Saturday, November 5, 2022

Lester L. Grabbe on Some Textual Issues Concerning 1-2 Kings

  

The Lucianic text of 3 and 4 Kingdoms (1 and 2 Kings) in the LXX differs from the Hebrew in many small points, though these seldom affect the overall sense. We also find a different order of material at various points. For example, the story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs 21:3; 3 Kgdms 20) occur before the siege of Samaria by Ben-Hadad (1 Kgs 20; 3 Kgdms 21). Here are some other passages in which there are major differences between the Lucianic text and the MT:

 

3 Kingdoms 2.35a-o: this is a long addition (often called a ‘plus’) at this point in the Lucianic text (which would be 1 Kgs 2.35 in the MT) about the beginning of Solomon’s reign: his wisdom, marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter, and building activities. (All the details here are in fact also to be found in MT but in other passages).

 

3 Kingdoms 2.46a-l: this is a textual plus with information on Solomon’s household, table provisions, officials, and chariotry. Again, although the MT lacks this specific section at 1 Kgs 2.46, all the information is found elsewhere in the text of the MT.

 

3 Kingdoms 5.1-4: this corresponds to 1 Kgs 4.20-5.8, but several of the verses in the MT are lacking in the LXX and there is a slightly different order of material.

 

3 Kingdoms 12.24a-z: this textual plus in the Lucianic text of the LXX gives an alternative version of Jeroboam’s rise to power, the death of his son, and the splitting the kingdom. Yet all the material found here is also found elsewhere in the MT (such as at 1 Kgs 14.1-18). This passage was investigated by Zipora Talshir ([The Alternative Story of the Division of the Kingdom: 3 Kingdoms 12.24a-z. Jerusalem Biblical Studies 6; Jerusalem: Simor] 1993). She concludes that the creator of the story had before him a version of 1 Kings similar to our present Hebrew text and that the alternative story if the writer’s own creation made by rewriting and rearranging material from MT 1 Kings. Therefore, in her opinion, it does not represent an independent tradition. This is a moot point. It could also be argued that this represents an independent tradition about Jeroboam’s rise and was available in a Hebrew version to the translator of 3 Kgdms 12.24. Unfortunately, no such Hebrew version is currently extant, though Talshir makes a good case for reconstructing a Hebrew text as the Vorlage of the Greek text (i.e. the Hebrew original text from which the Greek text was translated). If independent, as already noted, the material it contains still does not differ in essentials from the story of the MT.

 

4 Kingdoms 10.37-43: this is a textual plus in the Lucainic text, absent from 2 Kgs 10.37. It is similar to MT 2 Kgs 8.25-29 and 9.27-28, though even here there are some greater or lesser differences. (Lester L. Grabbe, 1 & 2 Kings An Introduction and Study Guide: History and Story in Ancient Israel [London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017], 4-5)

 

The following table comes from ibid., 3:

 

α

1 Kingdoms (Antiochian)

(= 1 Samuel)

ββ

2 Kgdms 1-9 (Antiochian)

(= 2 Sam. 1-9)

βγ

2 Kgdms 10 to 3 Kgdms 2.11 (kaige)

(= 2 Sam. 10 to 1 Kgs 2.11)

γγ

3 Kgdms 2.12-21.43 (Antiochian)

(= 1 Kgs 2.12-21.29)

γδ

3 Kgdms 22.1 to 4 Kgdms 25.30 (kaige)

(= 1 Kgs 22.1 to 2 Kgs 25.30)