Septuagintal Exegesis and the Superscriptions of the Greek Psalter

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This chapter argues that though genuine exegesis and exposition are found in the Septuagint, including in the Greek Psalter, it needs to be identified on the basis of its textual-linguistic make-up. If its textual-linguistic make-up argues for a translation characterized more by formal correspondence than by dynamic equivalency, one's approach to hermeneutics in the Septuagint should be governed by these findings. That means at a minimum that exegesis needs to be demonstrated. From that perceptive the author suggests that one work from the least intelligible phenomena to the more intelligible; that one proceed from the word level to higher levels of constituent structure; that one pay more attention to the translator's deviations from his Hebrew-Greek defaults than to his defaults and standard equations; and that one assign greater context to segments of the Greek text than to the segments of the Hebrew text only as a last resort. Keywords: Greek Psalter; Greek text; Hebrew text; hermeneutics; Septuagint