Some Preliminary Text-Critical Questions Sample Clauses

Some Preliminary Text-Critical Questions. The book of Ezekiel has a difficult textual history. Scholars note that there often appears to be a different Hebrew Vorlage behind the LXX (at least in LXXB) to that behind the MT. This is particularly significant in chapters 36–37 because the earliest extant Greek manuscript containing these chapters, Papyrus 967,1 deviates from the MT in these chapters in a couple of ways. Firstly, Ezekiel 36.23c–38, containing the description of Israel’s new heart, is completely missing in 𝔓967. Secondly in 𝔓967, the order of chapters 36–39 differs from the MT: Ezekiel 37 appears after chapters 38–39, rather than immediately after Ezekiel 36. Although 𝔓967 is the earliest extant Greek manuscript of Ezekiel, it is also unique amongst Greek manuscripts: other major manuscripts contain small variations from the MT, but they match the chapter order of The Influence of Ezekiel 36–37 in Early Judaism the MT; they also contain Ezekiel 36.23c–38. The only other manuscript in which Ezekiel 36.23c–38 is omitted is the sixth-century Old Latin manuscript Codex Wirceburgensis, a manuscript apparently not dependent upon 𝔓967.2 Although 𝔓967’s variations from the MT used to be attributed to a scribal error, such as parablepsis, this conclusion has become difficult for scholars to maintain. An omission of 1451 letters would seem difficult to attribute to scribal error.3 It also seems unlikely that a scribe would mistakenly rearrange the order of Ezekiel 36–39. Furthermore, scribal error would not account for the omission of 36.23c–38 in Codex Wirceburgensis, which, as we noted above, is apparently not dependent on 𝔓967. It is now often claimed that the differences in 𝔓967 cannot be attributed simply to a copyist’s mistake. This has led some to suggest that 𝔓967 provides evidence of an earlier Hebrew Vorlage than the one which led to the MT. Johan Lust is one of the most significant proponents of this view. He argues that Ezekiel 36.23c–38 is stylistically different to the rest of the book in Greek, as well as in Hebrew. Instead, it is similar to sections of Jeremiah. He notes: We may conclude that Ezek. 36:23c-38 is most probably a late redactional addition. Both in the Hebrew text and in the traditional Greek version, the style and the vocabulary of the passage betray a hand different from the one in the surrounding parts of the book. The redactor appears to have been inspired by the Book of Jeremiah in its final form. Moreover, his language shows some characteristics which a...