HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Bible

Semester: Yearly

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Emanuel Tov

Coordinator Email: emanuel.tov@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: by Email appointment

Teaching Staff:
Prof Emanuel Tov

Course/Module description:
Readings in select chapters in the Torah, with attention to all the problems in the text. Special attention will be given to matters of translation technique, exegesis, and textual relations, comparing the LXX with MT, SP, and the Qumran Scrolls. Special attention will be paid to literary developments. The participants are encouraged to use digital versions of the Hebrew and Greek texts, but the printed edition of Rahlfs-Hanhart can be used as well.

Course/Module aims:
The purpose of the seminar is to receive instruction in the reading of the LXX in order to understand its main problems. Upon completing the seminar, the participants are expected to be able to analyze texts in the LXX with a certain amount of confidence

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
The seminar will guide the student on his/her way to an independent use of this tool. The participants will be more experienced in textual evaluation based on linguistic analysis and contextual exegesis, will have more experience in the evaluation of individual texts, of the relations between texts, and also in the use of auxiliary tools, such as electronic tools and printed Concordances.

Attendance requirements(%):
80%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The main procedure of instruction is the weekly reading of the text during the sessions, to be prepared before each session. During the first sessions the instructor will guide the reading and analyzing the texts and afterwards the participants will present the texts. In the course of the preparation, use will be made of text editions, a bilingual concordance or a digital search program (Accordance, Logos),

Course/Module Content:
1.Rapid reading in Exodus 1-3 (three meetings), involving the understanding of the LXX without text-critical analysis. Tools: lexicons, grammatical analysis
2.Harmonizations in LXX-Torah, select passages (two meetings)
3.Exod 19
4.Gen 31:34–52
5.Num 10
6.Exod 38 changes are possible

Together with the reading of the select chapters, the students will read chapters in: Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, Third Edition, Completely Revised and Enlarged )Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). Electronic versions: Accordance, Logos.

Required Reading:
Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint.

Additional Reading Material:
Bibliography Torah 2022

Bibliography
Sebastian P. Brock et al., A Classified Bibliography of the Septuagint (Leiden: Brill, 1973)
Cécile Dogniez, Bibliography of the Septuagint, Bibliographie de la Septante (1970–1993), VTSup 60 (Leiden: Brill, 1995)
See further websites, below
Text Editions
Alan E. Brooke, Norman McLean, and Henry St. James Thackeray, The Old Testament in Greek According to the Text of Codex Vaticanus (Cambridge, 1906–1940)
This series contains the books Genesis–Nehemiah, as well as Esther, Judith, and Tobit in four volumes, according to codex B, and where that manuscript is lacking, it has been supplemented by either manuscript A or S. These editions contain Hexaplaric readings in a separate apparatus.
Septuaginta, Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctoritate Academiae litterarum gottingensis editum (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1931– )
Each volume in this series (illustration 8.2) contains a detailed critical apparatus in which the witnesses are divided into groups and subgroups, so that readers can find their way through the maze of manifold variants. In books in which there are no Göttingen editions, a wealth of variants is included in the Cambrige Septuagint. The editions of the Göttingen Septuagint contain Hexaplaric readings in a separate apparatus.
Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta, Id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes, 2nd ed., ed. Robert Hanhart (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006)
Printed Editions Online
Cambridge Septuagint (Brooke–McLean)
https://archive.org/details/OldTestamentGreeklxxTextCodexVaticanus/01.OTGreek.Vat.v1.Octat.p1.Gen.Brooke.McLean.1906.
Rahlfs–Hanhart, Septuaginta
https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/septuagint-lxx/read-the-bible-text/
Research Tools Online
https://williamaross.com/lxx-resources/
Henry St John Thackeray, A Grammar of Old Testament Greek According to the Septuagint (Cambridge: University Press, 1909)
https://archive.org/details/AGrammarOfOldTestamentGreekAccordingToTheSeptuagint
Digital Text Editions
Accordance (sources: text of Rahlfs–Hanhart, Septuaginta and the Göttingen Septuagint):
www.accordancebible.com/
Logos (sources: text of Rahlfs–Hanhart, Septuaginta and the Göttingen Septuagint):
http://www.logos.com/
Accordance and Logos allow for the parallel presentation and scrolling of all the versions, together with MT and SP, in conjunction with advanced lexicons, search programs, and statistical packages. These programs, as described in chs. 3.10 and 13.5.2, provide details (not exhaustive) on variant readings, also through the linked critical editions and the CATSS program (§ 7.1).
See further: http://www.greekdoc.com/index.html
https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/septuagint/default.asp
Manuscripts Online
Codex Vaticanus: https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209
Codex Sinaiticus: http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/
Codex Alexandrinus: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref&eq;royal_ms_1_d_viii_fs001r
Duke Papyrus Archive:
https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/papyrus/search-papyrus.html
P.Oxy: http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/
The Perseus Digital Library (search for “Septuagint,” “LXX,” ”Bible,” etc.)
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
For additional manuscripts, see the collection edited by Drew Longacre:
http://oldtestamenttextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2011/
Concordance
Edwin Hatch and Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint and the Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament (Including the Apocryphal Books), 2nd ed. with a foreword by Robert A. Kraft and Emanuel Tov (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998)
https://archive.org/details/concordancetosep00hatc_0/page/n9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/HatchRedpath2/page/n1/mode/2up
Takamitsu Muraoka, A Greek  Hebrew/Aramaic Two-Way Index to the Septuagint (Louvain: Peeters, 2010)
Modern Translations
NETS
La Bible d’Alexandrie (Paris: CERF: 1986– )
Wolfgang Kraus and Martin Karrer, eds., Septuaginta Deutsch: Das griechische Alte Testament in deutscher Übersetzung (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2009).
Modern Translation Online
NETS: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/

Lexicons and Grammar
Liddell-Scott-Jones together with its Supplement by E.A. Barber (Oxford, 1968) and Revised Supplement by P.G.W. Glare (Oxford, 1996). Further:
(1) T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Louvain/ Paris/Walpole, MA, 2009). This lexicon can be used profitably for all books of the LXX.
(2) Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (ed. J. Lust, E. Eynikel, and K. Hauspie; rev. ed.; Stuttgart, 2003). This helpful lexicon provides brief lexicographical descriptions.
(3) F. Rehkopf, Septuaginta-Vokabular (Göttingen, 1989)—very concise.

Thackeray, Grammar

Commentaries
SBL Commentary on the Septuagint (SBLCS): http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioscs/commentary/
La Bible d’Alexandrie (Paris: CERF: 1986– )
Martin Karrer and Wolfgang Kraus, eds., Septuaginta Deutsch, Erläuterungen und Kommentare zum griechischen Alten Testament, 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2011)
John W. Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis, SCS 35 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993)
—, Notes on the Greek Text of Exodus, SCS 30 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990)
—, Notes on the Greek Text of Numbers, SCS 46 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998)
—, Notes on the Greek Text of Deuteronomy, SCS 39 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995)
Septuagint Commentary Series (Leiden: Brill, 2005– )
Websites
Bibliography
https://williamaross.com/septuagint-bibliography-2012-onward (William A. Ross)
Accordance (source: Codex L): www.accordancebible.com/
Logos (Logos Research Company) (source: Codex L): http://www.logos.com/
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/
www.emanueltov.info
https://huji.academia.edu/EmanuelTov

Research
Jennifer M. Dines, The Septuagint (London: T&T Clark, 2004)
Giles Dorival, Marguerite Harl, and Olivier Munnich, La Bible grecque des Septante: Du judaïsme hellénistique au christianisme ancien (Paris: Cerf/C.N.R.S., 1988)
Karen H. Jobes and Moisés Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2000)
Armin Lange and Emanuel Tov, eds., Textual History of the Bible, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 1A: Overview Articles (Leiden: Brill, 2016); Textual History of the Bible, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 1B: Pentateuch, Former and Latter Prophets (Leiden: Brill, 2017); Textual History of the Bible, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 1C: Writings (Leiden: Brill, 2017)
Gregory R. Lanier and William A. Ross, The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021)
John A. L. Lee, The Greek of the Pentateuch: Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint 2011–2012 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018)
Tessa Rajak, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
William A. Ross and W. Edward Glenny, T&T Clark Handbook of Septuagint Research (London: T&T Clark, 2021)
Alison G. Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)
Adrian Schenker, ed., The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered, SBLSCS 52 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2003)
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research (Third Edition, Completely Revised and Enlarged; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015). Electronic versions: Accordance, Logos.
—, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 4th ed. rev. and enl. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2022). xlvi + 524 pp. (incl. 78 tables, 33 illustrations, and 41 exercises). ISBN 9781506483481
Electronic edition, Accordance, 2022
—, “The Septuagint: Summary and Update” in idem, Collected Essays, Volume 4, 311–40 (update of “Septuagint,” THB, Vol. 1A, 190–211
—, “Genesis 49 in the Septuagint: Trial and Error,” in A Pillar of Cloud to Guide, ed. Hans Ausloos and Bénédicte Lemmelijn, BETL 269 (Leuven, 2014), 455–69. Revised version: Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism … Collected Essays, Volume 3 (2015), 490–503.
https://huji.academia.edu/EmanuelTov
—, “The Palestinian Source of the Greek Translation of the Torah,” in Die Septuaginta–Themen, Manuskripte, Wirkungen, 7. Internationale Fachtagung veranstaltet von Septuaginta Deutsch (LXX.D) Wuppertal 19.–22. Juli 2018, ed. Eberhard Bons, Michaela Geiger, Frank Ueberschaer, Marcus Sigismund, and Martin Meiser, WUNT 444 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 18–39.
https://huji.academia.edu/EmanuelTov

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 60 %
Presentation 40 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
The oral exam will consist of an analysis of a segment of 9 consecutive verses from the Torah chosen by the student. One can bring to the exam all the necessary books and notes. The section will be prepared at home. At the exam, the student will show that the Greek is understood and that one is able to tackle the comparative analysis of the LXX and MT.