Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Gerard Van Groningen on the Differences between the Masoretic and LXX Texts of the Book of Jeremiah

  

The differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagintal texts are: the former has about 2700 words more than the latter; the oracles against he nations come at the end of the Masoretic Text but in the middle of the Septuagintal translation; and the other in which the nations are addressed varies. Efforts to explain these differences and to determine which of the two texts enjoys the greater antiquity have been discussed at length. J. H. Thompson presented a helpful overview of the issues debate. (J. H. Thompson, Book of Jeremiah) In a doctoral thesis, T. Gerald Janzen pointed out that evidences from Qumran reignited a debate which had almost completely subsided—with no position unanimously accepted—because the Hebrew version was by and large supported by Qumran as representing the original text. (J. Gerald Janzen, Studies in the Text of Jeramiah [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973], p. 7 and passim. Thompson, Book of Jeremiah, p. 118 n. 2, referred to this work as the ‘most recent’ standard work) This problem does not affect the messianic passages to any great degree. (Gerard Van Groningen, Messianic Revelation in the Old Testament, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1990 repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 1997], 2:682)