Jacob of Edessa's version of Exodus 1 and 28†
Alison
Salvesen
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
George A. Kiraz
James E. Walters
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Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute
2005
Vol. 8, No. 1
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https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv8n1salvesen
Alison Salvesen
Jacob of Edessa's version of Exodus 1 and 28†
https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/pdf/vol8/HV8N1Salvesen.pdf
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute,
vol 8
issue 1
Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is an electronic journal dedicated to the study
of the Syriac tradition, published semi-annually (in January and July) by Beth
Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. Published since 1998, Hugoye seeks to offer the
best scholarship available in the field of Syriac studies.
Syriac Studies
Jacob of Edessa
Bible
Peshitta
Syrohexapla
Pentateuch
Exodus
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At the end of the seventh century and into
the beginning of the eighth, the Syriac Orthodox scholar Jacob
of Edessa produced his own Syriac version of the Old Testament.
According to the colophons of the extant manuscripts, this was
explicitly a combination of the Syriac and Greek textual
traditions. This is in fact borne out by a close study of
Jacob's versions of Samuel, Genesis and Exodus. However, it is
less obvious what criteria Jacob used for the inclusion or
exclusion of the different strands available to him, including
the Peshitta, the Syrohexapla, and different recensions of the
Septuagint. This paper examines two very different passages in
the book of Exodus from the unpublished manuscript of Jacob's
version of the Pentateuch.
I am grateful to the Peshitta Institute, Leiden,
for lending me a microfilm of this manuscript,
Bibliothèque Nationale 26.
[1] By the
end of the seventh century the Greek tradition of Scripture was
well known among the Syriac churches, and in the West, it was
particularly influential. The "separated" gospels in the Old
Syriac and Peshitta forms had of course first been translated
from Greek. The Philoxenian and Harklean versions of the New
Testament were revisions of the Syriac to reflect the Greek
original text more closely. In contrast, the Peshitta Old
Testament had been translated from Hebrew (and Aramaic), but
the loss of the knowledge of Hebrew in the Syriac Church
coupled with the dominance of the LXX in the Greek-speaking
world, meant that revisions of the Old Testament were made
towards the Greek, not the Hebrew. Thus there may be traces of
a Philoxenian version of the Old Testament,
Notably in the margin of the eighth century
Ambrosian Syro-Hexapla to Isa 9.6 (A.M. Ceriani, Monumenta
sacra et profana ex codicibus praesertim bibliothecae
Ambrosianae tom. VII. Codex Syro-hexaplaris Ambrosianus,
photolithographice editus (Milan: J.B. Pogliani, 1874),
folio 176r. For another, anonymous, revision based on the
Greek, see S.P. Brock, "Mingana Syr. 628: A folio from a
revision of the Peshitta Song of Songs" (JSS 40
[1995]), 39-56.
but much more
importantly there is the Syrohexapla, translated in 615-17 by
Paul of Tella at the Ennaton in Egypt, from Origen's revised
text of the LXX in the Hexapla.
See A.G. Salvesen, "Hexaplaric Sources in
Isho‘dad of Merv", in The Book of Genesis in Jewish
and Oriental Christian Interpretation, ed. J. Frishman and
L. Van Rompay. TEG 5 (Louvain: Peeters, 1997), 229-53.
The Syrohexapla attained real
importance in the Syriac churches, and readings from it were
cited even in the Church of the East by the commentators of the
eight and ninth centuries, such as Isho'dad of Merv.
See S.P. Brock, The Bible in the Syriac
Tradition. SEERI Correspondence Course (SCC) on Syrian
Christian Heritage I (Kottayam, Kerala: SEERI, 1988), 20-23.
However, perhaps the statement on the version of Jacob of
Edessa, that Jacob "undertook another translation from Greek,
but also keeping some elements from the Peshitta" should now be
nuanced, at least with regard to the versions of Genesis,
Exodus and Samuel.
[2] Driving
this production of Syriac scriptural versions reflecting the
Greek texts was the great influence of Greek Christianity in
the spheres of politics, theology and general culture.This
influence also resulted in an enormous number of translations
of commentaries and exegetical works from Greek into
Syriac.
On the increasing prestige of Greek learning among
Syriac-speakers, see S.P. Brock, "Towards a history of Syriac
translation technique", III Symposium Syriacum, ed. R.
Lavenant. OCA 221. (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Studiorum
Orientalium, 1983), 4-5, and idem, "From Antagonism to
Assimilation: Syriac Attitudes to Greek Learning" in East
of Byzantium: Syria and Armenia in the formative period.
Dumbarton Oaks Symposium 1980, eds. Nina G. Garsoïan,
Thomas F. Mathews, and Robert W. Thomson (Washington, D.C.:
Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Trustees for
Harvard University, 1982) 17-34.
The obvious problem withbible commentaries
translated from Greek was the type of biblical text they cited:
adjusting the citations to the Peshitta form, as the first
translations did, often meant that they did not match the
author's exegesis which was based on the LXX text. Reproducing
in Syriac the LXX form of the original Greek commentary meant
presenting the reader with a bible quotation to which they were
unaccustomed, and thus the interpretation would be less
convincing.
S.P. Brock, "From Antagonism to Assimilation:
Syriac Attitudes to Greek Learning" in East of Byzantium:
Syria and Armenia in the formative period. Dumbarton Oaks
Symposium 1980, eds. Nina G. Garsoïan, Thomas F.
Mathews, and Robert W. Thomson (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton
Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Trustees for Harvard
University, 1982) 18.
However, the increasing use of Scripture
revisions towards the Greek by such versions as the Philoxenian
and Syrohexapla no doubt made Syriac readers more familiar with
the Greek tradition of Scripture, and to some degree they must
have accepted certain Greek readings alongside those of the
Peshitta.
[3]
Nevertheless, there is also evidence that Greek aroused mixed
feelings among Syrians loyal to their native traditions and
bible versions. Notably, although the monks of Eusebona had
fetched Jacob of Edessa from Kaisum in order to revive the
teaching of Greek Scripture, he was attacked by some of the
brothers who hated "the Greeks", and this is how he ended up at
Tel 'Ada, where he produced his revision of the Old
Testament.
Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon
Ecclesiasticum, ed. J.B. Abbeloos and T.J. Lamy (Louvain:
Peeters, 1872) I, cols. 291-3.
Given this hostility in certain quarters, and
the existence of the Philoxenian and Syrohexapla versions, why
did Jacob want to produce yet another version of the Old
Testament that, according to some colophons was revised
according to the Syriac and Greek traditions? For instance, the
colophon at the end of 1 Samuel
A.G. Salvesen, The Books of Jacob in the Syriac
Version of Jacob of Edessa. MPIL 10 (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1999): edition p.90 and translation p.67.
says that the First Book of
Kingdoms was "corrected from the different traditions, namely
from that of the Syrians and those of the Greeks." Since it is
in the singular, the tradition of the Syrians can only refer to
the Peshitta and not the Syrohexapla, which may even be
included among "those of the Greeks," perhaps alongside the
Lucianic recension whose influence is clear in Jacob's version
of Samuel.
R.J. Saley, The Samuel Manuscript of Jacob of
Edessa. A Study in Its Underlying Textual Traditions. MPIL
9 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998), 19-38.
However, the wording of the colophon at the end
of Numbers differs slightly: "It was corrected from the two
traditions, from that of the Syrians and from that [note the
singular] of the Greeks."
Bibliothèque Nationale 26, folio
339.
Perhaps the Syrohexapla and the
LXX texts were regarded as co-terminous in this case, or
perhaps the writer was being imprecise. The date and place of
the version given by each manuscript is the same, 1016 AG, i.e.
705 CE, in the monastery of Tel 'Ada.
[4] Though
small portions of the surviving manuscripts of Jacob's biblical
version were already being reproduced and studied more than two
centuries ago,
J.D. Michaelis, Orientalische und
exegetische Bibliothek 18 (1782) 180-183 [Gen 49.2-11]; C.
Bugati, Daniel secundum editionem LXX. interpretum ex
tetraplis desumptum (Milan, 1788), xi-xvi, 150-151,
157-158 [Gen 11.1-9; Gen 49.2-11; Dan 1.1-6; Dan 9.24-27; Sus
1-6] (reprinted in J.B. Eichhorn, Allgemeine
Bibliothek 2 [1789] 270-293); A.M. Ceriani, Monumenta
sacra et profana II/1 (Milan, 1863), x-xii [Gen 4.8-16; Gen
5.21- 6.1]; A.M. Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et profana,
V/1 (Milan, 1868) 8-12; 21-23; 25-38 [Isa 28.1-21; 45.7-16;
46.2-49.25]; L'Abbé Martin, "L'Hexaméron de
Jacques d'Édesse" (Journal Asiatique
(8ème sér.) 11 [1888] 155-219; 401-90; A. Hjelt,
Études sur l'Hexaméron de Jacques d'Edesse,
notamment sur ses notions géographiques contenues dans
le 3ième traité (Helsingfors: J.C.
Frenckell, 1892) [Gen 1.9-10]; M. Ugolini, "Il Ms. Vat. Sir. 5
e la recensione del V.T. di Giacomo d'Edessa" (OrChr 2
[1902]), 412-413 [Ezek 7.1-13]; M.H. Gottstein, "Neue
Syrohexaplafragmente" (Biblica 37 [1956]) 162-183 [1
Sam 7.5-12; 20.1-23, 35-42; 2 Sam 7.1-17; 21.1-7; 23.13-17]; W.
Baars, "Ein neugefundenes Bruchstück aus der syrischen
Bibelrevision des Jakob von Edessa" (Vetus Testamentum
18 [1968]), 548-554 [Wis 2.12-24].
there is much work still to be done. At
present the most work has been done on Jacob's version of
Samuel, for which there is a detailed study and also an edition
of the text.
M.H. Gottstein, "Neue
Syrohexaplafragmente"(Biblica 37 [1956]), 175-183,
R.J. Saley, The Samuel Manuscript of Jacob of Edessa. A
Study in Its Underlying Textual Traditions. MPIL 9
(Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1998), and A.G. Salvesen, The Books of
Jacob in the Syriac Version of Jacob of Edessa. MPIL 10
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1999).
A particular desideratum would be a complete
edition of Jacob's version of the Pentateuch. This is preserved
in a single manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris 26.
Until someone is able to take on such a large project, it may
be legitimate to take soundings of the individual
books.
Sylvestre de Sacy, "Notice d'un manuscrit
syriaque, contenant les livres de Moïse", Notices et
extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque
Nationale, vol. IV (Paris 1798-99) 648-668. For a
description of the manuscript, see the catalogue of H.
Zotenberg, Manuscrits orientaux. Catalogues des manuscrits
syriaques et sabéens (mandaïtes) de la
Bibliothéque Nationale (Paris 1874) 10. See also
A.G. Salvesen, "The Genesis Texts of Jacob of Edessa: a Study
in Variety" [forthcoming].
Jacob's version of Genesis has already
received a limited amount of attention, but the rest of Jacob's
Pentateuch has been largely passed over.
[5] The
biblical book of Exodus includes quite disparate material,
covering narrative, legal prescriptions, and the description of
the Tabernacle. I have chosen two different passages for
analysis. The first example, taken from the story of the
bondage of the Israelites in chapter 1, is illustrative of
Jacob's general approach elsewhere (it can hardly be termed a
method).
Exod 1.8 -21 (folios 108 col. a-109 col. a)
[6]
Italics indicate the use of identical Syriac wording
to that in the Syrohexapla; bold font
indicates material that has been translated directly from LXX.
Plain type indicates close proximity to the Peshitta text.
But a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know
Joseph.
He said to his people, "Look, the people of the children
of Israel are more numerous and stronger than us."
"Come, therefore, let us act wisely towards
them, lest they increase, and whenever war befalls
us they also be joined to our enemies, and when they make
war on us they leave our land."
Margin: "and fight us and go up from the
land" = Peshitta.
They appointed evil ruling officers over them,
to enslave and humiliate them with works
and treat them badly (=LXX ίνα
κακώσώσιν).
They built fortified cities for Pharaoh, Pithom,
Ra'amsis and On, which is
Beth
Shemesh (=LXX ήλίου
πόλις).
Margin: "Heliopolis" = Syh.
As much as they enslaved and humbled them, thus
they grew stronger, and to such a degree they
were increasing that the Egyptians wearied of
the children of Israel.
The Egyptians were oppressing and enslaving the
children of Israel with cruelty.
Margin: "by force" = Syh.
They embittered (= LXX
κατωδύνων) their
lives with hard labour, with clay and with bricks and with
all types of agricultural work, with every slavery with which
they enslaved them by force (= LXX
μετά βίας).
The king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrews,
of whom the name of one was Zephora (= LXX
)
and the name of the other was Pu'a,
The order of names is in accordance with the
Greek tradition, and also to the Peshitta MS 5b1.
He said to them, "Whenever you are assisting the
Hebrew women to give birth, you see when they kneel to
give birth, and if it is a male, kill him, and if it is
a female, preserve her."
The midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king
of the Egyptians commanded them. They saved the
males.
The king summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why
have you done this deed and kept alive the
male children?"
The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Not as the Egyptian women
are the Hebrew women, because they are lively.
Jacob preserves the wordplay of the
Peshitta, "midwives", "keep alive" and "lively", which is lost
in Greek and thus in Syh also.
Before the
midwives come in to them, they give birth."
God treated the midwives well because they did this
deed, and the people increased and grew very strong
indeed.
It happened that since the midwives feared God, he made
houses for them/they made houses for themselves.
[7] Compared
with the situation in other passages in Jacob's versions of
Samuel, Genesis and Exodus, much of the additional material
Jacob uses seems to be from the Syrohexapla rather than
translated directly from LXX as is often the case elsewhere,
for instance in Samuel.
R.J. Saley, The Samuel Manuscript of
Jacob of Edessa. A Study in Its Underlying Textual
Traditions. MPIL 9 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998), 19-38,
118-22.
Jacob has effectively expanded
the story recounted in the Peshitta, while preserving the
Peshitta's wordplay on 'midwives', 'keeping alive', and
'lively'. The latter is a feature only partly present in the
Hebrew and not at all in the LXX and Syh versions (it is
actually an inner-Aramaic feature found only in the Peshitta
and Targums). Aside from that, the reason for Jacob's
alterations to his base text of the Peshitta is not clear His
approach seems rather casual, in fact, and probably was. In
this particular passage his aim seems to be to include as much
information as possible from the two traditions, Greek and
Syriac, in order to fill out and expand the account. There
seems to be no more scientific explanation (in the modern
text-critical sense) for changing this particular passage than
the one of expanding and including more material in the
account.
[8] We might
have expected Jacob to explain or defend his version somewhere.
However, nowhere in Jacob's work is there an explicit comment
from Jacob on what his general criteria are for choosing some
readings and not others from the Greek, or Syrohexapla, and
whether they replace or only expand on what the Peshitta
provides. The colophons mentioned above are too vague in the
information they provide about his working methods.
[9] One
feature of Jacob's version in both Samuel and the Pentateuch is
the provision of marginal notes that give an alternative
reading from the other tradition than the one included in his
main text. There are also several scholia in both manuscripts
that elucidate specific names or problems in the text. Thus in
the course of Exodus 28 there is an extensive scholion that
sheds some light on Jacob's procedure in one particular
passage. It occurs between verses 30 and 31, and occupies most
of the top half of a page before the text of the chapter
resumes. The subject of the scholion is the high priest's
breastpiece and ephod, and it immediately follows the passage
in Jacob's version that deals with these very items. The
purpose of the scholion is to draw attention to the confusion
that has arisen in the text (i.e. that of the Peshitta)
concerning the proper terminology for the items called
pedtho and perisa. The scholion is positioned
between Jacob's version of Exod 28.30 and 28.31, at the top of
folio 164, and occupying over one third of the page. Thus it is
a prominent and deliberate note that the scribe has written
before continuing on with the biblical text. Perhaps the
scholion appeared in the autograph of the manuscript, or
perhaps it was added from a collection of Jacob's scholia that
was circulating separately.
[10] "One
should know that many have erred not a little over these terms
pedtho and perisa, being unaware of what a
pedtho is and what a perisa is. While
sometimes they call 'pedtho' the perisa of
the judgments that is borne on the priest's breast and contains
the twelve gems, at other times they use the term
'pedtho' for the kebinta with which the
priest covered (kabben) his shoulders, and in which
were the two emeralds on both his shoulders at the front, and
to which was also bound the perisa of judgments of the
twelve gems.
This perisa is called by the Hebrews an
ephod, but by the Greeks 'word of judgments', and in
Greek is pronounced 'logion'. On it was placed the
Revelation or Sign, and Truth [i.e.
δήλωσις and
άλήθεια], which are
written 'Light and Perfection' by the Syrians. Therefore, from
that term pronounced 'ephod' by the Hebrews, the
Syrians call it sometimes 'ephodo and at other times
pedtho. In the book of Kingdoms, when David says to
Abiathar the priest, 'Bring me the ephod (i.e. the
pedtho)',
Jacob's own version of this phrase in 1 Sam
23.9 (as also 23.6) uses the word 'ephod. However, he
uses pedtho in 1 Sam 22.18 "priests bearing the linen
ephod", and kebinta to describe the location of
Goliath's sword, hidden behind the ephod (1 Sam 21.10). At 2
Sam 6.14 Jacob has
cestla, perhaps because David was not a priest.
the priest had two items to bear, the
kebinta and the perisa that was attached to
it, and it is unknown which of them David referred to as
ephod/pedtho. For it seems that he called the
combination of the two an ephod/pedtho. But here, in
this book of Exodus, where God commands Moses to make both of
them, namely the kebinta and the perisa, and
the words of the account of each of them are known, an
unfortunate and perplexing confusion has been created by this
term pedtho which was set down instead of the term
kebinta, since it [the pedtho] is the name
indicating the perisa of judgment, being called
logion i.e.'Word', the item on which was placed the
Sign and Truth.'"
[11]
Though the scholion is hardly remarkable in itself, Jacob may
be punning on the Syriac words for "error", "making a mistake"
and "ephod" (note that he retained the word play in Exodus
chapter 1). Jacob gives the Hebrew, Greek and correct Syriac
words for the breast-piece, and the Greek and Syriac words for
the Urim and Thummim, and refers to the passage in 1 Sam 23.9
where David asks Abiathar to bring the ephod to him.
[12] As
might be expected, Jacob's version of the biblical passage that
immediately preceded this scholion accords completely with
Jacob's definition of the correct usage of the terms
perisa and kebinta. Jacob's version also
diverges from the confusing terminology of the Peshitta, which
uses pedtho and
husoyo
for the same item, and he rejects the Syrohexapla's use of
pedtho.
[13]
(Underlining indicates material that is unparalleled in
existing witnesses to the Peshitta, Syrohexapla or LXX, and
thus is apparently unique to Jacob's version in that particular
place.)
Exod 28.22-30
You shall make upon the perisa
The same word appears in the Peshitta of
this verse. LXX has λόγιον
and Syh pedtho. The underlying Hebrew word is
hoshen, NRSV "breast piece".
paired
chains, braided work of pure gold.
You shall make for the perisa
Here and in the next two occurrences in this
verse the Peshitta uses the term husaya, which
is most confusing. Jacob, Syh and LXX all maintain their
equivalents from the previous verse.
two clasps of
pure gold and you shall bind the two
clasps to the two sides of the perisa.
You shall lay the two braids of gold in the two clasps on
the two sides of the perisa.
and the two ends of the two braids you shall tie to the
two settings. You shall fasten them on
the shoulders of the kebinta,
The Peshitta uses the term pedtho
in each case where Jacob employs Syh's kebinta, which
itself follows LXX έπωμίς.
opposite its
face in front.
You shall make two clasps of gold and place them on the
two sides of the perisa, on the edge that is
opposite the edge of the kebinta, inside.
You shall make two clasps of gold and place them on the
two shoulders of the kebinta beneath, squarely [=
Syh] opposite its face, opposite its seam above the
girdle
hemyana: the word is the same in
the Peshitta. LXX has
μηχάνωμα and Syh
methaqnutha. The Hebrew word is hesheb,
translated as "decorated band" in NRSV.
of the kebinta.
He shall attach the perisa by its links, to the
links of the kebinta by a blue thread, to be over
the girdle of the kebinta, lest the perisa
move and come apart [= Syh] from the kebinta.
Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in
the perisa of the judgments upon his breast, when he
enters the place of [= Syh] the sanctuary, as a memorial
before God continually.
And you shall place upon the perisa of
judgements the Revelation and the Truth [= Syh]
I.e. the Urim and Thummim.
,
and they shall be on Aaron's breast whenever he enters the
place of (= Syh) the sanctuary before the Lord. And Aaron
shall bear the iniquity of the
children of Israel on his breast, when he enters before the
Lord always [= Syh].
[14]
Ultimately, while preserving the Peshitta as a base text, Jacob
uses the Greek LXX as a guide to the items, rendering
λόγιον as perisa and
έπωμίς as kebinta. It
should be noted that Exod 28.23-28 does not appear in the Old
Greek (meaning the oldest stratum of the Septuagint) of Exodus,
since the original Greek form was probably translated from a
Hebrew Vorlage that was shorter than the one behind the present
Hebrew Masoretic Text. These particular verses were added to
the church's LXX by Origen from a later translation, probably
that of "Theodotion", in order to represent what appeared in
the current Hebrew text.
J.W. Wevers, Text History of the Greek
Exodus MSU XXI (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1992), 9, 125; K. G. O'Connell, The Theodotionic
Revision of the Book of Exodus: a contribution to the study of
the early history of the transmission of the Old Testament in
Greek (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972);
cf. also D. Fraenkel, "Die Quellen der asterisierten
Zusätze im zweiten Tabernakelbericht Exod 35-40," in
Studien zur Septuaginta- Robert Hanhart zu Ehren aus
Anlaß seines 65. Geburtstages. eds. D. Fraenkel,
U.Quast, and J.W. Wevers. MSU XX (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1990), 140-86.
They appear in the Syrohexapla,
because it was translated from Origen's LXX text, but there
they are marked by a series of asterisks in the right hand
margin to indicate that they had been added in by him.
SyhT misplaces the asterisks so that they
run beside vv.24-29.
Jacob
would have understood only that Origen had corrected the LXX
against the Hebrew text, and that therefore he should include
those passages. Jacob omits (or never knew) the material that
appears as vv. 24, 25/(29) in Wevers' edition.
J.W. Wevers, with U. Quast, Septuaginta.
Vetus Testamentum Graecum auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum
Gottingensis editum, II, I. Exodus.(Göttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991), 320.
These verses
also appear in Lagarde's text of the Syrohexapla and are marked
with the obelus, but in the Midyat manuscript of the
Syrohexapla (SyhT) they occur unmarked He may have left it out
deliberately because it was obelized by Origen as not being in
the Hebrew, but this cannot be proved.
[15] The
Peshitta, on the other hand, follows MT very closely, but is
inconsistent with its use of equivalents for Hebrew
hoshen. It uses perisa
for
hoshen in
vv.22,282, 29, 30, but
husaya in vv.232, 24, 26. It is such
confusion in the Peshitta that Jacob was primarily setting out
to correct or adjust in this particular passage, with the help
of the Greek tradition. We have confirmation of this in the
scholion appended to this section in ch.28. His aims here are
therefore in contrast to his procedure in the first passage
from Exodus chapter 1, where the motive seemed to be solely to
expand on what the Peshitta provided, using material from the
Greek directly or via the Syrohexapla.
[16]
Looking at the passage in more detail, Jacob has made several
minor alterations, such as changing the imperative verbs to the
second person singular indicative of the Greek and Syrohexapla.
He has also changed the Hebraistic verbs
δώσεις and hab,
adapted them to the context and replaced them with his own
words 'bind' and 'tie'. The phrase "And Aaron shall bear the
iniquity of the children of Israel on his breast" in
the last verse is very curious. The use of 'iniquity'
(
cawla) is unprecedented in the Peshitta,
Syrohexapla and LXX at this point. All three witnesses have
'judgment' or 'judgements'. The reading is very clear in the
manuscript of Jacob's version. Scribal error through
association with another similar passage has to be ruled out,
since there is to be no other place in the Bible, in Syriac or
Greek, that has quite this combination of words—
especially with
cawlo—that could lead
a scribe to make an unconscious error. One can only conclude
that it is deliberate, and that Jacob extrapolated the idea of
iniquity from the idea of judgement. It is not unknown for
Jacob to add his own glosses to the biblical text, but this is
probably the most striking instance I have come across in his
version of Genesis or Exodus.
The nearest similar expressions in a
comparable context occur in Lev 22.16 "they shall bear upon
them the iniquity and sins", and Num 18.1 "bear the iniquity of
the sanctuary... bear the iniquity of your priesthood", also
Ezek 4.5,6 "you shall bear the iniquity of the house of
Israel". But it is hard to see how these passages could have
caused an unconscious error in Jacob's version of Exod 28.30.
Exod 28.38, which occurs close to the passage under discussion,
has the phrase "Aaron shall bear the sins of the holy things"
in both the Peshitta and Jacob's version of Exod, but the use
of "sin-offerings" seems to
exclude it as a possible influence.
[17]
Overall, the structure and most of the terminology in these
verses, apart from that concerning the perisa and
pedtho, remain recognisably those of the Peshitta. The
passage reflects more care and attention than Jacob often gives
to the text of his own version. It is notable that there are
several, rather briefer, scholia in the manuscript on other
items in the Tabernacle account such as the hangings of the
court of the Tabernacle,
At the bottom of folio 161 column a, in the
middle of Exod 27.16, where the column has been left one line
short to accommodate it.
the order of the gems on the high
priest's breast piece,
At the bottom of folio 163 column a, where
two lines have been left to accommodate it.
the turban,
Towards the bottomof folio 165 column a,
where the scholion has been inserted into the biblical
text.
the
settings,
On folio 162, added in the bottom
margin.
how much 20 oboloi are worth.
In the bottom margin of folio 169 column a
(to Exod 30.13).
In Jacob's
version of Samuel he rewrote 1 Samuel 21 very carefully: this
passage about David asking for the shewbread from the priest at
Nob also concerns priestly activity,
See A.G. Salvesen, "An edition of Jacob of
Edessa's version of Samuel" in Symposium Syriacum
VIIum, ed. R. Lavenant, S.J., OCA 256 (Rome: Pontificium
Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, 1998),13-22.
and it is
tempting to speculate that Jacob was rather interested in
vestments and rules for the sanctuary. It should go without
saying that in his scholia in Exodus Jacob is only concerned
with the sense of passage and what all these items were: there
is no attempt to use typology or allegory, and his approach is
solidly historical and literal.
Conclusion
[18] In
contrast to the findings of Goshen Gottstein and Baars, who
believed that Jacob's version was an eclectic combination of
the Peshitta and Syrohexapla,
M.H. Gottstein, "Neue Syrohexaplafragmente"
Biblica 37 (1956) 162-83, compared some texts in
Samuel with the Syrohexapla, and in passing with the LXX and
Peshitta. W. Baars, "Ein neugefundenes Bruchstück aus der
syrischen Bibelrevision des Jakob von Edessa" VT 56
(1968) 548-554, compared the fragments of Jacob in Wisd with
the Syrohexapla and the Peshitta.
it is very clear in these
two passages from, Exodus that whether Jacob was expanding a
particular passage or correcting details, Jacob's text base was
certainly the Peshitta. Furthermore, he preferred to add to the
Peshitta base text rather than make major changes, unless it
was inadequate or confusing. Importantly, it also appears that
on the whole he avoided depending too much on the Syrohexapla,
preferring to make his own renderings of words directly from
the Greek.
Note that these findings are in line with
those of S.P. Brock, The Recensions of the Septuaginta
Version of I Samuel. Quaderni di Henoch 9 (Turin: Silvio
Zamorani, 1996), 26-27.
Perhaps Jacob thought the kind of text he had
created would appeal to those who disliked the Syriac style of
the Syrohexapla and the way in which it completely ignored the
wording of the Peshitta. Maybe Jacob's version also enabled its
readers to connect with Greek exegesis without abandoning their
native Syriac scripture. The result of Jacob's work was or
create a kind of hybrid that amplified and clarified both the
Peshitta and Greek texts of Scripture, and from a
purely exegetical viewpoint it could even be considered to be
superior to either tradition on its own.
_______
Notes
† An earlier version of this paper was
presented at the IX Symposium Syriacum in Kaslik, Lebanon,
September 2004.
_______
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