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Re: Ps 8:5 LXX - Heb 2:7 AGGELOUS for ELOHIM??


On Sun, 8 Jun 1997 LegoMan07@aol.com wrote:

> Hello to all.
> 
> I had a rather deep discussion recently with respect to the meaning of
> the word "God."  A center of focus was why the LXX translators would
> translate the Hebrew ELOHIM as AGGELOUS, or "angels" in Psalms 8:5
> (quoted in Heb 2:7).  My friend's assertion was that the LXX translators
> here made a scribal error.  My contention was that the LXX translators
> here translated what they understood the meaning of the word to be in
> this context as opposed to a slavish translation of the Hebrew. 

To quickly give you an answer, there is literature on this subject, but I
do not know any references off the top of my head.  Another instance of
this phenomenon occurs in Psalm 82 (verse 1 or 2, I forget exactly which
one). 

I think most scholars would follow your reasoning, and I believe that a
commonly proposed solution is to assert that these compositions reflect an
archaic literary period when polytheistic ideas were still current in
Israelite thought.  Thus, we would have references to the divine assembly.
By the time the LXX was being produced, such notions were incongruous with
monotheistic religion, and so, as you propose, they rendered the Hebrew
with a term more akin to their theological point of view.


Hope this helps,



andrew
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