing as direct object in accusative, a prepositional phrase or, far less frequently, an impersonal noun as direct object now follows verb. The nouns in prepositional phrases are often individuals, but could also be items such as tents and altars or abstracts such as life and sin. If verb could convey something like purge, purify, or expiate in these types of constructions, it would make better contextual sense, especially since this is what Hebrew means. The resolution of this contextual difficulty has been guided by considerations extraneous to LXX as a corpus of linguistic information. For instance, readers from earliest times have noticed that ... and cognates in meaning of appease were intrusive into Jewish and Christian thought. Consequently, in much of attention paid to this in secondary literature aim has been to resolve theological contradiction posed by LXX language, in which deity is propitiated by sacrifice, when Hebrew Bible and NT do not on face of it support such a notion. this regard, C. H. Dodd posited a development in meaning such that expiate or purge would be considered part of word's semantic range.3 That is, after all, what translators must have known term to connote if it came to stand in for a Hebrew of that meaning, or so his argument goes. Dodd's work was and remains highly influential.4 It is not surprising, therefore, to encounter meaning purge for in a LXX lexicon or a NT commentary that draws on Septuagintal usage. T. Muraoka and J. Lust et al. list in addition to standard meanings also sense of purge.5Harold W. Attridge in his commentary on Epistle to Hebrews states that in LXX words ... and ... had come to be used for expiation as well as propitiation. In Hebrews, he observes, Christ's sacrifice is always directed at removing sin and its effects, not at propitiating God.6 The central question for this study is whether such a semantic shift is borne out by philological data. II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP Since appearance of Dodd's work, another kind of solution has been put forward that focuses on meaning of Hebrew context. Leon Morris's argument, articulated first in an article in Expository Times and later in a monograph, rests on assumption that meaning of ... is indeed propitiate or else translators would not have employed Greek equivalent, or that, at least, respective Hebrew contexts contained idea of God's wrath, so that translators employed a that responds well to such contexts.7 Morris's work is commendable, although my impression is that, had he argued for Greek word's meaning from perspective of its standard meaning, he would have arrived at similar conclusions. Instead he opened himself up to criticism by resorting to Hebrew context. I shall return to his arguments below. What one encounters in other studies is an emphasis on evidentiary value of Greek context with no regard for its relationship to Hebrew parent text. …