The Temple
of Yhwh in Hebron Omitted in 2 Sam 15:8
The Lucianic text may preserve an ancient
reference to the temple of Yhwh in Hebron, while the reading has been omitted
in the MT. The other Greek witnesses seem to have been harmonized after the MT:
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2 Sam
15:8b MT
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2 Sam
15:8b LXXL
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כי־נדר נדר עבדך
בשׁבתי בגשׁור בארם לאמר
אם־ישׁיב ישׁוב ישׁיבני יהוה
ירושׁלם
ועבדתי את־יהוה
|
οτι ευχην
ηυξατο ο δουλος σου
οτε
εκαθημην εν (εις) Γεσσειρ εν Συρια
λεγων
Εαν
επιστρεφων επιστρεψη μη κυριος
εις
Ιερουσαλημ
Και
λατρευσω τω κυριω
|
|
For your
servant vowed a vow while I dwelt
at Geshur
in Aram, saying, "If Yhwh brings
me back
to
Jerusalem,
I will
offer worship to Yhwh"
|
For your
servant vowed a vow
while I
dwelt at Geshhur in Syria, saying,
"If
Yhwh brings me back
to
Jerusalem,
I will
offer worship to Yhwh
|
The difference between the Lucianic text and
the other witnesses has been discussed since early research, but Philippe Hugo
has recently raised the issue and argued that the Lucianic text is probably
original. This view was already represented by Karl Budde and Henry P. Smith,
while other scholars have assumed that the Lucianic text is a later addition.
The primacy of the Lucianic reading is suggested by the incongruity with
several theologically important passages in the Hebrew Bible. It suggests that
there was a temple of Yhwh before Solomon thus conflicting with the idea that
no such temple existed (cf. 1 Kgs 5-8; 1 Kgs 5:3 and 1 Chr 28:3). It also
conflicts with the idea of cult centralization, which according to 1-2 Kings
was one of the main criteria for evaluating Israelite and Judean kings.
Moreover, the passage seems to imply that Yhwh's temple in Hebron was the main
Yahwistic sanctuary of the royal dynasty. That Absalom vows to go there if he
may return to Jerusalem underlines the primacy of this temple, because Aram or
Geshur, regardless of where exactly it was originally located, was north of
Jerusalem. Returning from there one would have to pass Jerusalem in order to
reach Hebron. This would undermine the role of Jerusalem as the main cult cite.
In contrast, the opposite direction of development,
the secondary addition of Hebron in the Lucianic text, would be very difficult
to explain because it runs counter to the increasing influence of Deuteronomic
and Deuteronomistic conceptions throughout the Hebrew Bible. It would be
difficult to see the addition of a reference to a main cult site in Hebron,
harbored by King David. Accordingly, the omission of Hebron should be seen as
part of the Deuteronomization of 1-2 Samuel by later editors. Although the
Duteronomization usually was achieved by the addition of Deuteronomistic
phrases and conceptions, in this passage and explicitly anti-Deuteronomistic
conception, the existence of Yhweh's main cult site in Hebron, had to be
omitted. (Juha Pakkala, God's Word
Omitted: Omissions in the Translation of the Hebrew Bible [Forschungen zur
Religion und Lieratur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 251; Bristol, Conn.:
Vandenhoeck and Reprecht, 2013], 221-22; cf. "References to the Temple of
Yhwh Omitted in 2 Samuel," pp. 213-21)