Jan Joosten's reference about the original rendering of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton in the LXX /Ο Γιάν Γιούστεν για την αρχική απόδοση του εβραϊκού Τετραγράμματου στην Εβδομήκοντα

click image to enlarge

The Milieu of the Septuagint

The canon is the most conspicuous peculiarity of the Septuagint when it is compared to the Hebrew Bible as we know it. But there are many other differences. The source text reflected in the Greek translation diverges often from the Masoretic text, aligning with the Samaritan Pentateuch or certain Qumran texts, or going its own way. The meaning expressed in Greek also often differs from the most straightforward reading of the Hebrew, whether because of diverging interpretive traditions or because of various types of misreading or misunderstanding. Finally there is the fact of translation itself. The Septuagint reflects a decision to read the Jewish scriptures in translation, without reference to the original Hebrew. This was never the practice in Judea, even though Aramaic translations existed. All these differences can be understood once we realize that the Septuagint came into being in a distinct milieu, far removed from the Jewish circles that curated and transmitted the Hebrew text in the form that became traditional in later Judaism: the western diaspora.

By the time the Pentateuch was translated into Greek, Jews had been in Egypt for centuries, as is established by the Elephantine archives and a series of documents from other sites. In Egypt, the Jewish community developed its own practices and traditions. The Hellenistic period saw new waves of migration from Judea to Egypt, as well as many other changes, but there was no clean break. Newly arrived Jews linked up with existing communities and adopted some of their views and traditions. Of course the western diaspora in all likelihood showed inner diversity. And of course there always were contacts with the Metropolis. But these circumstances do not preclude that the western diaspora may have differed globally from Judaism in the homeland and the eastern diaspora. Admittedly, we know very little about Egyptian Judaism, and much of what we do know has to be gleaned from the Septuagint itself.

For exhaustive lists of distinctive features in the Septuagint, commentaries such as the La Bible d’Alexandrie series must be referred to. But a few striking instances will serve as illustrations. Specialists estimate that the original rendering of the Hebrew tetragrammaton in the Septuagint was not κύριος kurios “Lord,” as most manuscripts have it, but Ιαω Iaô as attested in 4QLXXLevb. This “trigrammaton” appears to link up with the divine name Yaho used in the Elephantine documents. In Lev 19:27, the prohibition to shear off the hair on the side of one’s head is transformed into: “You shall not make a hair roll (σισόη sisoē) out of the hair on your head”; the word for “hair  roll” is a loanword from Egyptian and designates specifically the hairdo of Horus depicted as a child, and of his followers (Septuaginta Deutsch. Erläuterungen, 395). In several passages, the Septuagint mentions beings from Greek mythology, such as titans (2 Sam 5:18) and the griffin (Lev 11:13). And passages addressing the motif of “seeing God” are occasionally modified in light of ideas circulating in Hellenistic Egypt. These examples, which could easily be multiplied, do not suggest that the group that produced the Septuagint was syncretistic or strayed from its Jewish heritage. But they do show that the western diaspora acculturated to its context in a particular way.

* Jan Joosten,
"Septuagint",
Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations Online, 2020.
[English, PDF]

Ειδικοί εκτιμούν ότι η αρχική απόδοση του εβραϊκού τετραγράμματου στην Εβδομήκοντα δεν ήταν κύριος, όπως εμφανίζεται στα περισσότερα χειρόγραφα, αλλά Ιαω όπως μαρτυρείται στο 4QLXXLevb. Αυτό το «τριγράμματο» φαίνεται ότι συνδέεται με τη θεωνυμία Γιαχο που χρησιμοποιείται στα έγγραφα της Ελεφαντίνης.

*