The LXX and Peshitta of Gen 14:22 reads:
I will extend my hand to God Most
High, who created the heaven and the earth. (LXX)
I have lifted my hand to God Most
High, maker of heaven and earth. (Peshitta)
The MT has an important addition:
I have lifted my hand to Yahweh,
God Most High, maker of heaven and earth.
The evidence supports the shorter reading, and that the MT
represents a later addition to the text. As Richard Müller and Juha Pakkala
wrote:
The shorter reading in the LXX and
Peshitta is supported by a parallel to Gen 14:22 in the Genesis Apocryphon, an
Aramaic paraphrase of the biblical narrative (1Q20 22:20-21):
מרים אנה ידי ימא דן לאל עליון מרה שמיא
וארעא
I lift my hand and swear this day
by God Most High, the Lord of heaven and earth.
Although the Genesis Apocryphon
does not follow the Hebrew text word for word, it seems likely that its source
text also did not refer to Yahweh, for its intentional omission in Abram’s
proclamation would be difficult to explain. IT is more likely that the source
text shared the shorter reading with the LXX against the MT (and the SP). The
three witnesses, the LXX, the Peshitta, and the Genesis Apocryphon, would thus
go back to a textual tradition that did not identify Yahweh with El Elyin and
that only referred to El Elyon in this verse. The Hebrew text behind this
tradition probably read as follows:
הרימתי ידי אל אל עליון קנה שמים וארץ
I have lifted my hand to El
Elyon/God Most High, maker of heaven and earth.
It is likely that the plus in the
MT, the divine name Yahweh (יהוה), it the result of an intentional addition,
the reason for which is apparent, Yahweh had called Abram out of his homeland
(Gen 12:1), had spoken to him more than once (Gen 12:1-4, 7; 13:14-17), and
Abram had started the venerate Yahweh (Gen 12:7; 13:18). The patriarchal stories
portray Yahweh as Abraham’s God. The shorter text in Gen 14:22 presents a
theologically problematic picture where Abram swears to a deity who was not
explicitly identified as Yahweh. It gives the impression that Abram simply
repeated from the mouth of Melchizedek the divine name and epithet אל עליון קנה
שמים וארץ “God Most High, maker of heaven and earth” without confessing that he
adhered to Yahweh. Since El Elyon can be understood as the name of a different
deity—which it, in fact, originally was—it seems logical that a later scribe
would try to remove any possibility that Abram pays homage and swears in the
name of a god other than Yahweh. Note that in gen 14:19-20 Melchizedek
addresses אל עליון, but in these verses Yahweh is not mentioned and there are
no similar text-critical variants between the witnesses, which clearly
indicates that the problem was in Aram paying homage to אל עליון. The secondary
nature of the MT reading is further suggested by the fact that the SP reads האלהים,
“(the) God” instead. This יהוה “Yahweh,” by which this name was interpreted as
referring to the one and single God of the earth. At the same time, the textual
tradition attested by the SP avoids the impression that Abram had profaned the divine
name in his conversation with the pagan king. (Richard Müller and Juha Pakkala,
Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Criticism
[Resources for Biblical Study 97; Atlanta, Ga.: SBL Press, 2022], 47-48)
In response to the claim that YHWH is original and the non-MT
texts represent an intentional omission, they write that
This is a highly unlikely
development. IF a later scribe had restored to omissions for theological
reasons, it would be more probable that the reference to the pagan deity had
been removed. One should further note that the omissions are radical interventions
in the text that are not done lightly, and in this case, it would also mean the
omission of the divine name. Consequently, it is likely that the shorter
reading in the LXX, Peshitta, and Genesis Apocryphon should be given priority,
while the longer MT and SP readings result from a later addition. (Ibid., 49)
Further Reading:
The Book of Mormon and the title "Father of Heaven and Earth"
