The Septuagint Version of Isaiah and Cognate Studies (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament)

The present volume makes accessible once more the groundbreaking work The Septuagint Version of Isaiah (1948) by Isac Leo Seeligmann (1907-1982), accompanied by two studies that have to be seen as prolegomena to the book. Both studies were published originally in the Dutch language, and the English translation of one of them appears in this volume for the first time. Seeligmann aims to understand the Septuagint as a witness of Hellenistic Judaism striving to maintain the text's special character as a document of faith. At the same time all of Seeligmann's works edited in this volume are documents of the suffering of European Judaism during the time of National Socialism. The new edition provides evidence of Seeligmann's approach to the Septuagint as a witness of Hellenistic Judaism which strives to maintain the text's special character as a document of faith. Because of this new access from the perspective of content and method, Seeligmann's influence on Septuagint research became so strong that it has lasted up to the present. The reader will realise that the history of Israel during the Hellenistic period does not simply represent an object of scholarly research for Seeligmann but also serves as the background for the interpretation of the history of the Jewish people in his own time. Cover Titel Preface Contents ROBERT HANHART: Introduction ROBERT HANHART and HERMANN SPIECKERMANN: Rules Applied to the Edition of ISAC LEO SEELIGMANN’S Works ISAC LEO SEELIGMANN: Problems and Perspectives in Modern Septuagint Research (translated by JUDITH H. SEELIGMANN) I. The Septuagint in Ancient Tradition and Evaluation 1. Jewish Hellenistic tradition 2. Rabbinic tradition 3. Christian tradition II. The Text History of the Septuagint 1. Text editions 2. Paul de Lagarde and the ideal of an Urtext of the Septuagint 3. The state of transmission 4a. Emendations – method and tools 4b. Classification of the manuscripts 5. Textual variants before Origen III. Literary Criticism and the Character of the Septuagint as Translation 1. Distinguishing different hands in the Septuagint 2. The origin of the Septuagint as a Targum 3. Arguments favouring the Targum character 4. Translation character of the various books IV. The Septuagint and the Hebrew Text 1. Translation technique of the Septuagint 2. Retroversion from the Greek 3. The Septuagint and the history of the Hebrew language 4. The Septuagint and the history of the Hebrew text V. The Language of the Septuagint VI. Hellenization and Actualization of the Bible in the Septuagint 1. Forms of Hellenization in the Septuagint 2. Hellenistic theology of the Septuagint 3. Actualization of the Bible in the Septuagint ISAC LEO SEELIGMANN: Phases of Jewish Historical Consciousness (translated by JUDITH H. SEELIGMANN) ISAC LEO SEELIGMANN: The Septuagint Version of Isaiah Preface Introduction Significance of the Septuagint History of the origin of the Septuagint Need of, and a programma for, monographs on the several books Character of the Isaiah translation Problems raised by the Isaiah translation and their treatment in the present study Previous literature on the Isaiah translation I. The Text of the Septuagint of Isaiah and its Transmission Function of this chapter (1) Accidental factors in the transmission of the text; correct readings, accidentally preserved and scattered (2) Classification of the available material handed down to us (3) Hexaplaric and Lucianic recensions (a) Revisionary processes and their spread (b) The Origenic material and its character (c) The Lucianic material and its character (4) Traces of younger revisions in the transmission outside the Origenic and Lucianic material (5) Other revisionary processes (a) Christian elaboration (b) Quasi-Greek phrasing given to original transcriptions of Hebrew words (c) Secondary components in unanimously transmitted versions (5) Doublets in the Septuagint of Isaiah and their character Traces of the existence of parallel translations and their use in ancient revisions Great age of some of these variants II. The Technique Employed in the Translation and its Relation to the Hebrew Text (1) The question of the unity of the translation and the inconsistencies in the translator’s working method (2) The licence shown in the translation a result of an endeavour to produce acceptable Greek; characteristics of the idiom of the translation (3) Some aspects of the translator’s knowledge of Hebrew (a) The translation, or various translations of the Pentateuch as the source of the translator’s knowledge of Hebrew (b) Hebrew an acquired language for the translator; Aramaisms (c) Examples of the translator’s lexicological knowledge of Hebrew (d) Examples of the translator’s grammatical knowledge of Hebrew (4) The freedom and daring of the translator’s technique, the result of defective knowledge of Hebrew and of his striving after free interpretation (5) The script of the Hebrew manuscripts used by the translator; the theory of WUTZ Slight value of our translation for criticism of the Masoretic text (a) Places where the Septuagint preserves a correct reading (b) Categories of places where the Septuagint may be deemed to reflect an ancient text which really existed (α) Different stages of the script and the mutual substitutions of letters (β) Mistranslations pointing to actually existing readings in the Hebrew text (γ) Correspondence to independent sources (δ) Differences between the various strata of the Septuagint elucidating an evolution of the Hebrew text (c) The Septuagint as a document of orthographical peculiarities and copyists’ habits in the Hebrew manuscript Word-substitution III. Date and Historical Background of the Translation Difficulties in dating books of the Septuagint (1) Relationship of the Isaiah translation to that of other books; the translation of Isaiah is younger than that of the Psalms, the Dodecapropheton and Ezechiel and older than that of Daniel, ben Sira, Kings (2) The historical background of the Isaiah translation The geographical notions of the translator: Hellenistic, Jewish and contemporizing elements (3) Historical reminiscences Allusions to Antiochius IV Epiphanes Onias III the fleet of the Philistines Maccabean victories hatred against Maccabees and Jews in the Phoenician cities expansion of the Nabatean state revolutions and Ethiopian rebellion in Ptolemaic Egypt destruction of the Carthaginian fleet Excursus: Onias III and the Onias Temple in Heliopolis IV. The translation as a Document of Jewish-Alexandrian Theology Methodology in using the Septuagint as a source of Jewish-Alexandrian theology (1) Epithets and attributes of God the heathen deities religious ceremony and traces of ancient Jewish-Alexandrian liturgy (2) notions concerning virtue and social conceptions conceptions regarding divine law, Thorah and the sight of the Gnosis the prophecy (3) historic consciousness and conception of the Galuth (exile) national symbols and the yearning for liberation the Remnant of Israel and its increase by proselytizing the ideal of peace the Messiah Jewish and Hellenistic elements in the translation List of Original Publication Index of Authors Index of Passages "The present volume makes accessible once more the groundbreaking work "The Septuagint Version of Isaiah" (1948) by Isac Leo Seeligmann (1907-1982), accompanied by two studies that have to be seen as prolegomena to the book. Seeligmann aims to understand the Septuagint as a witness of Hellenistic Judaism striving to maintain the text's special character as a document of faith. At the same time all of Seeligmann's works edited in this volume are documents of the suffering of European Judaism during the time of National Socialism."--BOOK JACKET Rules Applied To The Edition Of Isaac Leo Seeligmann's Works / Robert Hanhart, Hermann Spieckermann -- Problems And Perspectives In Modern Septuagint Research / Isac Leo Seeligmann -- Phases Of Jewish Historical Consciousness / Isac Leo Seeligmann -- The Septuagint Version Of Isaiah / Isac Leo Seeligmann. Isac Leo Seeligmann ; Edited By Robert Hanhart And Hermann Spieckermann. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.