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The Text Form of the OT Citations in Hebrews Chapter 1 and the Implications for the Study of the Septuagint

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2009

Susan Docherty
Susan Docherty
Affiliation:
Newman University College, Bartley Green, Birmingham B32 3NT, England email: S.E.Docherty@newman.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper offers a detailed investigation of the LXX texts underlying the seven OT citations in Hebrews chapter 1, taking account of significant twentieth-century manuscript discoveries and recent developments in the field of Septuagintal Studies. The findings are then related to the study of the use of the OT in the NT more generally, and to some important current issues in the study of the LXX, such as the value of Lucianic readings. This investigation supports the growing consensus that the author of Hebrews reproduced his scriptural citations faithfully, so that the burden of proof should now rest with those who argue for a deliberate alteration of his source.

Keywords

HebrewsSeptuagintLucianic recensionuse of OT in NTtextual criticism
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 355 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 Guthrie, G. H., ‘Hebrews’ Use of the Old Testament: Recent Trends in Research’, Currents in Biblical Research 1.2 (2003) 271–94 (271–2)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Caird, G. B., ‘The Exegetical Method of the Epistle to the Hebrews’, CJT 5.1 (1959) 44–51Google Scholar.

3 Thomas, K. J., ‘The Old Testament Citations in Hebrews’, NTS 11 (1964–65) 303–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Howard, G., ‘Hebrews and the Old Testament Quotations’, Nov.T. 10 (1968) 203–16Google Scholar.

5 McCullough, J. C., ‘The Old Testament Quotations in Hebrews’, NTS 29 (1980) 363–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Cadwallader, A. H., ‘The Correction of the Text of Hebrews Towards the LXX’, Nov.T. 34.3 (1992) 257–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Hiebert, R. J. V., The ‘Syro-Hexaplaric’ Psalter (Atlanta: Scholars, 1989) 184Google Scholar.

8 For further details see Dines, J. M., The Septuagint (London: T&T Clark, 2004) 4–5Google Scholar; Tov, E., The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint (Leiden: Brill, 1999) 9Google Scholar; and Ulrich, E., The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 8–9Google Scholar.

9 See the introductions to the Lucianic recension in Dines, Septuagint, 103–6, and in Marcos, N. Fernández, The Septuagint in Context: Introduction to the Greek Versions of the Bible (Leiden: Brill, 2000) 223–36Google Scholar.

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11 McLay, R. T., The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003)Google Scholar.

12 Menken, M. J. J., Old Testament Quotations in the Fourth Gospel: Studies in Textual Form (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1996)Google Scholar.

13 G. J. Steyn has been engaged in an investigation of the Vorlage of several of the explicit OT citations in Hebrews over a number of years. See, e.g., his: ‘A Quest for the Vorlage of the “Song of Moses” (Deut 32) Quotations in Hebrews’, Neotestamentica 34.2 (2000) 263–72; ‘Psalm 2 in Hebrews’, Neotestamentica 37.2 (2003) 262–81; ‘The Vorlage of Psalm 45:6–7 (44:7–8) in Hebrews 1:8–9’, Hervormde Teologiese Studies 60.3 (2004) 1085–103; and ‘The Occurrence of Ps 118(117): 6 in Heb 13:6: Possible Liturgical Origins’, Neotestamentica 40.1 (2006) 119–34.

14 For a fuller study of the exegesis of the OT citations in Hebrews, see Docherty, S., The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews: A Case Study in Early Jewish Bible Interpretation (WUNT II. 260; Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2009)Google Scholar.

15 Flint, ‘Variant Readings’, 338; cf. n. 13 above. See also E. Ulrich, ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls and their Implications for an Edition of the Septuagint Psalter’, Der Septuaginta-Psalter (ed. Aejmelaeus and Quast) 323–36.

16 See his ‘Present State’, 13–21.

17 Rahlfs, A., ed., Psalmi cum Odis (Septuaginta X; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1931) 258Google Scholar.

18 Attridge, H. W., A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989) 57Google Scholar.

19 Katz, P., The Text of the Septuagint: Its Corruptions and their Emendation (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1973) 161Google Scholar.

20 Cadwallader, ‘Correction’, 291.

21 Spicq, C., L’Épître aux Hébreux (2 vols.; Paris: Lecoffre, 1952–53) 2.18Google Scholar.

22 Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis, 152.

23 See, e.g., Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 305; McCullough, ‘Old Testament Quotations’, 369; and Steyn, ‘The Vorlage of Psalm 45:6–7’, 1100.

24 This is emphasised by both McCullough, ‘Old Testament Quotations’, 369, and Ellingworth, P., The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) 122Google Scholar.

25 Ellingworth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 122: ‘The MT underlying the first line is obscure and probably corrupt…’

26 Cockerill, G. L., ‘Hebrews 1:6: Source and Significance’, Bull.Bib.Res. 9 (1999) 51–64Google Scholar.

27 McLay, R. T., ‘Biblical Texts and the Scriptures for the New Testament Church’, Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (ed. Porter, S. E.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) 36–58Google Scholar.

28 See, e.g., Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 304; Cockerill, ‘Hebrews 1:6’; McLay, ‘Biblical Texts’; Ellingworth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 119; Braun, H., An die Hebräer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1984) 37Google Scholar; Koester, C. R., Hebrews (AB 36; New York: Doubleday, 2001) 193Google Scholar.

29 On this Qumran text and its relationship to the reading in Hebrews, see, e.g., Attridge, Commentary on Hebrews, 57.

30 Wevers, J. W., ed., Deuteronomium (Septuaginta III.2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977) 350Google Scholar.

31 Ellingworth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 119. There is also some discussion of these alternative readings in Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 304.

32 McLay, ‘Biblical Texts’, 55.

33 Steyn, ‘Vorlage of the “Song of Moses” Quotations’, 266–8.

34 Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 305.

35 See the textual apparatus in Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis, 255.

36 Attridge, Commentary on Hebrews, 61.

37 See Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis, 255.

38 This is the view of, e.g., Schröger, F., Der Verfasser des Hebräerbriefes als Schriftausleger (Regensburg: Pustet, 1968) 67Google Scholar, and Ellingworth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 129.

39 E.g. Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 305, and Attridge, Commentary on Hebrews, 61.

40 McCullough, ‘Old Testament Quotations’, 372.

41 Flint, ‘Variant Readings’, 351.

42 This point is made by Dines, The Septuagint, 142.

43 Dines, The Septuagint, 141. The pioneering work of Peter Katz should not, however, be overlooked as a demonstration of what could be achieved by further substantial studies in this area; see Katz, P., Philo's Bible: The Aberrant Text of Bible Quotations in Some Philonic Writings and its Place in the Textual History of the Greek Bible (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1950)Google Scholar.

44 Fernández Marcos, Septuagint in Context, 258; cf. Dines, The Septuagint, 149.

45 As recognised by, e.g., Dines, The Septuagint, 149–51, and Fernández Marcos, Septuagint in Context, 258–9.

46 Thomas, ‘Old Testament Citations’, 320.

47 McCullough, ‘Old Testament Quotations’.

48 For a recent and extremely enlightening study of the exegetical techniques and principles of the rabbinic interpreters, see Samely, A., Rabbinic Interpretation of Scripture in the Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford University, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 On attitudes to the Hebrew scriptures evident in the targumim, see Samely, A., The Interpretation of Speech in the Pentateuch Targums: A Study of Method and Presentation in Targumic Exegesis (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992)Google Scholar.

50 This point is well made by commentators such as George Brooke and Timothy Lim, despite the all-too-pervasive assumption that the pesher genre takes great liberties with the scriptural text in applying it to the life of the interpreters’ community. See in particular Brooke, G. J., ‘Reading the Plain Meaning of Scripture in the Dead Sea Scrolls’, Jewish Ways of Reading the Bible (ed. Brooke, G. J.; JSS Supplement 11; Oxford: Oxford University, 2000) 67–90Google Scholar. See also Lim, T. H., Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997) 49–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 McLay, ‘Biblical Texts’, 55.

52 Cadwallader's important study of this point (‘Correction’) has been mentioned above, and Attridge (Commentary on Hebrews) is also alert to this possibility.