La Bible d’Alexandrie: Le Cantique des cantiques. Translated and introduced by Jean-Marie Auwers

Abstract

This book is volume 19 of the Alexandrian Bible, a translation of the Greek text of the Septuagint with introduction and notes. The book is divided into two main sections, an extensive introduction and a translation/annotation, which provides commentary on the Septuagint text of the Song of Songs. The introduction comprises fourteen sections. The first, ‘The Exegesis of the Song of Songs Today’, gives a brief overview of current discussions of the Song’s date, the gender of its author, the debate over its literary unity, the search for a plot, the continuing literal vs. allegorical debate, proposed parallel literary texts or ‘intertexts’, and the Song among other books of the Bible. As Auwers observes, there is no agreement among commentators concerning these topics. The second section looks at the title of the Song and its position in the biblical corpus. Section three looks at various proposed divisions of the text. In section four, ‘The Movement of the Text’, Auwers looks at whether there is a narrative plot in the Song, giving a brief history of research, and discusses the repetitions in the poem and the way that it mirrors itself. In section five, ‘The Texts’, Auwers discusses the Hebrew text, including those found at Qumran, the Septuagint/Greek manuscripts and old versions, the ancient Latin version and its revision by Jerome, the Coptic versions, and ‘Our Greek Text’, which notes that he translates the text of the A. Rahlfs edition (1935), noting main divergencies in the great uncials (Sinaiticus = S, Vaticanus = B, Alexandrinus = A, Venetus = V) and the fragmentary manuscripts Ra 952, Ra 838, and Ra 825 (p. 65, cf. p. 60). Section six looks at ‘The Greek Text and its Hebrew Model’, focusing on the ‘additions’ in the Septuagint version of the Song which were perhaps already in the model used by the translator, the Hebrew Vorlage, deviations in vocalization, and the divergent divisions of the Song in the LXX. Section seven looks at the ‘Date and Place of the Greek Translation’, particularly as it relates to the kaige group, a group of anonymous translators and revisers thought to be active in first century ce Palestine. Section eight looks at ‘The Vocabulary of Translation’, discussing ‘traditional’ vocabulary, consistency and inconsistency in lexical options (though the ‘translator is generally constant in the choice of lexical equivalents’, p. 80), choices that are surprising, words that are unique to the Song and not found elsewhere in the LXX, Greek words of Semitic origin, transliterations, vegetation vocabulary, names of animals, anatomical vocabulary, vocabulary of love, and names of loved ones. In section nine, ‘The Syntax of Translation’, Auwers notes that the translation is often word for word, following the Hebrew syntax as closely as possible, and sometimes mechanical. He also discusses its treatment of verbal forms, as well as the article. Section ten looks at ‘The Poetics and the Style of the Translation’, whilst section eleven discusses ‘The Linguistic Profile of the Translator’. Section twelve, ‘The Interpretive Choices of the Translator’, looks at the translator’s avoidance of elucidation in obscure passages, the question of whether the translator attempted to allegorize, eroticize, or employ biblical intertextuality, and their apparent ‘neutrality’ in translation. Section thirteen looks at ‘The Reception of the Song of Songs’ in ancient Judaism, in the New Testament and Church Fathers, in the Syriac domain, in the Greek domain, and in the Latin domain. In the Greek domain, special attention is given to Origen, Methodius of Olympus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius Ponticus, Nilus of Ancyra, Philo of Carpasia, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus/Cyrrhus, Pseudo-Athanasius, and exegetical ‘chains’. In the Latin domain, special attention is given to Tertullian, Cyprian, Victorinus of Pettau/Poetovio, Reticius of Autun, Gregory of Elvira, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Julian of Eclanum, Justus of Urgell, Gregory the Great, and Apponius. Section fourteen, ‘The Didascalia’, looks at speakers and interlocutors, the Didascalia of Alexandrinus, the Didascalia of Manuscripts 161 and 248, the Didascalia of Sinaiticus, the apparent Latin Didascalia, the Didascalia of Venetus, divergencies between the Didascalia with regards to the speaker, whether they are of Jewish or of Christian origin, reading the Song as a wedding song, and reading the Song as a drama. The introduction ends with the section ‘The Drama of the Song of Songs’, which is a complete translation of the Song of Songs, accompanied by the Didascalia of Sinaiticus, the gaps of which have been filled in from Greek manuscripts 46 and 631 and the didascalia transmitted by the Latin manuscripts of Stuggart (W) and Fribourg (F). The second half of the book is devoted to Auwers’s commentary on the LXX of the Song, including translation and annotation.