Pub Date : 2023-08-16DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10141
M. Yurovitskaya
It has long been recognized that the syntactically incorrect phrase in the MT of Isa 2:6b (כִּי מָלְאוּ מִקֶּדֶם וְעֹנְנִים כַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים “for they are full from the east and soothsayers like the Philistines”) suffers from a textual error involving the omission of a word. According to the commonly accepted conjecture, a derivative of the root קסם must be reconstructed, which, being graphically similar to מִקֶּדֶם, may have been dropped out due to haplography. Contrary to previous research that viewed Justin’s version of the verse (ὅτι ἐπλήσθη ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν, ὡς τὸ ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, µαντειῶν καὶ κληδονισµῶν, Dial. 135.6.5) as a reflection of inner-Greek development, I argue that it may provide support for the emendation, being the only surviving witness to the original Hebrew text of Isa 2:6b.
{"title":"Isaiah 2:6b and the Bible of Justin Martyr","authors":"M. Yurovitskaya","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10141","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000It has long been recognized that the syntactically incorrect phrase in the MT of Isa 2:6b (כִּי מָלְאוּ מִקֶּדֶם וְעֹנְנִים כַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים “for they are full from the east and soothsayers like the Philistines”) suffers from a textual error involving the omission of a word. According to the commonly accepted conjecture, a derivative of the root קסם must be reconstructed, which, being graphically similar to מִקֶּדֶם, may have been dropped out due to haplography. Contrary to previous research that viewed Justin’s version of the verse (ὅτι ἐπλήσθη ἡ χώρα αὐτῶν, ὡς τὸ ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, µαντειῶν καὶ κληδονισµῶν, Dial. 135.6.5) as a reflection of inner-Greek development, I argue that it may provide support for the emendation, being the only surviving witness to the original Hebrew text of Isa 2:6b.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78381525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-16DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10139
John Tracy Thames
Discussions of the prehistory of the rituals Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread have frequently held that they stem from distinct origins and purposes. In part, this claim corresponds with the biblical presentation of the rituals as distinct and separable. But in an academic tradition reaching back to the early 19th century, scholarly reconstructions have additionally assumed that the rituals suggest sociological details about the putatively distinct populations that observed them—that Passover was a rite associated with nomadic pastoralists and Unleavened Bread served an agrarian populace. This article challenges such notions based on ritual texts from Emar. Emar’s ritual writings—especially those detailing the zukru festival—demonstrate that Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread share a structure for equinoctial ritualizing that suggests a history of those rites as integral to one another and refutes notions of their separability based on equation with social lifestyles.
{"title":"Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread as a Single Ritual Complex","authors":"John Tracy Thames","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10139","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Discussions of the prehistory of the rituals Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread have frequently held that they stem from distinct origins and purposes. In part, this claim corresponds with the biblical presentation of the rituals as distinct and separable. But in an academic tradition reaching back to the early 19th century, scholarly reconstructions have additionally assumed that the rituals suggest sociological details about the putatively distinct populations that observed them—that Passover was a rite associated with nomadic pastoralists and Unleavened Bread served an agrarian populace. This article challenges such notions based on ritual texts from Emar. Emar’s ritual writings—especially those detailing the zukru festival—demonstrate that Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread share a structure for equinoctial ritualizing that suggests a history of those rites as integral to one another and refutes notions of their separability based on equation with social lifestyles.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79445445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-16DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10142
Joseph L. Justiss
Alphabetic acrostics (AA s) are a known phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible (HB). Recently, scholars have argued that other poems in the HB evidence “alphabetic thinking”, or some kind of consciousness of alphabet in their composition. Peter C. W. Ho has argued for what he calls alphabetic compositions (AC s), i.e., poems that are not proper acrostics but share common poetic devices with acrostics. In this article, I attempt to refine Ho’s list of common features of AA s and regroup them into macro-level and micro-level alphabet-imitating devices. With a clear understanding of these devices I test whether certain poems attempt to imitate the alphabet in their overall shape at macro-level as well as in their choice of words at micro-level. I argue that only when clear alphabet-imitating devices are present in both the form and the linguistic content of a poem can it be reliably identified as an AC. Finally, I problematize the use of AC s as a set of cross-referring poems designed to carry Psalter motifs by dealing with the possible presence of reworked and repurposed alphabetic poems in the Psalter.
{"title":"Identifying Alphabetic Compositions in the Hebrew Bible","authors":"Joseph L. Justiss","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10142","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Alphabetic acrostics (AA s) are a known phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible (HB). Recently, scholars have argued that other poems in the HB evidence “alphabetic thinking”, or some kind of consciousness of alphabet in their composition. Peter C. W. Ho has argued for what he calls alphabetic compositions (AC s), i.e., poems that are not proper acrostics but share common poetic devices with acrostics. In this article, I attempt to refine Ho’s list of common features of AA s and regroup them into macro-level and micro-level alphabet-imitating devices. With a clear understanding of these devices I test whether certain poems attempt to imitate the alphabet in their overall shape at macro-level as well as in their choice of words at micro-level. I argue that only when clear alphabet-imitating devices are present in both the form and the linguistic content of a poem can it be reliably identified as an AC. Finally, I problematize the use of AC s as a set of cross-referring poems designed to carry Psalter motifs by dealing with the possible presence of reworked and repurposed alphabetic poems in the Psalter.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79573128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-16DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10143
Fabrizio Marcello
Following a study by Robertson (1885), Old Testament scholars have attempted to resolve the difficult reference to oil in Isa 10:27d by means of emendations, generally of a geographical nature. In this way, the verse becomes the opening line of the following war oracle (10:28–32). The study of royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period reveals instead the existence of covenant-making rituals in which oil was employed, especially as an image of the curse associated with covenant transgressions. Since in Assyrian propaganda, the yoke was an image of the king’s lordship over the conquered peoples, with the prophecy that “the yoke before the oil will be destroyed,” the prophet alludes to the termination of the treaty obligations stipulated through the ritual, as well as any form of curse associated with it.
{"title":"“The Yoke Before the Oil” (Isa 10:27d) in the Light of Neo-Assyrian Covenant-Making Rituals","authors":"Fabrizio Marcello","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10143","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Following a study by Robertson (1885), Old Testament scholars have attempted to resolve the difficult reference to oil in Isa 10:27d by means of emendations, generally of a geographical nature. In this way, the verse becomes the opening line of the following war oracle (10:28–32). The study of royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period reveals instead the existence of covenant-making rituals in which oil was employed, especially as an image of the curse associated with covenant transgressions. Since in Assyrian propaganda, the yoke was an image of the king’s lordship over the conquered peoples, with the prophecy that “the yoke before the oil will be destroyed,” the prophet alludes to the termination of the treaty obligations stipulated through the ritual, as well as any form of curse associated with it.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84310831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10133
Or Liber, Ariel Seri-Levi
The hapax legomenon קֻבָּה, which seems to appear out of context in the account of Phinehas killing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman in Num 25:8, has long puzzled commentators, scholars, and translators. This paper presents a new, text-critical explanation, suggesting that the original text read ויבא אחר איש ישראל וידקר את שניהם את איש ישראל אל הקבה ואת האשה אל קבתה, not including קֻבָּה at all: Phinehas pierced the man אֶל הַקֵּבָה, “through the belly,” and the woman אֶל קֳבָתָהּ, “through her belly.” The corruption occurred when the words אל הקבה were moved six words back in the text due to homoioteleuton and a partially successful correction. This unintentionally created the extant sentence ויבא אחר איש ישראל אל הקבה, in which קבה must denote a location, not an organ. Rather than קֵבָה, it was therefore read as קֻבָּה.
{"title":"The Meaning(lessness) of qubbâ and the Original Text of Numbers 25:8","authors":"Or Liber, Ariel Seri-Levi","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10133","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The hapax legomenon קֻבָּה, which seems to appear out of context in the account of Phinehas killing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman in Num 25:8, has long puzzled commentators, scholars, and translators. This paper presents a new, text-critical explanation, suggesting that the original text read ויבא אחר איש ישראל וידקר את שניהם את איש ישראל אל הקבה ואת האשה אל קבתה, not including קֻבָּה at all: Phinehas pierced the man אֶל הַקֵּבָה, “through the belly,” and the woman אֶל קֳבָתָהּ, “through her belly.” The corruption occurred when the words אל הקבה were moved six words back in the text due to homoioteleuton and a partially successful correction. This unintentionally created the extant sentence ויבא אחר איש ישראל אל הקבה, in which קבה must denote a location, not an organ. Rather than קֵבָה, it was therefore read as קֻבָּה.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82763542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10131
Mark Sneed
This paper will demonstrate that the best descriptor of Qohelet is divine hedonist, not absurdist, skeptic, pessimist, realist, nihilist or “Preacher of Joy.” This will be done by examining the relationship between Qohelet’s hebel-judgments and his carpe diem ethic and comparing Qohelet’s strategy with that of philosopher David Hume. Qohelet’s hebel-judgments serve to deconstruct the traditional formulation of the Tun-Ergehen-Zusammenhang, opening space for legitimating his preferred ethic: the carpe diem. In other words, Qohelet rhetorically paints a dark and dreary world in order to buttress his main ethic, the carpe diem, an ethic that is both hedonistic (using philosophical classification) in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (reflected in his God-fearing motif), and divine in that this ethic must align with God’s mysterious decrees.
{"title":"Qohelet as Divine Hedonist","authors":"Mark Sneed","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10131","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper will demonstrate that the best descriptor of Qohelet is divine hedonist, not absurdist, skeptic, pessimist, realist, nihilist or “Preacher of Joy.” This will be done by examining the relationship between Qohelet’s hebel-judgments and his carpe diem ethic and comparing Qohelet’s strategy with that of philosopher David Hume. Qohelet’s hebel-judgments serve to deconstruct the traditional formulation of the Tun-Ergehen-Zusammenhang, opening space for legitimating his preferred ethic: the carpe diem. In other words, Qohelet rhetorically paints a dark and dreary world in order to buttress his main ethic, the carpe diem, an ethic that is both hedonistic (using philosophical classification) in seeking pleasure and avoiding pain (reflected in his God-fearing motif), and divine in that this ethic must align with God’s mysterious decrees.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85889777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10138
Sarah Schwartz
This paper offers a new look at the design of Abigail’s character as a wise woman in 1 Sam 25, based on an analysis of the argumentative component of Abigail’s speech and the connections between her speech and the book of Proverbs. According to this analysis, Abigail is not only portrayed as a rescuer, but is also designed in the image of the wise educator in the book of Proverbs, who teaches David a fundamental theological principle about relying on God instead of on his own strength—despite the essential legitimacy to harm Nabal. This message is relevant to David’s status as an anointed king de jure, but as a refugee de facto. David’s adherence to Abigail’s message designs his character as a wise person who is willing to learn, indicating that the narrative justifies David’s monarchy through his encounter with Abigail.
{"title":"A New Look at Abigail’s Wisdom","authors":"Sarah Schwartz","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10138","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper offers a new look at the design of Abigail’s character as a wise woman in 1 Sam 25, based on an analysis of the argumentative component of Abigail’s speech and the connections between her speech and the book of Proverbs. According to this analysis, Abigail is not only portrayed as a rescuer, but is also designed in the image of the wise educator in the book of Proverbs, who teaches David a fundamental theological principle about relying on God instead of on his own strength—despite the essential legitimacy to harm Nabal. This message is relevant to David’s status as an anointed king de jure, but as a refugee de facto. David’s adherence to Abigail’s message designs his character as a wise person who is willing to learn, indicating that the narrative justifies David’s monarchy through his encounter with Abigail.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86034912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10134
Maximilian Rechholz
The Demotic Book of Thoth has received surprisingly little attention in exegetical research, although it was a well-known text in Late Period Egypt. Since the Book of Thoth and Prov 1–9 are closely related in terms of dating, cultural background, and genre, a comparison of these two texts is overdue. To address this oversight, this article examines and compares the main female figures of both works: the goddess Seshat and Lady Wisdom. Previous research has pointed to Maat and Isis as archetypes of Lady Wisdom, but this article argues that Seshat must be considered as another goddess who exerted influence on the figure of Lady Wisdom.
{"title":"Seshat and Lady Wisdom","authors":"Maximilian Rechholz","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10134","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Demotic Book of Thoth has received surprisingly little attention in exegetical research, although it was a well-known text in Late Period Egypt. Since the Book of Thoth and Prov 1–9 are closely related in terms of dating, cultural background, and genre, a comparison of these two texts is overdue. To address this oversight, this article examines and compares the main female figures of both works: the goddess Seshat and Lady Wisdom. Previous research has pointed to Maat and Isis as archetypes of Lady Wisdom, but this article argues that Seshat must be considered as another goddess who exerted influence on the figure of Lady Wisdom.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82770421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10132
Heath D. Dewrell
Despite many proposals for the etymology of “Šadday/Shaddai,” the form of the name as we have it requires deriving it from √šdd “to destroy.” It thus originally meant “Destroyer.”
{"title":"The Etymology of Šadday","authors":"Heath D. Dewrell","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10132","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Despite many proposals for the etymology of “Šadday/Shaddai,” the form of the name as we have it requires deriving it from √šdd “to destroy.” It thus originally meant “Destroyer.”","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77199968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-15DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10135
Arnim Janssen-Wnorowska
By discussing some text-critical findings, this article poses the question of how the concept of emotivity can inform our understanding of the transmission processes which shaped Lam 1. An introduction establishes the theoretical and methodological basis for a comparative analysis of the Masoretic text, the Qumran manuscript of 4QLam, and Targum Lamentations. In various ways, the textual witnesses intensify and emotionalize Lam 1. Moreover, they focus on specific emotion words and make their meaning explicit for readers and listeners. Finally, the textual witnesses use different means to allow recipients to identify with the emotional descriptions.
{"title":"“Remember!”","authors":"Arnim Janssen-Wnorowska","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10135","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000By discussing some text-critical findings, this article poses the question of how the concept of emotivity can inform our understanding of the transmission processes which shaped Lam 1. An introduction establishes the theoretical and methodological basis for a comparative analysis of the Masoretic text, the Qumran manuscript of 4QLam, and Targum Lamentations. In various ways, the textual witnesses intensify and emotionalize Lam 1. Moreover, they focus on specific emotion words and make their meaning explicit for readers and listeners. Finally, the textual witnesses use different means to allow recipients to identify with the emotional descriptions.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72750098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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