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To: "Early Slavic Studies" <H-EARLYSLAVIC@H-NET.MSU.EDU> Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 9:57 PM Subject: Re: Gennadii Bible There is a significant number of early (pre-Christian?) mss of the Septuagint, where the Tetragrammaton appears in Aramaic and palaeo-Hebrew script or is transliterated, like IAW. Some mss of the Tetragrammaton is written in Greek letters which look like the Hebrew. This practice is also typical of fragments of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus. George Howard suggests that even early NT versions might have such names. As far as I remember, this does not refer to other nomina sacra, and these texts do not include specifically Exodus, but it does not matter: the practice is attested. See, e.g., the following: George Howard, "The Tetragram and the New Testament," Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 96, No. 1. (Mar., 1977) 63-83. J. A. Fitzmyer, "Der semitische Hintergrund des neutestamentlichen Kyriostitels," in Jesus Christus in Hlsforie und Theologie: Neufestamenfliche Festschrist fur Hans Conzelmann zum 60. Geburtstag (ed. Georg Strecker; Tiibingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1975) 267-98. N. Fernandez Marcos, "iaie, eseree , aia y otros nombres de Dios entre los hebreos," Sefarad 35 (1975) 91-106. Giovanni Card. Mercati, "Sulla scrittura del tetragramma nelle antiche versioni greche del Vecchio Testamento," Bib 22 (1941) 340-42. J. A. Montgomery, "A Survival of the Tetragrammation in Daniel," JBL 40 (1921) 86. Furthermore, in the middle ages the Septuagint might have been used by the Byzantine Jews even for liturgical purposes (and could undergo different changes or on the contrary preserve ancient features like those mentioned above), as we know from Justinian's Novella 146 and later from Basilica. However, I am not sure that all this is relevant to our case, since the names and glossae contain consonants that are common for Hebrew and Slavic, but are absent in Greek. Thus, a hypothesis of some kind of local and direct Jewish-Slavic contact is inevitable. The reference given by Julia Verkholantsev show that the phenomenon is not unique for Eastern Slavs. The model proposed by William Ryan does exist and is relevant to other cases, but not to this one. There are at least four different models for the appearance of Hebrew elements in medieval Slavic texts: (1) direct Hebrew-Slavic translations (like the early Song of Songs, Codex Vilensis; see references to Moshe Taube in my previous message); (2) translation of a Judeo-Greek text different from the Septuagint (like the Book of Esther, included also in the Gennadii Bible; see Horace Lunt and Moshe Taube, The Slavonic Book of Esther., Cambridge MA 1998); (3) translation from an unknown (medieval emended Judaized or authentic early Jewish?) version of the Septuagint (like most probably with the East Slavic Pentateuch divided to parshiyot (Jewish weekly readings)). (4) late Hebrew-oriented revision (by baptized Jews?). I think that our case belongs to the last model. Alexander Kulik ----- Boris Uspensky wrote: Two remarks in this connection: 1. It may be significant in this regard that in some Russian manuscripts also the name "el shaddai" appears. 2. I have to confess that I have never heard about Greek versions of Exodus in which the nomina sacra are given in Hebrew (in the Greek transliteration?). I thought it was specific of the Syriac "Peshitta" tradiition. I will be most grateful for references. Boris Uspenskij
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