The Unity of LXX Genesis and Exodus

Abstract

Abstract Attempts to advocate multiple authorship for the Greek Pentateuch depend principally on statistics and are tenuous methodologically. Research methods from Translation Studies, applied to Genesis and Exodus, bring out their continuity. A sounding of the translational approach in Gen 2-3, Gen 27-28, Gen 48/50 and Exod 1-2 suggests that the Gen translator’s approach is shifting and flows seamlessly into that of the initial Exod chapters. Lexical and syntactic examples, too, illustrate that Exod continues or builds on or further develops the renderings found in the latter part of Gen. A natural explanation for this state of affairs is that the translator of Gen, whose approach had become increasingly idiomatic, completed Gen 50 and continued with Exod in the same vein. Our findings call for a verification of the multiple authorship hypothesis for the rest of the Pentateuch. They imply a less monolithic evaluation of LXX text-critical evidence.