Juha Pakkala on Exodus 24:9-11 in the MT and LXX and Whether God Can Be Seen

 

An Addition That Created an Omission in Exod 24:9-11

 

Exodus 24:9-11 provides another illustrative example of how later editors regarded the idea of seeing Yhweh as theologically offensive. Here the correction was made by an addition, which de facto created an omission, although no section of the older text was omitted.

 

According to the Masoretic version of Exod 24:9-11 (with the exception of some additional names in v. 9, the S[amaritan]P[entateuch] follows the MT closely in these verses), Moses, Aaron and the elders of Israel went up (to the mountain of Sinai), where they saw the God of Israel. Unlike in many other passages, which refer to God’s glory or fire being seen, this text refers to God himself being seen. It also implied that they see his feet under which there was a pavement made of sapphire, pure like heaven. The reference to the feet implies an anthropomorphic form. The LXX translation, however, contains two small additions that in effect omit the idea that God could be seen:

 

Exod 24:9-11 MT	Exod 24:9-11 LXX
‎ויעל משׁה ואהרן נדב ואביהוא9 ושׁבעים מזקני ישׂראל   10 ‎ויראו את אלהי ישׂראל ‎ותחת רגליו כמעשׂה לבנת ‎הספיר וכעצם ‎השׁמים לטהר 11 ‎ואל־אצילי בני ישׂראל ‎לא שׁלח ידו ‎ויחזו את־האלהים ‎ויאכלו וישׁתו	9 καὶ ἀνέβη Μωυσῆς καὶ Ααρων καὶ Ναδαβ καὶ Αβιουδ καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα τῆς γερουσίας Ισραηλ 10 καὶ εἶδον τὸν τόπον οὗ εἱστήκει ἐκεῖ ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ισραηλ καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ ἔργον πλίνθου σαπφείρου καὶ ὥσπερ εἶδος στερεώματος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῇ καθαριότητι 11 καὶ τῶν ἐπιλέκτων τοῦ Ισραηλ οὐ διεφώνησεν οὐδὲ εἷς καὶ ὤφθησαν ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἔφαγον καὶ ἔπιον
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 an they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people o Israel; and they beheld God, and ate and drank.	9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the places where stood the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And of the chosen ones of Israel there was not even one missing they beheld in the place of God, and ate and drank.

 

The Greek version adds a reference to the place where God stood (v. 10) and a place of God (v. 11) immediately after the verb so that the original object was replaced by the addition. As a consequence, the original object, God, now only defines that the place is that is seen ( à place where God stood). Because the plus in the LXX occurs twice in a similar context having a similar effect in the text, the possibility of an accidental omission in the MT/SP can be excluded. The Greek version is a secondary attempt to avoid the idea that God could be seen. However, the Greek text was not systematically edited in this respect because it preserves a reference to the feet of God.

 

The additions show that the editor (or translator) who made the additions had a high regard for the text and was not unwilling or not allowed to make substantial changes to it. The older test was preserved if the correction in content could be made with an addition, a tendency that we have also seen elsewhere. For the editor it was evidently easier to accept an addition than an omission if the result was similar. The example also shows that the omission of a theologically offensive idea could be achieved by an expansion that effectively avoided the original meaning of the sentence. (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], 195-96)