Johann
Well-known member
Not bad-accept for the fact I am not a KJV-"onlyism"How is that for dealing with the Greek OT?
Josephus also used other Greek translations than the LXX, most notably the proto-Lucian texts [WTOT:60, n.38].
He also praises the pagan king, who received the Greek translation of the Pentateuch (Ant 1.10-13):
'I found, therefore, that the second of the Ptolemies was a king who was extraordinarily diligent in what concerned learning and the collection of books; that he was also peculiarly ambitious to procure a translation of our law, and of the constitution of our government therein contained, into the Greek tongue. (11) Now Eleazar, the high priest, one not inferior to any other of that dignity among us, did not envy the forenamed king the participation of that advantage, which otherwise he would for certain have denied him, but that he knew the custom of our nation was, to hinder nothing of what we esteemed ourselves from being communicated to others. (12) Accordingly, I thought it became me both to imitate the generosity of our high priest, and to suppose there might even now be many lovers of learning like the king; for he did not obtain all our writings at that time; but those who were sent to Alexandria as interpreters, gave him only the books of the law, (13) while there were a vast number of other matters in our sacred books.'
And,
"'The fact that Josephus was himself writing in Greek would make it seem likely that his chief textual source was the LXX, especially since he cited it as a precedent for presenting the history of the Jews to a non-Jewish audience (Ant 1. Proem 3 §10-12) and since he devoted so much space paraphrasing the account of the translation given in Let. Aris. (Ant 12.2.1-15 §11-118), hardly what one would expect in a work which is essentially a political and military rather than a cultural and religious history of the Jews.
And yet, the very fact that he paraphrased the Bible in Greek would seem to indicate that he hoped to improve on that rendering, since there would hardly be much point otherwise in a new version. Hence it is not surprising that where the style of the LXX is more polished, as in the Additions to Esther or in 1 Esdras, he adheres more closely to its text. And yet, to have ignored the LXX, in view of the tremendous regard in which that version was held, would have been looked upon as an attempt to hide something.
Nevertheless, even when Josephus agrees with the LXX, this is not necessarily an indication that he had the LXX text before him, since he may have incorporated an exegetical tradition which had been known earlier to the translators of the LXX. Finally, the biblical texts found at Qumran indicate that the differences between the Hebrew and the Greek texts were not so great as had been previously thought.'
4. Writers of the Pseudepigraphical and Apocryphal works. Here we have a vast amount of literature, from 300 bc to 300 ad, from Palestine and beyond, written in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic (or 'other'!), by all types and stripes of theological persuasion. We can scarcely even sample this, but let's look at some of it.
As would be expected, the Greek-language and/or Egpytian-provenanced pieces demonstrate high LXX usage, but such usage is NOT confined to these texts. Below is a list of partial citations/allusions in the Pseudepigrapha to passages in the LXX. (The Apocrypha, of course, is PART of the LXX.)
1.1 Chron 29.2 in Joseph and Asenath 2c
2.1 Sam 13.17 in Joseph and Asenath 24z
3.2 Sam 4.6 in Joseph and Asenath 10g
4.Dan 4.13 in Joseph and Asenath 10e
5.Dan 4.33a-34 in Joseph and Asenath 10b
6.Dan 4.33a-b in Joseph and Asenath 10h2
7.Dan 4.34 in Joseph and Asenath 12a
8.Dan 7.15 in Joseph and Asenath 12y
9.Deut 32.21 in 3 (Greek Apoc) of Baruch (Gk) 16.3
10.Deut 32.30 in Apocalypse of Daniel 4.14
11.Esther 3.17 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 2.2
12.Ex 12.40 in Demetrius Frag 2.16,18
13.Ex 13.9 in Aristobulus Frag 2.8
14.Ex 17.16 in Joseph and Asenath 8d2
15.Ex 2.15-18 in Artapanus Frag 3.27.19
16.Ex 20.11 in Aristobulus Frag 5.12
17.Ex 22.27 in Joseph and Asenath 10v
18.Ex 3.20 in Aristobulus Frag 2.8
19.Ex 9.3 in Aristobulus Frag 2.8
20.Gen 1.2 in Joseph and Asenath 12d, 12e
21.Gen 1.3-24 in Aristobulus Frag 4.3
22.Gen 1.6 in Joseph and Asenath 12h
23.Gen 10.1 in Apocalypse of Adam 4.9
24.Gen 10.1f in Joseph and Asenath 2q
25.Gen 14.19 in Joseph and Asenath 8f
26.Gen 2.8 in Testament of Abraham A 11.1
27.Gen 22.17 in Greek Apoc. of Ezra 3.10
28.Gen 25.1-4 in Demetrius Frag 3.1
29.Gen 3.23 in Joseph and Asenath 16.n
30.Gen 30.37 in Greek Apoc. of Ezra 1.3
31.Gen 39.19 in Joseph and Asenath 23r
32.Gen 42.19 in Joseph and Asenath 26e
33.Gen 42.33 in Joseph and Asenath 26e
34.Gen 44.7 in Joseph and Asenath 23u
35.Gen 46.27 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.64
36.Gen 49.24 in Joseph and Asenath 8w
37.Gen 5.4 in Apocalypse of Adam 1.1
38.Gen 50.22b-26 in Joseph and Asenath 29i
39.I Kings 4.29-34 in Testament of Solomon 3.5
40.Is 1.13 in Joseph and Asenath 14c
41.Is 14.12 in Greek Apoc. of Ezra 4.28
42.Is 26.19 in Apocryphon of Ezekiel Frag 1
43.Is 40.12 in Greek Apoc. of Ezra 7.5
44.Is 47.8 in Joseph and Asenath 11k2
45.Is 52.13 in Ascension of Isaiah 4.21
46.Is 58.11 in Joseph and Asenath 24x
47.Is 66.1 in Joseph and Asenath 22r
48.Is 8.20 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.69
49.Is 9.5 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.10
50.Jer 38 in Joseph and Asenath 12f
51.Job 38.38 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.16
52.Job 9.18 in Joseph and Asenath 12x
53.Jonah 1.17 in Testament of Zebulun 4.4
54.Judges 7.16 in Joseph and Asenath 24z
55.Mal 1.1 in Lives of the Prophets 16.2
56.Micah 1.8 in 2 (Syriac) Apocalypse of Baruch 10.8
57.Numbers 12.8 in Greek Apoc. of Ezra 6.6
58.Numbers 16.48 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 6.6
59.Prov 11.31 in Apocalypse of Daniel 11.11
60.Prov 24.21 in Syriac Menander 9
61.Prov 8.27 in 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse) of Enoch 25.4
62.Ps 100.3 in Odes of Solomon 7.12
63.Ps 102.1 in i 12y
64.Ps 103.2 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 3.3; 12.16
65.Ps 103.24 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.7
66.Ps 103.25 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.24
67.Ps 103.25-26 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 3.11
68.Ps 104.21 in 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse) of Enoch 104.21
69.Ps 106.34 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.61
70.Ps 113.12 in Joseph and Asenath 2f
71.Ps 120.8 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 13.12
72.Ps 129.3f in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 11.11
73.Ps 143.4 in i 12y
74.Ps 144.18 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 6.3
75.Ps 144.3 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.25
76.Ps 146.4 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.19
77.Ps 146.5 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.1
78.Ps 151 in LIBER ANTIQUITATUM BIBLICARUM 62.5
79.Ps 18.2 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.5
80.Ps 20.4 in Odes of Solomon 9.8
81.Ps 36.4 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 13.9
82.Ps 41.2 in History of Joseph C Verso 6
83.Ps 50.21 in Apocalypse of Daniel 14.12
84.Ps 50.3 in Odes of Solomon 7.10
85.Ps 61.3 in Joseph and Asenath 12y
86.Ps 67.18 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 4.15
87.Ps 73.15 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.78
88.Ps 77.24 in Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers 12.75
89.Ps 88.10 in Joseph and Asenath 12x
90.Ps 9.37 in Joseph and Asenath 19d
91.Ps 95.11 in Joseph and Asenath 8f2
92.Zech 5.1-3 in Lives of the Prophets 3.5
93.Zech 13.6 in Ladder of Jacob 7.30
94.Zech 2.15 in Joseph and Asenath 15l