נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

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Stephen Hughes
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נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by Stephen Hughes »

I have a question about the Hebrew Vorlage and Septuagint translation of these two verses:
2 Kings (Samuel) 1:10 wrote:καὶ ἐπέστην ἐπ’ αὐτὸν καὶ ἐθανάτωσα αὐτόν ὅτι ᾔδειν ὅτι οὐ ζήσεται μετὰ τὸ πεσεῖν αὐτόν καὶ ἔλαβον τὸ βασίλειον (הַנֵּ֣זֶר) τὸ ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸν χλιδῶνα τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ βραχίονος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνήνοχα αὐτὰ τῷ κυρίῳ μου ὧδε
4 Kings (2 Kings) 11:12 wrote:καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ ἔδωκεν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὸ νεζερ καὶ τὸ μαρτύριον καὶ ἐβασίλευσεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἔχρισεν αὐτόν καὶ ἐκρότησαν τῇ χειρὶ καὶ εἶπαν ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς
Psalm 131:18 wrote:ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτὸν ἐξανθήσει τὸ ἁγίασμά μου
In considering the translation of נזר (nzr) as "holiness" or as "crown", is my thinking sound? The word βασίλειον, seems to be a literal translation of the object. Is τὸ ἁγίασμα simply "the thing that sets (a king) apart" or marks the king as set apart, i.e. the "crown"? But, I don't think that is a Greek way of thinking, and LSJ at least doesn't pick up on it, nor does BDAG mention it. Retaining νεζερ suggests that it was a technical term when used in Greek among the Jews of Alexandria, when speaking of the crown.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
zpkenney
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by zpkenney »

In considering the translation of נזר (nzr) as "holiness" or as "crown", is my thinking sound?
I think this is almost accurate, but I think there is an important distinction to be made. I wouldn't say that נזר (nzr) means either of those things, but rather it conveys the concept of something that is set apart or consecrated. "Crown" would be an appropriate translation in some contexts (Ps 89:39), but in other contexts it could be translated as "hair" (Jer 7:29) or "diadem" referring to the inscribed plate that was tied to a priestly turban, as some translations have understood it, e.g., Exodus 29:6 (See note). It seems to be a context-dependent word that could mean those things, but not necessarily.
Is τὸ ἁγίασμα simply "the thing that sets (a king) apart" or marks the king as set apart, i.e. the "crown"?
Interestingly, זר (nzr) could be translated as "crown" or "diadem" in Exodus 29:6 and the word used to translate it in the LXX is ἁγίασμά. Another important translation of ἁγίασμά, though, is a royal temple or sanctuary (Amos 7:13, here this is a translation for נזר (nzr)) In 1 Chron 28:10 and Dan 9:17, ἁγίασμά is also translated for "sanctuary" (מִקְדָּשׁ (miqdash)) Exodus 39:30 (LXX 36:37) translates the the inscription on the diadem: "῾Αγίασμα κυρίῳ·" "holy/holiness to the LORD." The NET understands ἁγίασμά to means "sanctity" in Psalm 93:5(LXX) and your own example Psalm 132:18(LXX). This seems to be in line with LSJ which gives 2 possibilities for ἁγίασμά: 1) it equates it to ἁγιαστήριον, which means "holy place" or "sanctuary" or 2) holiness.

So to put it succinctly, I don't think it is accurate to say that τὸ ἁγίασμα means "crown" or "the thing that sets (a king) apart" in Ps 131:18 (LXX). I think it is fairly clear that this is an instance where there is not at 1:1 correspondence between the two words. It looks like the translator chose ἁγίασμα as the best word to replace זר (nzr) in the particular context, which interestingly does not seem to be translating as זר (nzr) as "crown".
Retaining νεζερ suggests that it was a technical term when used in Greek among the Jews of Alexandria, when speaking of the crown
I don't think this is necessarily true either. In fact, I think this is a very speculative conclusion, especially since we have seen זר (nzr) translated in other ways. If I were to speculate myself, I would say that the word זר (nzr) seems to have a nuanced meaning that is often dependent on context and circumstance. Instead of trying to translate it, the translator opted to just transliterate the word right into Greek. Often with the LXX you can see what appears to be evidence of different translators in different places, and some seem to be a little more competent at translating the text. There are definitely examples of awkward or incorrect word usages in the LXX for this reason. Because of this, it may also be difficult to generalize across the LXX. Additionally, I think it would be hard to identify νεζερ as a technical term for "crown" unless there is more evidence to back it up. So far, I can only find this one instance of the transliteration of νεζερ for "crown" here. I think we would need corroboration from other places before assuming that. I haven't checked extensively for other instances yet, but I would be interested to know if this transliteration happens in any other places.

I suppose someone may disagree with me, but that is how I would understand it.
Stephen Hughes
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Thank you for taking the effort to join and reply.
zpkenney wrote:Interestingly, זר (nzr) could be translated as "crown" or "diadem" in Exodus 29:6 and the word used to translate it in the LXX is ἁγίασμά
zpkenney wrote:So far, I can only find this one instance of the transliteration of νεζερ for "crown" here.
It wasn't only rendered as a transliteration of the Vorlage. Have a glance at the parallel renderings given on page 199 (page 211 of the .pdf) of this thesis here. (There are four columns in that picture. If they don't all display, you may need to right-click and download that image to view it. This phpBB software cuts off the righthand side of wide images, rather than re-sizng them to fit.)
Image
The interchangability of βασίλειον and ἁγίασμα in those different renderings seems to suggest that ἁγίασμα may be an allusion at least to the crown, as symbol of consecration of his mind to God, like the μαρτύριον was of his heart.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Ken M. Penner
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Retaining νεζερ suggests that it was a technical term when used in Greek among the Jews of Alexandria, when speaking of the crown.
Two notes, for what they're worth:
1. נזר is most commonly translated in two ways: by something from the root of ἁγι- (consecrate/sanctify), or by εὐχή. Royalty and crowns are rare translations of this word.
2. νεζερ also appears in Wevers' manuscript 130 (Vienna, Nat. Bibl., Theol. gr. 23.) at Leviticus 21:12. I take it the reading is in the hexaplaric notes.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
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S Walch
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by S Walch »

Looking at my LXX Swete, I have ...καὶ ἔδωκεν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν ἰέζερ καὶ τὸ μαρτύριον..., and the Apparatus only shows Alexandrinus as having the alternative reading το εζερ in 2 Kings 11:12.

What MSS are being looked at to give το νεζερ here? Understanding this reading is from a Kaige Revision, would be nice to know which MSS is in question :)

I don't see any evidence of νεζερ being a technical term, as from the looks of it, it is just a correction of the LXX's original ιεζερ - νεζερ, with the corrector not giving much heed to whether he needs to translate נזר (nzr) properly or not.
Ken M. Penner
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by Ken M. Penner »

S Walch wrote:Looking at my LXX Swete, I have ...καὶ ἔδωκεν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν ἰέζερ καὶ τὸ μαρτύριον..., and the Apparatus only shows Alexandrinus as having the alternative reading το εζερ in 2 Kings 11:12.

What MSS are being looked at to give το νεζερ here? Understanding this reading is from a Kaige Revision, would be nice to know which MSS is in question :)
No manuscripts. That's a scholarly reconstruction (Rahlfs).
B has ΙΕΖΕΡ http://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209/0464
It's not in Sinaiticus.
Hobbs (WBC 13, 2 Kings, 1998), 135 wrote: GL translates הנזר “badge of office” with ἁγιασμα “holy thing” (α ́ = ἁγιον “holy”), whereas GB transliterates ἰεζερ and GA ἐζερ.

GL is the Lucianic recension consisting of b o c2 and e2.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
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S Walch
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by S Walch »

Thanks for clearing that up for me, Ken.

Guess the question then is: what was the reading of the Hebrew Vorlege for the LXX 2 Kings? ιεζερ couldn't be a transliteration of את־הנזר, but of יזר at least, which is only found once in the Tanakh in Exodus 32:20 meaning "he scattered". Probably why the translator transliterated if יזר was what he had in front of him.
Ken M. Penner
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Re: נזר - "crown" βασίλειον, ἁγίασμα and νεζερ

Post by Ken M. Penner »

S Walch wrote:what was the reading of the Hebrew Vorlege for the LXX 2 Kings?
Yes, my guess would be that the translator of 4 Kingdoms looked at נזר and read it as יזר.
Rahlfs seems to have thought the translator transliterated נזר correctly, and a later Greek scribe misread the Ν as an Ι.
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
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