Narratological Approaches to the LXX of the Books of Samuel

Abstract

The application of narratological approaches to the Septuagint versions of biblical stories is legitimate but requires from the researcher several skills and much caution. Narrative analysis may be practiced in order to understand a story in the LXX for its own sake or as a step in the study of textual development. Apart from attention to general principles of narrative analysis, the scholar engaged in this kind of study must take into consideration questions concerning textual criticism and textual transmission of the book under scrutiny, especially of its Septuagint version, translation technique of the Greek version and linguistics, and the narrative feaures of MT’s version of the story. This is a promising field of research that might reveal several interesting aspects of the biblical text, particularly of its Greek version.