Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Müller, Pakkala, and ter Haar Romeny on the Differences between MT and LXX 1 Samuel 10:1


Commenting on the differences between the MT and LXX version of 1 Sam 10:1, Reinhard Müller, Juha Pakkala, and Bas ter Haar Romeny, three experts in Old Testament textual criticism wrote:

1 Sam 10:1 MT

‎ ויקח שמואל את־פך השמן ויצק על־ראשו וישקהו ויאמר הלוא כי־משחך
 יהוה על־נחלתו לנגיד

And Samuel took the flask of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said: “Is it not that Yhwh has anointed you over his inheritance as a leader?”

1 Sam 10:1 LXX

καὶ ἔλαβεν Σαμουηλ τὸν φακὸν τοῦ ἐλαίου καὶ ἐπέχεεν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐφίλησεν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ οὐχὶ κέχρικέν σε κύριος εἰς ἄρχοντα ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ Ισραηλ καὶ σὺ ἄρξεις ἐν λαῷ κυρίου καὶ σὺ σώσεις αὐτὸν ἐκ χειρὸς ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ κυκλόθεν καὶ τοῦτό σοι τὸ σημεῖον ὅτι ἔχρισέν σε κύριος ἐπὶ κληρονομίαν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἄρχοντα

And Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said; Did the Lord not anointed you as a leader over his people, over Israel? And you shall rule over the people of the Lord, and you shall save them from the hand of their enemies all around. And this shall be the sign for you that the Lord has anointed you over his inheritance as a leader.”

The plus resembles phrases in 1 Sam 9:16-17, a passage that describes how Yhwh commissioned Samuel to anoint Saul as king. (Reinhard Müller, Juha Pakkala, and Bas ter Haar Romeny, Evidence of Editing: Growth and Change of Texts in the Hebrew Bible [Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014], 70)

The authors offer possible reasons for this change on pp. 74f. For them, the best explanation is that the text in the MT

was intentionally shortened due to considerations related to the content of the passage. This is suggested by the positive view of Saul’s kingdom that is contained in the longer text. Here the prophet Samuel, in the name of Yhweh, commissions Saul to rule over the Israelites and to save them from their enemies. This call does not fit with Saul’s rejection by Yhweh in the following chapters (see 1 Sam 13:13-14; 15:23, 26). In many texts that follow, Saul is depicted as a rather bad ruler over Yhweh’s people. This tension between the positive view of Saul’s kingdom in 1 Sam 10:1 and the negative description in the ensuing narrative could easily have caused an editor to omit the references to Saul’s political leadership over Israel within Samuel’s speech to Saul (1 Sam 10:1-8). To be sure, such a revision would not seem very systematic, since the parallel passage in 1 Sam 9:16-17 was left intact. However, one should not overlook that the two passages are not completely identical. According to 1 Sam 9:16 Saul has the task of saving Israel from the Philistines, while the long text of 1 Sam 10:1 speaks about Israel’s “enemies all around,” referring to a totality of enemies. The latter is, strictly speaking, a contradiction to Yhweh’s speech in 1 Sam 9:16. This contradiction and the totality of the perspective in the longer text of 1 Sam 10:1 that does not fit with Saul’s soon-following rejection might have triggered the omission. In addition, there are also cases in 1 Samuel where rather isolated anti-Saulide changes in the proto-MT have probably taken place. Consequently, it is possible to explain the shorter MT reading of 1 Sam 10:1 as a result of an isolated editorial alternation of the text . . .this theory is the most probable. (Ibid., 75-76).