In his book, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah, Aby T. Ngunga rendered Isa 19:16-25 (LXX) as follows:
16 But in that day the Egyptians
shall be (pl) like women in fear and in trembling before the presence of
the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which he shall lay on them. 17 And the
countryside of the Judeans shall be a terrifying object to the Egyptians;
whoever should name it to them-they shall be afraid, because of the counsel,
which the Lord has planned for it. 18 In that day, there shall be five cities
in Egypt, speaking the Chananite language and swearing in the name of the Lord;
the one city shall be called city of Asedek. 19 In that day there shall be an
altar to the Lord in the countryside of the Egyptians and a stele to the Lord
towards its boundary. 20 And it shall be a sign for ever for the Lord in the
countryside of Egypt, when they shall cry out to the Lord on account of those
who are oppressing them, then the Lord shall send them a man who shall save
them, judging he shall save them. 21 And the Lord shall be known to the
Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day and they will make
sacrifice, and they will utter vows to the Lord and they will pay [them]. 22
And the Lord shall smite the Egyptians with great plague and he shall heal them
with healing and they shall be burned to the Lord, and he shall listen to them,
and he shall heal them 23 In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the
Assyrians and the Assyrians shall enter Egypt, and the Egyptians shall go to
the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall be subjected to the Assyrians. 24 In
that day Israel shall be third with reference to the Assyrians and with
reference to the Egyptians, having been blessed in the land 25 which the Lord
Sabatoh has blessed saying; blessed be my people which is in Egypt and which is
among the Assyrians, i.e. Israel my inheritance. (Abi T. Ngunga, Messianism
in the Old Greek of Isaiah: An Intertextual Analysis [Forschungen Zur
Religion Und Literatur Des Alten Und Neuen Testaments 245; Göttingen,: Vandenhoeck
and Ruprecht, 2013], 131-32)
Commenting on the use of “man” (ανθρωπος) as a Messianic title, we read:
While the Lord punishes the Jews’
oppressors as part of the contents of his divine βουλη in LXX-Isa 19:16-25, he gives a
promise to the crying Jews and he shall send “a human being (ανθρωπος) who shall save them” (v. 20).
Firstly, it must be stressed that the long rendering of ανθρωπον ος σωσει αυτους for the participle מושיע is
strange not only in the LXX-Isaiah, but also in the LXX as a whole. The motive
for the translator’s choice needs to be sought within the framework of a
debated issue among scholars of whether or not to consider ανθρωπος as a “messianic title.” Analysing
both the views of scholars in favour and against this statement, van der Kooij
correctly says: “[t]he meaning of this lexeme as such is, of course, rather
general and vague, but the context in which it is used might provide a clue
for specific connotation” (Van der Kooij, “The Greek Bible,” 257).
In the case of the passage under inspection,
it is beyond reasonable doubt that ανθρωπος
is associated with “the human being, (ο ανθρωπος) spoken of in Isa 32:1-2 . . . as
a text that announces, as Koenig rightly puts it, "un règne à caractère
messianique" (Koenig, L’herméneutique analogique du Judaïsme Antique, 76).
Within the LXX as a whole, it has been sufficiently demonstrated not only that ανθρωπος in LXX-Num 24:7, 17 likely refers
to an important )military) figure with royal status, thus implying “a ‘messianic’
connotation” (For instance, see van der Kooij, “The Greek Bible”, 257; Horbury,
Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ, 29-50, 92-147), but also that
the use of ανθρωπος in LXX-Isa 19:20 is strongly linked
with this Pentateuchal passage in its Greek form (For instance, Horbury, Jewish
Messianism and the Cult of Christ, 44-45; Messianism among Jews and
Christians, 147). If read in conjunction with the aforementioned passages
from the LXX-Isaiah and LXX-Pentateuch, as well as in light of other sources of
difference provenance (e.g. Jewish apocalypses, rabbinic tradition, Sibylline
Oracles from Egyptian Jewry, and some Christian reports of Jewish messianic
belief) (Horbury, “Messianic Associations of the Son of Man”, 41-53, also in Messianism
among Jews and Christians, 134-51), it is beyond reasonable doubt that LXX-Isa
19:16-25 is one of the texts testifying that the interpretation of “ανθρωπος” was associated with the
messianic expectations that developed among the Jewish community in the
Diaspora. However, as Horbury discovers, this belief does not emerge in a vacuum.
IT stems from a number of Davidic and messianic texts that speak of a repeated
promise that there shall always be “a man” on David’s throne (e.g. 1 Kings 2:4;
8:25; 9:5; 2 Chron 6:16; 7:18; Jer 33:17) (Ibid., 50).
The main task to be performed by
this ανθρωπος (in LXX-Isa 19:20) is to save (σωζω) God’s people by judging (κρινω) them. Van der Kooij has
correctly observed that the immediate context (vv. 19-20) in which this saving
work by judgment is done may lead one to think that this saviour-judge is
Jewish (Van der Kooij, “The Old Greek of Isaiah 19:16-25”, 142). This view can
be strengthened by emphasizing what was said earlier, that the translator’s use
of κρινω exegetically interconnects this
messianic figure in Isa 19:20 with the one from Jesse (in LXx-Isa 11;3-4 . .
.)and the one sitting on the throne “in the tabernacle of David” (16:5) as
these two latter figures are also expected to be judging (κρινων) (These links have been noted by
Horbury, Messianism among Jews and Christians, 149-50; see also Schaper,
“Messianism in the Septuagint of Isaiah”, 377). It is worth noting that the
translator’s rendering of the second σωσει for the hiphil נצל (19:20) links this deliverer with the Lord of
David in LXX-Isa 38:6 (cf. LXX-Jer 46(39):17; 49(42):11) who promises to save
Hezekias from the hand of the Assyrians’ king. At this point, it should be
remembered that, since the text of Isaiah in its Greek form “breathes the
atmosphere of the διασπορα suffering
under foreign oppressors” (See Trovel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation and Interpretation,
157), the primary meaning of the translator’s use of the theme of salvation
(i.e. σωζειν, σωτηρια, and/or σωτηριον) is that of “’liberation form a
powerful political enemy’, ‘escape from a great political disaster’; and this
could quite naturally evolve into ‘deliverance from exile’” (Seeligmann, The
Septuagint Version of Isaiah, 285, also 294. Cf. Troxel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation
and Interpretation, 157). (Ibid., 141-43)
Continuing, we read of how LXX Isaiah teaches that Gentiles
(here Egyptians) would become full-fledged members of “Israel” and how
there was an expectation of converts to be made:
In the process of restoring the
scattered Jewish community with a purpose of making them regain their former
exalted position (vv. 24-25; cf. LXX-Isa 4:2; 44:23), the contents of divine βουλη not only have room for the
punishment of the foreign powers (LXX-Isa 19:22), but also look to a future
where the Jewish religion shall be propagated among them (see οι Αιγυπτιοι . . . ποιησουσιν θυσιας και ευξονται ευχας τω κυριω και αποδωσουσιν in
v. 21). For, as Seeligmann notes, the Isaiah translator “could not imagine
Israel being blessed [cf. ευλογημενος ο λαος μου . . . Ισραηλ
in v. 25] in the future without a constant flow of proselytes” (Seeligmann, The
Septuagint Version of Isaiah, 289). In this case, despite Baer’s claim that
“[a]ny echo of the notion found in Genesis 12 that Israel was to exist for the
blessing of the nations has been suppressed by the LXX [Isa 19:24-25]”
(emphasis added” (When We All Go Home, 216-217), Israel is still viewed
in the Isaianic text as playing a significant role, in the sense that she is
being used as an executor of God’s plan that looks forward to a future revelation of God to the Gentiles, an
experience leading them to worship him. (Ibid., 143)
In a footnote to the above, we read that:
It is striking to see that, in
this v. 21, θυσιας (for a combination of the two
Hebrew words זבח ומנחה) is used here (instead of the expected word δωρον; cf. LXX-Isa 66:20) as sacrifices
to be offered by the Gentiles (Egyptians). This term is usually used with
reference to cultic offerings reserved for the Jewish people. For a thorough
analysis of θυσια and
δωρον, see Daniel Recherches sur le
vocabulaire du culte se la Septante, 72 n. 48, 203, 212-13. Baer has extensively
studied LXX-Isa 66:20 (with regard to θυσιαι as eschatological gifts to be offered by the returning Israel and
δωρον by the Gentile pilgrims; both
Greek terms rendered for the one Hebrew word מנחה); see Baer, When We All Go
Home, 246-76. (Ibid., 143 n. 293)
