John Zhu-En Wee, «Hebrew Syntax in the Organization of Laws and its Adaptation in the Septuagint», Vol. 85 (2004) 523-544
The Hebrew of the Pentateuch exhibits a hierarchy of
discourse markers that indicate different organization levels in the legal
texts. This organization elucidates the relationship (whether coordination or
subordination) of legal stipulations with each other. The markers studied
include X+yk+Pred and X+r#)+Pred
constructions, yk and M)
clauses, as well as a specialized use of the particle
hnh. The Greek translators may have been sensitive to the use of these
markers and even modified them in order to express their particular
interpretation of the text.
Hebrew Syntax in the Organization of Laws 533
Reference Law Discussed Rule 1 Rule 2 Rule 3 Rule 4 Rule 5
✓ ✓
5,6-10 Restitution
✓ ✓ ✓
5,12-31 Law Concerning Jealousy
✓ ✓
6,2-12 Nazirite Vows
Numbers
✓ ✓ ✓
9,10-14 Passover in the Second Month
✓
15,22-29 Offerings for Sins of Ignorance
✓
19,14-22 Defilement from a Corpse
✓ ✓ ✓
27,8-11 Inheritance Laws
✓ ✓
30,3-17 Law Concerning Vows
✓
35,10-28 Cities of Refuge
✓
13,2-18 False Prophets and Apostasy
✓
17,2-5 Stoning of Idolaters
✓
19,16-20 False Witnesses
✓
20,10-18 Besieging a City
Deutronomy
✓
21,10-14 Treatment of a Captive Woman
✓
22,13-21 Vindication of a Woman’s Chastity
22,23-27 Sexual Relations with a Betrothed
✓
Woman
✓
24,1-4 Law Concerning Divorce
✓
24,10-13 Exacting of Pledges
✓
25,1-3 Beating a Wicked Man
✓
25,5-10 Levirate Marriages
3. Treatment of syntactic markers in the LXX (22)
The treatment of legal material as a distinct genre is suggested by
the consistency of the above “rules†of Hebrew syntax discussed
above. In addition, the Greek syntax of the LXX legal texts is also
unique. One might argue that the unique Greek syntax derives entirely
from a very literal translation of the unique Hebrew syntax. While this
argument is valid to a certain extent, there is evidence that the
translators took additional steps to distinguish carefully the discourse
markers used in the Greek text.
An illustration of the above point is the LXX rendition of çya çya,
an expression which appears 17 times in the Pentateuch. In the legal
texts, çya çya is most often translated literally as a[nqrwpo" a[nqrwpo",
usually just after Yahweh’s command for Moses to convey the law to
(22) The critical editions used for these statistics are Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri,
and Deuteronomium (ed. J.W. WEVERS) (Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum
Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis Editum II,1-2; III,1-2; Göttingen
1991 [Exodus], 1986 [Leviticus], 1982 [Numeri], 1977 [Deuteronomium]).