Trails of a different Vorlage and a free translator in LXX-Proverbs: A text-critical analysis of Proverbs 16:1-7

Abstract

In recent scholarly debate, more attention has been given to the Book of Proverbs. This book, unlike others, has not been extensively studied when it comes to translation techniques or text-critical research. Nevertheless, the textual witnesses of Proverbs demonstrate some variants, more particularly a lot of minuses and pluses, which are relevant to our understanding of the text. This article provides a text-critical analysis of Prov 16,1-7 using the methodology proposed by Benedicte Lemmelijn presented in her book ‘A Plague of Texts? A Text-Critical Study of the So-Called ‘Plague Narrative’ in Exodus 7,14-11,10’. The results of this analysis lead to the conclusion that the LXX translator, who translated freely, had a different Vorlage, which had another verse order than MT and 4QProv b . This contribution offers a step forward in the quest for a better understanding of the translation technique of LXX-Proverbs.