Greek Bible Research Articles

Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora (review)

Reviewed by: Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora William Adler Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora, by Tessa Rajak. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 380 pp. $140.00. As Professor Rajak notes in the introduction, modern research on the old Greek translation of Jewish scriptures has been disproportionately preoccupied with its textual history and transmission. (Rajak's unscientific estimate gives the number at 90%.) Rather than waiting another "150 years" (p. 20) for text critics to sort out all the problems, Rajak decided to approach the subject from another angle. The result is an interesting and wide-ranging study of the function of the translation for the Greek- speaking Jewish communities that used it. The guiding thesis of her book is that the Greek translation, far from a form of cultural acquiescence, was a bold expression of communal identity and part of a broader strategy of cultural resistance and subversion. The Epistle of ps.-Aristeas outlines one element of this strategy in its famous story [End Page 215] of the Greek translation of the Torah. On its face, the letter embodies the cosmopolitan spirit of Hellenism. During their stay in Alexandria, the Jewish sages, who play the part of "quintessential Greeks," implicitly endorse Jewish participation in the cultural life of the city (p. 62). Ptolemy Philadelphus, the royal overseer of the translation, reciprocates the favor, hailing the Jews as a nation of philosophers in his symposium with the sages. At the same time, however, the epistle asserts Jewish autonomy and distinctiveness. Rather than remaining in the king's court—a customary gesture of gratitude to a benevolent king—the sages retain their independence. Once the translation is done, they return home. Following Sylvie Honigman, Rajak treats ps.-Aristeas as a "charter myth" (pp. 49-50), a kind of conceptual map of the Alexandrian Jewish community's self-understanding as a "politeia" and its role in Alexandrian society. The translation functioned much the same way at the linguistic level. Rajak dismisses the attribution of the aesthetic failings of Septuagint Greek to the translators' halting command of the Greek language or to their slavish obeisance to the Hebrew text. By reminding readers and listeners of the "foreignness" of the text, Hebraisms and the other infelicities of Septuagint Greek represent to Rajak a "quiet" form of cultural defiance. Just as ps.-Aristeas' translators kept their distance from their royal sponsor and patron, the work they produced distanced itself from the literary expectations of learned Hellenistic society. She sees the same dynamic at play in the treatment of secular authority in later works that came to make up the Septuagint. Beneath all the scorching invective against idolatry and monarchy lies more discreet and coded guidance about co-existence with foreign rulers. The standing of the Septuagint in diaspora Jewish communities also reflected the requirements of life in foreign lands. Instead of the loaded term "canonical," Rajak prefers to speak of the Septuagint's privileged place of "centrality." To better illustrate the point, she draws a distinction between the "text-soaked" Qumran community and the diaspora Jewish communities, who lived "with Torah rather than fully by or through" it (p. 256). Rajak is to be commended both for introducing a new set of questions to Septuagint studies, and for putting to rest (we can only hope for good) some persistent misconceptions about Judaism and the "threat" of Greek culture. As she makes clear, interactions between Judaism and Hellenism were not inevitably a high stakes, zero-sum game. To be sure, there were Second Temple Jewish writers who did represent the options in such stark terms. The author of First Maccabees, for example, equated "going Greek" with cultural and religious annihilation. But for Jews of the diaspora, survival and identity did not require choosing one way or the other. For them, the Septuagint was [End Page 216] an instrument of communal survival, not the first step on the road to assimilation and oblivion. Any serious student of the Septuagint would also do well to read her conclusive refutation of the "abandonment" theory first proposed by Justin Martyr. In his imaginary Dialogue with Trypho, Justin...

Pluralism Where Least Expected?: Joshua 22 in Biblical Context

The book of Joshua is more flexible (and better known in the Gospels) than often supposed. The debate between the majority west of the Jordan and the minority to the east over which biblical texts supply a relevant precedent leads to compromise, but is differently reported in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles: MT more sympathetic to the nine-and-a-half tribes, and LXX to the two-and-a-half (who may represent the diaspora). Even the built structure at issue is differently introduced: ‘altar’ in MT and ‘high place’ in LXX — but both sides of the river finally accept whatever-it-is as a ‘witness’.

TESSA RAJAK, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora.

TESSA RAJAK, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora.

L’étude des titres des Psaumes : questions de méthode

In the titles of the Psalms, G Dorival explains the qualitative differences between the Hebrew and the Greek by positing, for the Greek version, a substratum different from the MT, sometimes shared by Aquila, Theodotion or rabbinic texts. However, both the revisions and the rabbinic texts consistently reflect a substratum which is identical to the MT. Dorival assumes that the wording of the titles of the Psalms was modified in the MT, since the original formulation - reflected, he believes, in the Greek version - raised issues in the context of the debate with Christianity which the Rabbis preferred to suppress. There is no known case in the history of the Bible where redactional activity was inspired by such a doctrinal debate. To assume that the revisers of the Hebrew text introduced a hapax in order to remove a clear reference to the Church is to call into question the basic rules of textual criticism and, in particular, the superiority of the lectio difficilior. The Greek version of the titles of the Psalms, far from being based on a substratum which is different from the MT, often makes choices which are attested in rabbinic exegesis. From a methodological perspective, it is not possible to put the Greek Bible on a par with the Masoretic Text, as Dorival does, so as to consider the MT as a version of an original Hebrew text. So long as the recensional character of the MT has not been proven, it remains the best witness of the Hebrew original. In the titles of the Psalms, the close relationship between the wording of the Greek Bible and the interpretative play of rabbinic exegesis renders highly dubious the idea that the Masoretic formulation is the manifestation of an anti-Christian textual revision.

Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora

Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora

Granville Sharp's Canon and Its Kin: Semantics and Significance. Studies in Biblical Greek 14

Granville Sharp's Canon and Its Kin: Semantics and Significance. Studies in Biblical Greek 14

A Reader's Hebrew and Greek Bible – Edited by A. Philip Brown II, Bryan W. Smith, Richard J. Goodrich, and Albert L. Lukaszewski

A Reader's Hebrew and Greek Bible – Edited by A. Philip Brown II, Bryan W. Smith, Richard J. Goodrich, and Albert L. Lukaszewski

N. De Lange, J.C. Krivoruchko, C. Boyd-Taylor, Jewish Receptions of Greek Bible Versions, Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Juda

N. De Lange, J.C. Krivoruchko, C. Boyd-Taylor, Jewish Receptions of Greek Bible Versions, Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Juda

Book Review: Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek. By Constantine R. Campbell. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008. Pp. 159. Paper, $16.99

Book Review: Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek. By Constantine R. Campbell. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008. Pp. 159. Paper, $16.99

Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected EssaysTovEmanuel Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected Essays Mohr SiebeckTübingen, 2008, xxxii, 458, €119.00ISBN 978-3-16-149546-5

Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected EssaysTovEmanuel <i>Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected Essays</i> Mohr SiebeckTübingen, 2008, xxxii, 458, €119.00ISBN 978-3-16-149546-5

The concise Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament

Frederick William Danker, a world-renowned scholar of Greek, is widely acclaimed for his 2000 revision of Walter Bauer's of the New and Other Early Christian Literature. With more than a quarter of a million copies in print, it is considered the finest dictionary of its kind. Danker's Greek-English of the New Testament will prove to be similarly invaluable to ministers, seminarians, translators, and students of biblical Greek. Unlike other lexica of the New Testament, which give only brief glosses for headwords, The Concise Greek-English Lexicon offers extended definitions or explanations in idiomatic English for all Greek terms. An overarching aim of The Concise Greek-English Lexicon is to assist the reader in recognizing the broader linguistic and cultural contexts for New usage of words. Each entry includes basic etymological information, short renderings, information on usage, and plentiful biblical references. And Greek terms that could have different English definitions, depending on context, are thoughtfully keyed to the appropriate passages. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon retains all the acclaimed features of A Greek-English Lexicon in a succinct and affordable handbook, perfect for specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Word about Recent Book: I. Bibical Studies: Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek

Word about Recent Book: I. Bibical Studies: Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek

국역성서의 헬라어 분사구문 처리에 관한 소고 : 『새번역』히브리서를 중심으로

국역성서의 헬라어 분사구문 처리에 관한 소고 : 『새번역』히브리서를 중심으로

Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers. Edited by TESSA RAJAK, SARAH PEARCE, JAMES AITKEN, and JENNIFER DINES.

This collection of papers studying the images of Hellenistic monarchies as reflected in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and related Jewish writings is a first probe in a larger project by the editors (‘The Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World’) supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Board. As individual papers belonging to a colloquium organized in 2003, they do not all focus with the same sharpness on the title of the volume, nor do they all express the same opinion. It is also mostly the Ptolemies that are meant here, hardly followed by the Seleucids, and not at all by the Antigonids or the Attalids. The introduction by T. Rajak is a brave synthesis of what seems an uneven and inconclusive treatment, raising more questions than providing answers. But at the outset of a major investigation of an important and so far neglected subject, this is understandable.

성경 헬라어 관사 번역에 대한 교육적 제안

성경 헬라어 관사 번역에 대한 교육적 제안

Textbooks in Greek and Latin: 2009 Supplementary Survey

Textbooks in Greek and Latin:2009 Supplementary Survey Judith Lynn Sebesta This survey includes those Greek and Latin textbooks and language and etymology textbooks in print, published between November 2008 and March 2009, updating the 2008 full survey (CW 101.3) and 2007 supplementary survey (CW 100.3). Included also are textbooks inadvertently omitted from the 2008 full survey, and corrections for textbooks listed in that full survey. Data have been primarily gathered from the publishers themselves, supplemented by sources such as the annual Books in Print. A directory of publishers' abbreviations, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and websites appears at the end of this issue. Prices are those sent directly from the publishers or those listed in Books in Print; readers are advised that prices may change without notice. Books are assumed to be clothbound unless otherwise noted. The texts in the section "Author/Genre" are primarily annotated editions. Those that include a translation are marked "w. tr." The inclusion of a vocabulary is noted by "v" unless the nature of the work makes such an annotation unnecessary. No bilingual series (e.g., Budé, Loeb), series of plain texts (e.g., Teubner, Oxford), or books written in foreign languages are included. The textbook's ISBN or publisher's order number, where available, precedes its price. Please note that when updating the ISBNs to the new thirteen-digit system, the survey preserved the format given by publishers. This means that many of the new ISBNs in this survey do not have hyphens separating numbers. Also, please note that the final digit of many of the thirteen-digit ISBNs may differ from that of the former ten-digit ones. An asterisk (*) appearing after a text title indicates that AV or PC materials for that particular text are separately listed in the AV survey. Readers are urged to inform the survey editor of additions and changes. Greek I. Author/Genre Epigrams The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams. Vol. 1 Epigrams. Vol. 2 Commentary, Indices. A. Gow and D. Page. Vol. 1: 978-0-521-73573-1 $99.00 (paper) (C) The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams. Vol. 1 Texts. Vol. 2 Commentary, Indices. A. Gow. 978-0 521-73758-6 $99.00 (C) [End Page 331] Euripides Euripides: Helen. W. Allan. 9780521836906 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521545419 $38.99 (paper) (C) Homer Homer: Odyssey Books VI-VIII. A. Garvie. 9780521338400 $39.99 (paper) (C) Lucian Lucian: A Selection. N. Hopkinson. 9780521842006 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521603041 $34.99 (paper) (C) Plato Plato: Alcibiades. N. Denyer. 9780521632812 $99.00 (C) Plato: Protagoras. N. Denyer, 9780521840446 $90.00 (cloth), 9780521549691 $35.99 (paper) (C) Sophocles Sophocles: Antigone. M. Griffith. 9780521337014 $34.99 (paper) (C) II. Beginner's Books Edwards, L. A Reading Course in Homeric Greek Book Two (3rd ed.) 978-1-58510-176-4 $29.95 (paper) (F) Ellsworth, J. Reading Ancient Greek: A Reasonable Approach (2nd ed.). Teacher's manual free with text adoption (paper) (McGH) Shelmerdine, C. Introduction to Greek (2nd ed.) 978-1-58510-184-9 $36.95 (paper) (F) III. Grammars and Grammatical Aids Geannikis, E., A. Romiti and P. T. Wilford. Greek Paradigm Handbook. 978-1-58510-307-2 $12.95 (paper) (F) Rijksbaron, A. The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek: An Introduction. (3rd ed.). 978-0-226-71858-3 $20.00 (Chi) IV. Readers Hansen, W. Anonymous Life of Aesop. 978-1-931019-04-0 $11.95 (paper) (BMC) Trapp, M. Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation. 9780521495974 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521499439 $39.99 (paper) (C) VII. New Testament Beginner's Books Countryman, L. Read It in Greek: An Introduction to New Testament Greek. 978-0-8028-0665-9 $24.00 (paper) (Eerd) Robinson, T. Mastering New Testament Greek: Essential Tools for Students. 978-1-56563-576-0 $19.95 (paper) (Hen) Grammars Long, G. Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek: Learning Biblical Greek Grammatical Concepts through English Grammar. 978-1-56563 406-0 $19.95 (paper) (Hen) Mueller, W. Grammatical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. 978 0-8028-1447-0 $12.00 (paper) (Eerd) [End Page 332] Readers and Texts Bruce, F. The...

Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected Essays. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 121

Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran: Collected Essays. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 121

&lt;i&gt;Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers Ljubica Jovanovic Tessa Rajak, Sarah Pearce, James Aitken, and Jennifer Dines (eds.). Jewish Perspectives on Hellenistic Rulers. Hellenistic Culture and Society, 50. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007. Pp. xiv, 363. $49.95. ISBN 978-0-520-25084-0. In opposition to the consistent practice of biblical scholars to treat the Greek Bible merely as an aid in correcting its Hebrew original, the contributors of this fine volume (Dines, Grabe, and van der Kooij) wholeheartedly embrace Elias Bickerman's half-century-old call to research the Septuagint in its own right and in its Hellenistic context. Traditionally, the Hellenistic Jewish literature in Greek that emerged around the time of the Septuagint under the names of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha fell in the domain of biblical scholars, and not of classicists, whose expertise was challenged because of their insufficient grounding in Semitic languages. Now, however, bringing classical and biblical studies together has become a guiding principle of the "AHRC Parkes Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World Project," which in 2003 sponsored an international colloquium on "Representations of Hellenistic Kingship." In this volume, the project's editorial board collected sixteen conference papers which are not only well rooted in both Hellenistic history and Jewish literature, but also thoroughly and successfully committed to putting "the spotlight on both sides" (4). [End Page 121] Murray's excellent article on the role of philosophers in the Hellenistic royal houses, and Rowlandson's well-supported insights on the dynamics of the Ptolemaic court, set the scene for the topic of this volume: construction of Hellenistic rulers by Greek-speaking Jews. Instead of a standard discussion on dating and provenance, the remainder of the volume is animated by a comparative methodology based on the principle of "actualization" and "contemporization"—i.e., the "reading of the past in terms of the present" (3)—which opens up unlimited possibilities for research and yields refreshing results. Rajak's Jewish image of the "Angry Tyrant," Honigman's literary analysis of Aristeas, Evans' "Hellenistic interpreter," and van Henten's "Royal ideology," all testify to the versatility of this method. Even Alexander and Alexander's proposition that Greek Esther was a response to 3 Maccabees, although somewhat speculative, is a remarkable and innovative proposal. The greatest value of this volume is its pointing to new directions for future research based on the best of recent scholarship. Fowler's presupposition that Hellenistic influences last longer and have a wider reach than had previously been thought allows for the inclusion of the Parthians into the discussion. Gruen underlines that the search for historicity in Hellenistic literature really reveals more about the Jewish authors than it does about Hellenistic rulers, and Edwards goes one further by arguing for the greater use of archeology to offset the overreliance on literary sources in Hellenistic studies. Pearce calls for a careful reexamination of previous scholarship, even that of the rightly influential Bickerman. And, lastly, Fowler's "Kingship and Banditry" brings to the study of the Hellenistic past our modern-day experiences with freedom fighters and terrorism. The pity is that this collection of exceptionally fine articles is poorly edited. In the first place, the logic behind the structure and fourfold division of the book is never explained and seems arbitrary. Why Gruen's discussion of non-Greek biblical texts from the Persian period opens the section on "Rulers in Greek-Jewish Texts" is a case in point. Rajak's introduction could have offered some help, but here the attention she pays to each article varies greatly and is dictated by her narrative on the conference's overall concerns. Perhaps a standard introduction that explained the ordering of the articles and summarized them sequentially would have greatly helped the reader to use each of these essays independently. Luckily, the titles represent their contents well, a virtue frequently lacking in current academic writings. Moreover, the indexes are fraught with problems too many to enumerate here, and only a few examples must suffice. First, the references to Jeremiah jump indiscriminately between Hebrew and Greek numbering conventions. Secondly, Greek Esther, though cited (228), is not indexed. Third, a number of references in the...

Book Review: Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek

Book Review: Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek

Jewish perspectives on Hellenistic rulers

preface abbreviations Introduction: Tessa Rajak part one: theories and practices of hellenistic rulers 1. Philosophy and Monarchy in the Hellenistic World Oswyn Murray 2. The Character of Ptolemaic Aristocracy: Problems of Definition and Evidence Jane Rowlandson part two: rulers in greek-jewish texts 3. Persia through the Jewish Looking-Glass Erich Gruen 4. Ben Sira on Kings and Kingship Benjamin Wright 5. The Image of the Oriental Monarch in the Third Book of Maccabees Philip Alexander and Loveday Alexander 6. The Angry Tyrant Tessa Rajak 7. The Narrative Function of the King and the Library in the Letter of Aristeas Sylvie Honigman 8. Kingship and Banditry: The Parthian Empire and Its Western Subjects Richard Fowler part three: light from the septuagint translators? 9. Translating for Ptolemy: Patriotism and Politics in the Greek Pentateuch? Sarah Pearce 10. Poet and Critic: Royal Ideology and the Greek Translator of Proverbs James Aitken 11. The King's Good Servant? Loyalty, Subversion, and Greek Daniel Jennifer Dines 12. The Terminology of Government in the Septuagint--in Comparison with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Other Languages Lester Grabbe 13. The Court Function of the Interpreter in Genesis 42.23 and Early Greek Papyri Trevor Evans part four: ideologies of jewish rule 14. The Greek Bible and Jewish Concepts of Royal Priesthood and Priestly Monarchy Arie van der Kooij 15. Royal Ideology: 1 and 2 Maccabees and Egypt Jan Willem van Henten 16. Constructing Kings--from the Ptolemies to the Herodians: The Archaeological Evidence Douglas Edwards cumulative bibliography list of contributors indexes general ancient sources modern authors