Abstract
The existence of the Greek term μυρμηκολέων in Job, 4, 11, in the biblical text of Orthodox tradition, on the steadfast line of the Septuagint, has seemed—time and again—bizarre, and has intrigued enough as to be approached as a textological problem in several articles and studies, some of them extended and well documented, during the last hundred years; it seems that we face an ordinary translation mistake: the Hellenised Hebrew translator of the Septuagint has missed the equivalent of the Heb. ַׁל ֭י ִש (layish [lah’-yish]) ‘a lion’ from the original story of Job, and has produced, consequently, what appears to be a hapax legomenon in the sacred text, an odd and obscure term. Reopening the case, the present study argues in favour of a different reading of the word μυρμηκολέων, which precludes the translator’s presumed mistake. Moreover, it reminds the researcher of the necessity to question, in a lucid manner, the arguments that seem to support a certain conclusion.
Highlights
F Orthodox tradition, on the steadfast line of the Septuagint, has seemed—time and again—bizarre, and has intrigued enough as to be approached as a textological problem in several articles and studies, some of them extended and well documented, during the last hundred years; it seems that we face an ordinary translation mistake: the Hellenised Hebrew translator of the Septuagint has missed the equivalent of the Heb. ׁ( ַל֭יִשlayish [lah’-yish]) ‘a lion’ from the original story of Job, and has produced, what appears to be a hapax legomenon in the sacred text, an odd and obscure term
A similar case we find with Gr. hippo(potamos): in certain contexts, it shows the same willingness of the speaker to ignore the normal Greek signified of the word and to accept the signified it has received bookishly: following, perhaps, a confused usage of a local term designating a specific animal, hippos (Diodorus Siculus—1st c. bc—uses it without the determinant potamios ‘of river’) appears in: 1. θηρία δὁ Νεῖλος τρέφει πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα ταῖς ἰδέαις ἐξηλλαγμένα, δύο δὲ διάφορα, τόν τε κροκόδειλον καὶ τὸν καλούμενον ἵππον. [...] 8. ὁ δὲ καλούμενος ἵππος τῷ μεγέθει μέν ἐστιν οὐκ ἐλάττων πηχῶν πέντε, τετράπους δὢν καὶ δίχηλος παραπλησίως τοῖς βουσὶ (Diodorus Siculus, 1888–1890, 1.35.1, 8; e.a.) [“1
In the Septuagint, and its first employments with the meaning it has today, raises a question concerning the truthfulness if the idea that the Septuagint deals with the same μυρμηκολέων, οντος (ὁ) (Engl. antlion; Rom. furnicoleu/leul furnicilor) we find in nowadays entomology
Summary
The existence of the Greek term μυρμηκολέων, οντος (ὁ) (cf. μύρμηξ, ηκος (ὁ) & λέων, οντος (ὁ); see bailly, s.v.; liddell–scott, s.v. μυρμηκ-; Engl. antlion; Rom. furnicoleu) in Job, 4, 11, in the biblical text of Orthodox tradition, on the steadfast line of the Septuagint (μυρμηκολέων ὤλετο παρὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βοράν σκύμνοι δὲ λεόντων ἔλιπον ἀλλήλους, lxx; e.a.), has seemed—time and again—bizarre, and has intrigued enough as to be approached as a textological problem in several articles and studies, some of them extended and well documented, during the last hundred years (Druce, 1923; Kevan, 19921 ; Cardell, 2013; Munteanu, 2016). Antlion; Rom. furnicoleu) in Job, 4, 11, in the biblical text of Orthodox tradition, on the steadfast line of the Septuagint (μυρμηκολέων ὤλετο παρὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βοράν σκύμνοι δὲ λεόντων ἔλιπον ἀλλήλους, lxx; e.a.), has seemed—time and again—bizarre, and has intrigued enough as to be approached as a textological problem in several articles and studies, some of them extended and well documented, during the last hundred years (Druce, 1923; Kevan, 19921 ; Cardell, 2013; Munteanu, 2016). “...and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad”, kjv; Rom. [“The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad”, kjv])?. For the explanations concerning the semantics of the Hebrew terms present in the verse, see strong, loc.
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