Carmel McCarthy in the Biblica Hebraica Quinta on Deuteronomy 32:8

  

Deuteronomy 32:8

 

בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ Smr αʼ-θʼ σʼ V S (T^J) T^ONF (em scr) | בני אלוהים 4QDeut^j G | ἀγγέλων θεοῦ G^Mss (exeg) || pref בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים 4QDeut^j G  ●

 

בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ That v. 8 represents a deliberate emendation for theological motives is reasonably certain (McCarthy, Tiqqune Sopherim, 211–14). Even more interesting is the series of subsequent corrections to which M was subjected as a consequence of an emended v. 8, showing that the phenomenon of theological corrections was not something that happened in a half-hearted way. It required more than the convictions of an isolated scribe to have effected five further interrelated changes (Gen 46:20, 21, 22, 27; Exod 1:5). Barthélemy (“Tiqquné Sopherim,” 295–304) links all these corrections to the Hasmonean period, while, more recently, Himbaza (“Dt 32,8,” 527ff.) argues that this emendation in v. 8 was somewhat later, and introduced only in the first century C.E. Note that T^J includes the number “seventy” (“the seventy souls of Israel that went down to Egypt”) in its interpretative expansion.(Carmel McCarthy, Deuteronomy: Critical Apparatus and Notes, quinta editione [Biblia Hebraica Quinta 5; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007], 93)