Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Ιαραδ ("Jarad")/Ιαρεδ ("Jared") in some Greek Texts of Genesis 10:26

  

And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah (MT: ‎יֶרַח; LXX: Ιαραχ). (Gen 10:26)

 

On Gen 10:26, Reynolds and Sjodahl wrote the following:

 

ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT

 

The Alexandrian Manuscript, known as A in theological literature, also by the name Alexandrinus Codex, corroborates in an astounding way the form of the name JARED as it appears in the Book of Ether. . . . The value of the manuscript is very great for the textual criticism of the Bible, and its reading of Jared (as in the Book of Ether) for Jerah, a form of spelling in some earlier translation of the Book of Moses (Genesis), is of importance to students of ancient American history and not only to readers of the Book of Ether. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977], 6:27)

 

With respect to the textual variants in the Greek manuscripts for this text in Gen 10:26, we find the following from John William Wevers, ed., Genesis (vol. I; Vetus Testamentum Graecum. Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974), 139

 

Ἰάραχ 961] pr τον f 527 = M; ιεραχ C 108 370; ιεραρ cII(ιεσσαι 18 1°); ιαχαρ 76*(vid); ιαραδ A; τον ιαρεδ 509; τον ιαρεθ 376; αραχ 426 343; ιεραχαμ 44´; ιεζαχαμ 107-125

 

Note how Codex A reads Iarad; mss 509 reads ton Iared.