Texts and Versions of the Hebrew Bible – serie

This book compares and contrasts several parallel passages in the Hebrew Bible that relate to the David narratives. Lydie Kucová analyses various ancient versions of the books of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles, showing how the David story is told differently across these textual witnesses.Beginning with a review of the previous scholarly synopses of these passages, Kucová outlines the main characteristics of the particular ancient versions that are significant for her study (Masoretic text, Dead Sea scrolls, Septuagint, Targums and Peshitta related to the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles). She then proceeds to compare elements of the two separate accounts of David’s reign, such as Saul’s death, the Philistine campaigns and the transfer of the Ark. Rather than imply any correlation between the texts, Kucová instead provides a parallel of David narratives for more convenient in-depth study

This volume examines numerous Hebrew wordplays not identified and discussed in previous research, and the technique of the Septuagint translators, by offering another criterion of evaluation – essentially, their concern about the style of translating Hebrew into Greek. Elizabeth Backfish''s study analyzes seventy-four wordplays employed by the Hebrew poets of Psalms 90-106, and how the Septuagint renders Hebrew wordplay in Greek.Backfish estimates that the Septuagint translators were able to render 31% of the Hebrew semantic and phonetic wordplays (twenty-four total), most of which required some sort of transformation, or change, to the text in order to function in Greek. After providing a thorough summary of research methods on wordplay, definitions and research methodology, Backfish summarizes all examples of wordplay within the Fourth Psalter, and concludes with examples of the wordplay''s replication, similar rendition or textual variation in the Septuagint. Emphasising the creativity and ingenuity of the Septuagint translators'' work in passages that commentators often too quickly identify as the results of scribal error or a variant Vorlage from the Masoretic text, Backfish shows how the aptitude and flexibility displayed in the translation technique also contributes to conversations in modern translation studies.