Sunday, January 16, 2022

H. Ausloos on Psalm 45 (LXX: 44) and Hebrews 1:8-9


 

Perhaps the most central element used for highlighting the messianic tendency of Psalm 44(LXX) is the rendering of the problematic verse 7 (כסאך אלהים עולם ועד) by ο θρονος εις τον αιωνα του αιωνος. It is quite obvious that the New Testament author of Heb 1,8-9 has interpreted the Geek verse of the psalm as a messianic text, applying it to Jesus as the messiah. Nevertheless, the Greek text is as ambiguous as its Hebrew Vorlage, since in fact two interpretations are legitimate. Most accepted is the hypothesis reading ο θεος as a vocative form: “Your throne, o God, is forever and ever” (NETS). Clearly Rahlfs’ edition, which places the elements ο θεος between commas, favours this reading; remarkably, this has not been done with regard to verse 8, in which ο θεος can be understood as a vocative as well. Here the problematic element of the missing preposition - ל in MT referred to earlier has been solved by the plus εις. Yet, even if this interpretation was intended by the translator, he was not necessarily favouring a messianic interpretation of the Psalm, since this is merely evidence that the LXX translator is giving a consistent rendering of his Hebrew Vorlage. Moreover, this interpretation of ο θεος as a vocative is not the only possible one. The interpretation of the Hebrew text, considering אלהים as subject and כסאך as object (“God is your throne for ever and ever”) is possible as well with regard to the Greek. Thus, with regard to verse 7, there is no unambiguous argument to justify the view that there is a specific strengthening messianizing tendency in Psalm 44 (LXX). (H. Ausloos “Psalm 45, Messianism and the Septuagint,” in M.A. Knibb, ed., The Septuagint and Messianism [Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 195; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2006], 249-50)