The last messianic promise in the Book
of the Twelve, Zech 9:9-10, comprises a rather peculiar concept of leadership.
It presents a royal leader without royal power: A saved (נושע) and humble king
on a mere donkey. Consequently, these verses have met with mixed reactions
throughout the history of their reception.
The Old Greek translation of Zechariah,
which probably dates to the time of the Hasmonean kingdom, eliminates all the
aspects of the Hebrew text which convey the impression of a passive or weak
king (van der Kooij 2003; Pola 2009; Eidsvåg 2016, 161-184): instead of being
saved (נושע), the king becomes a saviour (σωζων). Instead of God (והכרתי), the king himself destroys
the enemy’s weaponry (και εξολεθρευσει). Instead of proclaiming peace to the nations
(ודבר שלום לכוים), the king receives tribute: “wealth and peace from the nations”
(και πληθος
και ειρηνη
εξ εθνων). In the
Babylonian Talmud, likewise, the Persian King Shapur I articulates his contempt
for the Jewish messiah and his donkey by offering him his horse (bSan 981): “You
say that the Messiah will come upon a donkey: I will rather send him a white
horse of mine.” (Martin Schott, “Messianism in Transition: Zech 9:9-10 between First
and Second Zechariah,” in Transforming Authority: Concepts of Leadership in
Prophetic and Chronistic Literature, ed. Katharina Pyschny and Sarah Schultz
[Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 518; Tübingen:
De Gruyter, 2023], 85)
The Greek translator may have read the
Hebrew ורב ושלום מהכוים instead of ודבר שלום (van der Kooij 2003, 59). The
modification is based on transposition and substitution of similar-looking
Hebrew consonants—an accepted exegetical device in rabbinic literature as well
as in the Septuagint. For πληθος
in the sense of “wealth,” see Zech
14:14. (Ibid., 85 n. 1)
As recently argued by G. M. Eldsvåg
(2016, 160-184), the LXX reading is most probably secondary, and it is best
understood as a revision from the Hasmonean period, emphasizing the king’s
military role at the time when Judean kingship was being reestablished and
strengthened through military activity. Hence, it appears that a rather complex
text reflected in the MT has provoked various interpretations, trying in particular
to simplify it, as in the case up to the present. (Hervé Gonzalez, “Zechariah
9-14 and the Transformations of Judean Royal Ideology during the Earl
Hellenistic Period,” ibid., 101)