OLD LATIN, OLD GREEK AND OLD HEBREW IN THE BOOKS OF KINGS (1 Ki. 18:27 and 2 Ki. 20:11) Julio Trebolle Whenever a passage or singular reading of the Old Greek translation has been altered by the hexaplaric or Lucianic revisions (not to speak of the kaige recension), the Old Latin text, where extant, can be a very helpful, or even the only possible way of approaching the OG text. In some of these cases this OG text, proves to be based on a Hebrew Vorlage different from the MT. This Hebrew text appears to preserve a textual form of Kings older and sometimes more original than the tradition of the textus "receptus". We are therefore entitled to speak of an "Old Hebrew" text, as suggested in earlier articles by Ulrich’ and the present author? This article provides two further examples, taken from each of the two sections of the Greek text of Kings (1 Ki. 2:12-21:43 non-kaige; 1 Ki. 22:1-2 Ki. 25:30 kaige). The first example refers to some phrases, and the second one to a single word. Both examples have wide implications for the understanding of the passages involved. 1.1 Ki, 18:27 The first example is taken from 1 Ki. 18:27. This text is full of textual and literary difficulties, which modern authors often try to solve with the 'E.C. Ulrich, "The Old Latin Translation of the LXX and the Hebrew Scrolls from Qumran’, in: The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Samuel, ed. E. Tov, 1980 Proceedings IOSCS- ‘Vienna (Jerusalem 1980) 121-165. 3). Trebolle, "From the ‘Old Latin’ Through the 'Old Greek’ to the 'Old Hebrew’ (2 Kings 10:23-25)", Textus 11 (1984) 17-36; Jehu y Jods. Texto y composicion literaria de 2 Reyes 9-11 (Valencia 1984).% Julio Trebolle LXxB Mr 22h IIN fru 8065 Eovty Rn ODN 9D Non DNDN 92 co ” 2 aboheoxta tes mw mw yo air tory » » xat Suc wh mote Xonwarcter vy »wy aités nn nn uh more 7N 22a) waseuber w w alts xn nD kal efavaotigerae YP Xp help of parallels in the Canaanite mythology of Baal.? It is often assumed that the expression »Y 79) is nothing but a repetition of the preceding words mw >> and xpnparcter is considered to be the counterpart of the Hebrew 777 99.4 But it must be said that according to the parallel in Jer. 25:30, xp nuarcter (to be engag- AR, de Vaux, "Les prophdtes de Baal sur le mont Carmel" Bitle et Orient (Paris 1967) 485- 497 (4906); G. Fohrer, Elia, Abhandiungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments 58 (Zérich 1957) 16; HLH. Rowley, "Elijah on Mount Carmel", Men of God. Studies in Old Testament Prophecy (London-Edinburgh 1963) 37-65 (S1ff.); J. Gray, I and I Kings (London 1970) 397£,; H. Jagersma, "YW? in 1. KOnige XVIII :27", VT 25 (1975) 674-676; S. Timm, Die Dynastie Omri. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Israels im 9. Jahrhundert vor Christus (Gottingen 1982) 87-101; L. Hayman, "A Note on I Kings 18:27", JNES 10 (1951) 57- 58. ACR. Burney, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings (Oxford 1903) 224; B. Stade- F, Schwally, The Books of Kings, The Sacred Books of the Old Testament 9 (Leipzig 1904) 154; HP. Maller, "Die hebraische Wurzel n*W", V 19 (1969) 361-371 (3686); G. Hentschel, Die Elijaerzithlungen. Zum Verhdltnis von historischen Gescheken und geschichtlichen Exfalren, Erfurter Theologische Studien 33 (Leipzig 1977) 160.1Ki. 18:27 and 2 Ki. 20:11 87 Lucifer Vindobonensis Let tua MA mote BoAeaxca tes for aitd pariter ral tua ne forte ne forte uA mote ocupatus sit sortes dederit Xpnwarcter airs uel aut Auh mote dormiat dormiat kadevSer pe et suscitabitur cet excitetur kal efavacthgetay et exsurget ed’) translated the Hebrew verb 3°¥/aNW5 On the other hand, &6oAeex¢a conversation’, “idle talk") translates the Hebrew nov; thus the Greek does not have any counterpart for 19 777 93) "for he may be on a journey”). ‘The OL text is considerably shorter than the MT and the Greek texts. The two different readings, occupatus sit (Lucifer) and sortes dederit (Palimpsestus Vindobonensis),é reflect the two possible meanings of the same Greek verb 5'Und doch zeigt ein Blick in Field und Hatch-Redpath dasn¢pnuatcteu Obersetzung von 2W und nicht von 7771 ist", E. Nestle, "Miscellen", ZAW 23 (1903) 337-346 (3386.); J.A.Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Kings, ed. H. Gehman (Edinburgh 1951). SCA, Diercks, Luciferi calaritani opera quae supersunt, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina VIII (Turnholti 1978) 31; B. Fischer with the collaboration of Eugene Ulrich and Judith E. Sanderson, "Palimpsestus Vindobonensis: A Revised Edition of L 115 for Samuel- Kings", Bulletin IOSCS 16 (1983) 81. The OTG gives as an OL text the following: et fortes omnes deus (forte) dormit et exs(omni)a surget. In spite of its evident corruption, the repet- ition of forte corresponds to the Greek more accurately than the text of Lucifer and Vindobonensis.8 Julio Trebolle Xpnnercher: "Negotiate, have dealings. response to those who consult it"? The particle pariter (in the text of Lucifer) translates the Greek ua of the Lucianic text. The same particle yc is to be found in the standard Greek text (B). In the pre-Lucianic text there is a repetition of {ue WA more... ua uh mere. This may indicate that the enclosed text did not belong to the OG translation, as confirmed by its omission in the OL: (tt) &boAeoxca (tLs) Eotev abt@ Kal (&1c). Similarly, the expression rt 8e6s Eotuv is omitted by the antiochean text and the OL. Its omission in the Ethiopic version is also significant, since this, old version otherwise follows the B text very faithfully. We conclude therefore that the whole passage wanting in the OL was also ", or, relating to an oracle, "give a lacking in its pre-Lucianic original, as well as in the OG version. If we now turn to the analysis of the Hebrew underlying the OG and OL texts, ‘we observe that it is constructed according to a highly symmetrical structure: Perhaps he is engaged, NIN YY >DIN or / perhaps he is asleep, YT WW? 9IN / 1K and must be awakened. Xp The poetic effect is well accomplished. The parallelism is assured by the repetition of NIn..27)N/NIN...291N. The three remaining verbs produce a strong antithesis: Baal must be busy, or he is perhaps sleeping and must be awakened. On the whole we have here a song of mourning, clear and transparent in its structure, with a characteristically unbalanced meter. The most common song of mourning is by far that used in a mocking sense ("Spottlied"). The mocking ginah is almost invariably directed against non-Israelites, here in our case against the prophets of Baal and ultimately against Baal himself. The phrase of MT v. 27a also shows a parallelistic structure, but of a very different type and not so felicitous in its form: two nominal phrases constructed TH, LiddellR. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford 1968) c. 2005 "The omission of fu in That could be of some significance. For the correction of the Cambridge edition, cf. N. Fernéndez Marcos-].R. Busto Saiz, Theodoreti Cyrensi Quaestiones in Reges et Paralipomena. Editio critica, Textos y Estudios "Cardenal Cisneros" 32 (Madrid 1984) LVI The interpretation of J. Montgomery,The Books of Kings (1951) 310, that LXX™ Aeth omit “to avoid such a confession’, doos not seem appropriate. M0, Fissfeldt, The Old Testament. An Introduction (Oxford 1966) 92-96,1Ki. 18:27 and 2 Ki, 20:11 89 with the particle »2 (probably used emphatically), a noun and a pronoun referred to Baal: 17 mY 9D Certainly, he is in a conversation, wD or certainly, he is on a journey. As we saw before, the Greek text knew only the first of these two phrases. In the Lucianic text, it is included among the repetition fue wh more...fuc wh mote This proves that the OG text was as short as is reflected in the OL."" The Lucianic text has no counterpart to the phrase in the MT NIN DNDN 9D. The present MT is the product of the juxtaposition of two different literary forms of the mocking words attributed to Elijah. The Hebrew original of the Septuagint seems to have known only the text of the Spottlied: "Perhaps he is engaged, perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened”. To this was added a series of three nominal phrases with 9. The collision of the two series of phrases (99 ~ >99N) caused the inconsistencies present in the MT. One of these inconsistencies is the juxtaposition of the similar phrases 17 »¥ »3) n>V 99, that many authors consider a mere duplicate. These authors do not take into account the context and the textual history of this passage. Each of these verbs had its own place within one of the two literary forms distinguished above. At the collision-point of the two series of phrases, the beginning of the second was lost, partly transposed to the first series. Therefore the first stich of the »91N-series is wanting in the MT. Its text (2) has been incorporated into the foregoing »9-series. The textual difficulties of the MT do not put into question the ancient character of the expressions and motifs involved (09 JT 251 19 NY 9), which may be as old as those of the following »9yN-series.12 In conclusion, the shorter OL text translates an equally short OG text. This proves to reflect faithfully a Hebrew original which contained the integral text of a well-structured mocking song of mourning. Its text proves to be shorter and older than the MT. Nhe particle ua (pariter ), however, scems to imply a twofold series of phrases. RE, Warthwein, Die Bacher der Konige. 1. Kin. 17-2. Kén. 25, ATD 11/2 (Gottingen 1984) 219: "spaitere Zusitze. . .V. 26ai*b.27-29x” Julio Trebolle Methodologically we have shifted from the lower to the higher criticism. Arguments from both, the textual and literary criticism, converge here to confirm the suggestions. 2Ki, 20:11 Old Latin Lx MT 1. cece ego auerto 2 umbram graduum 3. ascensionis 4. quae descendit 5. ingradus 6. 7, ef detenta est 8 9. insole 10. a. 2. xai éméotpeyer aw 13, fond yn ne 4 by rots tvapesuets myyna 15 nTy WN 16, moyna VW. ine 18. ets té Suvow a771nN 19, Séxa Basnods moyn wy 20. a. 18, Barthélemy, "La qualité du Texte Massorétique de Samuel”, in: The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Samuel, ed. E. Tov, 1980 Proceedings-Vienna (Jerusalem 1980) 1-44 (40-43).1 Ki, 1827 and 2 Ki. 20:11 a1 IL. 2 Ki, 20:11 The second example to be discussed is taken from 2 Ki. 20:11b and its parallel in Isa. 38:8. ‘The OL presents a special reading, et detenta est, translating the Hebrew tN as a finite verb: "(the shadow) was detained”. On the other hand, these same Isa. 38:8 Lx Mr 1. (608 erpéqa) 2p on 2 chy exvdv tv kvapaduav, moynn 9 TN 3. 4. os xarépn d HAvos, DTP WN 5. tods Séka dvapasuods moyna 6. rod ol'kcou 7. oF matpés gov, nN 8 kmootpévn 9. xbv HALov vnva 10. yNN Ti, tos Béxa Avapaduods myn wy 12, kat &vépn avm 13, 6 HAvos wnun M4 18, 16. v7, 18. 19, Tos Béxa dvapabpods moyn Wy 20. moyna 21. os Katépn h oxrd TTY WN consonants, 1n¥, are read by the MT (and likewise all modern versions) as the name of the Judean king Ahaz. The story involved is well known. Isaiah gives to King Hezekiah a sign to confirm the prophet's oracle: "I will heal you. . .I will2 Julio Trebolle add fifteen years to your life" (20:6). In v. 1b, the MT has the following text (according to the NEB version), "he made the shadow go back ten steps where it had advanced down the stairway of Ahaz" N17) WN M>yna 9¥N NN 3V 327NX M2yN WY tN M2¥N3.14 The feminine form of the verb nT» ("advanced down") demands as subject a feminine noun. "Shadow" (29) is a masculine noun in Hebrew; therefore it cannot be the subject of the relative phrase. Besides this, the phrase mnN mya N17) WN ("which it has advanced down in the stairway of Ahaz") is lacking in the Greek, kat eméotpeyev h oxrd ev ols avapaduols ets td bntow Béca Baduods The hexaplaric revision fills in the gap in the Greek, according to the MT: ofs xatépn by avaBaducis Axap. Consequently, the OG ignored any reference to king Ahaz. A marginal reading of Codex Legionensis preserves the following OL text: ecce ego auerto umbram graduum ascensionis quae descendit in gradus et detenta est in sole.’ This OL reading does not correspond so much to the text of Kings but rather to the parallel text in Isaiah tnx Tym NTP WN MP¥BN Dy AR DY In Yova.* The only Latin word that has no counterpart in the Hebrew is the word ascensionis. It is interesting to see that the first Isaiah scroll of Qumran cave 1 has exactly the needed Hebrew counterpart of the OL ascensionis, n»9y.!7 This Qumran reading 1» refers to the “stairway of Ahaz’, alluded to in 2 Ki. 23:12. It has been proposed that the word n19¥ should no longer be translated as "degrees" nor should it be imagined that the shadow was advancing along the degrees of a sun dial, as supposed by the Targum, %»y¥ aN, and the Vulgate MCE. A. Klostermann, Die Bicker Samuelis und der Kénige, KK A II] (Nérdlingen 1887) 470; C.F, Burney, Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings (Oxford 1903) 349; R. Kittel, Die Bucher der Konige, HK 15 (Gottingen 1900) 292; O. Eissfeldt, Kénige, HSAT I (Tabingen 1922) 577; G. Fohrer, Das Buch Jesaja, 2. Band (Ziirich-Stuttgart 1967) 194; H. Wilderberger, Jesaja, BK 10 (Neukirchen-Viuyn 1972-) 144ff ASCE. C. Vercellone, Variae lectiones Vulgatae latinae bibliorum Il (Romae 1864) ad locum; A, Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Konigsbiicker, Septuaginta Studien III (Géttingen 1911) 157. YD. Barthélemy, Critique textuelle de I'Ancien Testament, OBO 50/1 (Fribourg-Gattingen 1982) 415. WM. Burrows-J.C. Trever-W.H. Brownlee, The Isaiah Manuscripts and the Habakkuk Commentary, The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark's Monastery, Vol. I (New Haven 1950), Plate XXXI, 1. 20, The different position of7»9y in the OL and in 1QIs# depends, no doubt, ‘upon the repetition of the preceding word, MI7YD3...2ynN.1 Ki. 18:27 and 2 Ki. 20:11 93 horologium. It is now thought rather that the story refers to the "steps" (m7yn0)"* of a staircase leading to an upper room, added by Ahaz to one of the temple buildings. The shadow advancing along the steps of such a staircase served as a primitive sun dial.!9 The OL reading graduum ascensionis may confirm such a Proposal. But the most intriguing fact presented by the OL is that it not only lacks like the OG any reference to Ahaz, but it makes such a reference impossible, since in it the consonants of the word tnx prove to correspond to the verb detenta est (1) rather than to a noun: "the shadow remained fixed by the sun” The "shadow" is here the subject of the phrase, as is also the case in the last phrase of the Greek text: os xatéfm f oxcd. In the same phrase, the Hebrew has, on the contrary, "the sun” as subject: "So the sun came back the ten steps it had advanced" (n7p...vown awm)). In the first part of the verse, the Greek text specifies the subject as “the sun" (katépn 6 HALes); the Hebrew has here the verb in the feminine form; the subject should therefore be "the sun” (wan), but in fact the same incoherence that is present in the MT of Kings is to be found also in the MT of Isaiah, "the shadow” (73) being the subject of nt». ‘The incoherences of these texts are due to the fact that two different versions of the story have been mixed. The sun was the subject in one form of the story, Visa, v. 8 tos Séxa AvapaHOde Tod otkov ("the ten steps of the palace”). Cf. also Josephus, Ant.ud. X 2,1 %s, Iwry, "The Qumran Isaiah and the End of the Dial of Ahaz", BASOR 147 (1957) 27-93; J.Gray, I and II Kings (London 1970) 699. According to Y. Yadin, we should in this case consider that the steps leading to the upper room were constructed in the form of a horologium, i.e, adjoined to the southern or northern wall and the upper room, and not simply leading up to it -Y. Yadin, “The Dial of Ahaz",Eret2-Israel 5 (Jerusalem 1958) 91- 96 (Heb.). A.G. Stenberg concludes that there was an astronomical observatory on the ‘Temple Mount: A.G, Stenberg, The Zodiac of Tiberias. The Steps of Ahaz and the Steps of the Temple Mount (Tiberias 1972) 145 (Heb). 204. Catastini has correctly interpreted INN as a verb. According to him knootpégo corresponds to TPN MN and 1QIs* VOU ANis preferable to MT WNW. Similarly, the initial text MYON...299M is late and the Greek to matpés gov is a harmonization that ignores Axat, interpreting INN as a proper name. The OL offers data for a different solution. See A. Catastini, “Osservazioni filologiche sulla cosidetta ‘Meridiana di Achaz", Henoch 5 (1983) 161-178.a Julio Trebolle while the shadow was the subject in another. The story concluded according toa common schema: the announcement of a sign followed by its accomplishment (..aW / aWm...29¥D »9n). However, the most important conclusion so far is that, be it degrees of a sundial or ‘steps of a staircase, neither the dial nor the staircase of the upper room have anything to do with king Ahaz (nx) 22 ‘The OL proves to be sometimes the only extant witness to a pre-Lucianic text very close to the OG. The Hebrew Vorlage of the OG represents, in many such cases, a textual form of Kings, older and more original than the tradition of the fextus receptus. This conclusion has far-reaching implications for the literary and historical study of the books of Kings. 2'This is not the appropriate place to further develop this question. According to K. Fullerton, the version of the story in Kings is a sort of commentary on that in Isaiah: K. Fullerton, “The Original Text of 2 K. 20:1-11 = Is. 38:7.8.216", JBL 44 (1925) 44-62 (51). CE also P. R. Ackroyd, “An Interpretation of the Babylonian Exile: A Study of 2 Kings 20, Isaiah 38-39:, Scottish Journal of Theology 27 (1974) 329-352; A. Rofé, The Prophetical Stories. The Narratives about the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, Their Types and History erusalem 1982) 116f. (Heb). On the origin of the Hebraisms in the marginal readings of the Legionensis deriving either directly from a Hebrew source or, more likely, from a Greek translation, cf. A. Rahlfs, Lucians Rezension der Kénigsbiicher (above, n. 15) 160; E. C. Ulrich, "The Old Latin Translation of the LXX and the Hebrew Scrolls from Qumran” (above, n. 1) 147-150. For the further study of this difficult question, one should take into account some significant contacts of OL readings with the manuscripts M h (55) i (56) n (119) representing, according to Vaccari, the Hesychian recension in the historical books (cf. 1 Ki. 6:21; 2 Ki. 9:33; 10:23): A. Vaccari, "The Hesychian Recension of the Septuagint’, Biblica 46 (1965) 60-66, "The Old Latin proves to be a reasonably faithful and controllable witness to the Old Greek, which in tum is not infrequently a witness superior to the Massoretic text for the ancient text of Samuel" - E.C. Ulrich, "The Old Latin Translation of the LXX and the ‘Hebrew Scrolls from Qumran" (above, n. 1) 156.