6 The conjunction Ὅτι
parallels the one at the beginning of verses 4 and 5. All three provide the
reason for the happiness described in 9:3: Lord has ended their oppression,
their property will be returned, and now a great leader has been born to them.
Since the καί before ἐδόθη is not at the beginning of the clause, it must be
adverbial, which would be unexpected in an otherwise parallel set of
statements. But in S (the first hand, at least) we do not have close
parallelism, since the pronoun changes from first to second person. The noun ἄγγελος
generally means a messenger. In biblical usage of course this often refers to
an divine (angelic) messenger, but here, the messenger is from a council, so he
might be termed an envoy. At first glance, the genitive relative pronoun in the
relative clause οὗ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐγενήθη ἐπὶ τοῦ ὤμου αὐτοῦ appears to modify ἡ ἀρχὴ
(“whose beginning”), but by the end of the clause it appears that we have a
genitive personal pronoun resuming the genitive relative pronoun (“on whose
shoulders”). The three words Μεγάλη βουλῆς ἄγγελος are G’s original
translation. Corrector ca added θαυμαστὸς σύμβουλος θεὸς ἰσχυρός ἐξουσιαστής, ἄρχων
(ε)ἰρήνης πατὴρ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, matching the Hebrew. Corrector cb added
the cross signs (+), and d added red dots seen in Figure 2.
Ziegler indicates that this section is marked by a obelus in 88 and the Syrohexapla. The same words added by ca, θαυμαστὸς σύμβουλος θεὸς ἰσχυρός ἐξουσιαστής, ἄρχων εἰρήνης πατὴρ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, are included in the manuscripts Alexandrinus, 106, 26, Venetus, 109, 736, the full Lucianic family of manuscripts (albeit with an asterisk in 22, 48, 51, 231, and 763) including 46, 233, 456, the corrector to 764, 87, 91, 309, 490, 377, 564, 565, 403, 613, 407, 538, 770, except that Alexandrinus and 26 omit θεος, 109 and 736 transpose θαυμαστος συμβουλος with θεος ισχυρος They are also added in the Syropalestinian translation, Eusebius (Dem. ev.), Athanasius, Chrysostom, and possibly Theodoret. Clement has the slightly shorter θαυμαστος συμβουλος θεος δυναστης πατηρ αιωνιος αρχων ειρηνης. Other manuscripts not listed here do not include these additional words. Most but not all of the words in the addition to S can be traced to interpolation from the Three; the exceptions are εξουσιαστης and του μελλοντος. Aquila has θαυμα- στος συμβουλος ισχυρος δυνατος πατηρ ετι αρχων ειρηνης. Symmachus has παραδο- ξασμος βουλευτικος ισχυρος δυνατος πατηρ αιωνος αρχων ειρηνης. Theodotion has θαυμαστος βουλευων ισχυρος δυναστης πατηρ αιωνιος αρχων ειρηνης. Ottley (1904, 1:2:155–156) summarized why these words are not “part of the true LXX. text:” they are not in the earliest manuscripts S* and B (or Q); they are largely a duplicate rendering of Μεγάλης βουλῆς ἄγγελος; the wording is close (but not identical) to that of the Three (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion). Ottley proposed that these words came from the versionTheodotion revised (known from Daniel). Le Moigne noted that not only here in 9:6 but also in 22:21 G refrains from giving a person the title “father” even though that is what the Hebrew text has; at the same time, G attributes royal features to these (2008). Because in comparison to the Hebrew, the human messianic figure’s role has been reduced to that of a messenger, Johann Lust (1998) and John Collins (2008) disagreed with those (e.g., Coppens 1968) who claimed G enhances the messianic character of Isaiah’s oracles. (See also van der Kooij 2002.) Trigg compared Origen’s use of the title “Angel of Great Counsel,” applied to Christ, to the image of the son as seraph in Isaiah 6 (1991). In place of γὰρ ἄξω, B’s reading is probably due to the absence of ἐγὼ, so that γὰρ falls in the second position in the sentence. Instead of ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἐν κρίματι, B’s reading ἐν κρίματι καὶ ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ follows the Hebrew order. (Ken Penner, Isaiah [Septuagint Commentary Series; Leiden: Brill, 2021], 412-14)
Here is Figure 2 (p. 413):
