Some New Fragments of Aquila On Malachi and Job?

Abstract

A small fragment recently discovered among the Cairo Geniza manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library contains some glosses displaying striking affinities with the version ascribed to Aquila. The interest which attaches to this discovery justifies a rapid preliminary publication with a minimum of commentary. The fragment (T-S NS 309.9) presents, in parallel columns, Hebrew lemmata and Greek glosses written in Hebrew characters. Some further entries are written vertically. The glosses on the recto are from Malachi and from Job xxvii-xxviii. The Job glosses continue overleaf, but the verso is so badly damaged that little can be read (see plate), and it will be ignored here. The manuscript is of medieval date. Its provenance is unknown, but it certainly originated in a Greek-speaking Jewish milieu. D.-S. Blondheim argued 2) that Greek-speaking Jews kept alive an oral tradition going back to the ancient versions, especially that of Aquila; this new discovery strikingly confirms his thesis. Although the glosses include several later Greek forms, they also preserve a number of renderings which are characteristic of the version of Aquila. In some cases the glosses agree with readings of Aquila attested in other documents, and it is a reasonable inference that in other cases, too, they represent the same ancient version. In what follows I have copied the Hebrew lemmata, retaining the consonantal spelling of the manuscript but omitting the vowel signs, and the Greek glosses in Hebrew characters. I have attempted to transliterate the glosses back into Greek, again keeping the spelling of the fragment, with a few necessary corrections. The identification