LXX Song of Songs and Descriptive Translation Studies

When first I came to the study of Jewish-Greek literature, I was a young classicist steeped in the idioms of Plato and Sophocles. At that time, the Septuagint was little more than a name to me. Over the course of several years, I acquainted myself with the field of Biblical studies, with the Greek Scriptures, and with the Greek Song of Songs in particular. To some, this new-found interest was peculiar. (I still fondly remember the expression of mild shock on my erstwhile advisor's face when I quoted to him some choice fragments attributed to Aquila.) In some respects, this book represents my own efforts to come to grips with the strange, unruly, even alluring language of the Greek Song of Songs. It is my firm belief that the field of Septuagint Studies, standing as it does at the crossroads of so many disciplines -among them Greek linguistics, textual criticism, Old Testament exegesis, Biblical philology, Translation Studies, patristics and palaeography -deserves the interdisciplinary attention of scholars from a variety of backgrounds. This volume should be understood in that light: a close reading of LXX Song of Songs, informed primarily by classical philology and Translation Studies, which could and should be supplemented by other readings from other points of view. \* This book results from the research project Canticles (Song of Songs) in Hebrew and Greek. A Comparative Analysis of the Translation Technique of the Septuagint and the so-called Pre-Hexaplaric Revisions (FWO G.0349.06), directed between 2005 and 2009 by prof. dr. Hans Ausloos and prof. dr. Bénédicte Lemmelijn at the Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual Criticism (Faculty of Theology, KU Leuven). During this time, I had the pleasure and the honour of working with prof. dr. Reinhart Ceulemans and dr. Elke Verbeke, excellent scholars both, and the finest partners-in-crime that anyone could wish for. I should not say that, without them, this book would never have existed -but the process certainly would have been a lot less fulfilling. Many people contributed to the completion of this study, in ways both great and small. I am grateful to each and every one of them. At the risk of forgetting many others, I name only prof. dr. Luc Van der Stockt, prof. dr. Reine Meylaerts, dr. Cameron Boyd-Taylor, dr. Katrin Hauspie, Toon Ternier, prof. dr. Pierre Van Hecke, and dr. Jeroen Lauwers. I would also like to express my thanks to the editorial board of De Septuaginta Investigationes and the staff members at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht -in particular, to prof. dr. Kristin De Troyer, prof. dr. Wolfgang Kraus, and dr. Elisabeth Hernitscheck. And finally, to some people I am indebted in ways that I cannot begin to recount: to the youngsters and students Abbreviations PG J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca PST Polysystem Theory Ra A. Rahlfs/D. Fraenkel, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften S Codex Sinaiticus SC source culture Schleusner J. F. Schleusner, Lexicon in LXX SIG W. Dittenberger (ed.), Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum SL source language Sophocles E. A. "Dries De Crom intends to stimulate the cross-fertilization of Septuagint Studies and Translation Studies, particularly the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). It engages with concepts and theories from DTS in order to demonstrate their applicability to the study of the Septuagint. The aim is not to replace the established methods of Septuagint Studies, but rather to show that they are fully compatible with descriptive approaches to translation. The greater part of the volume is dedicated to a meticulous verse-by-verse comparison between the LXX and MT texts of Song of Songs. As there is at present no full critical edition of the Greek texts of Song of Songs, due attention is given to the most important witnesses to the pre-Hexaplaric text. The textual study engages with matters of translation technique, textual criticism, linguistic interference and the interpretation of LXX Song of Songs. On the basis of this textual analysis, the volume explores the question of Kaige-Theodotion and LXX Song of Song's relation to it, as well as the peculiar textual-linguistic profile of LXX Songs of Songs, against the background of translational norms, interference, interlanguage and literary code"-- Publisher's website