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Help with odd rendering in LXX (Prov. 3:12)

Posted: October 11th, 2011, 9:37 am
by Charlie Johnson
Are there resources out there explaining how we might have gotten from the Hebrew text to an LXX rendering? I'm working through Prov. 3:12 right now.

LXX: υἱέ μὴ ὀλιγώρει παιδείας κυρίου μηδὲ ἐκλύου ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐλεγχόμενος 12 ὃν γὰρ ἀγαπᾷ κύριος παιδεύει μαστιγοῖ δὲ πάντα υἱὸν ὃν παραδέχεται

Hebrew: כִּי אֶת אֲשֶׁר יֶאֱהַב יְהוָה יוֹכִיחַ וּכְאָב אֶת־בֵּן יִרְצֶה

Translation of Hebrew: for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

How did the word for father get confused with a word that could be translated μαστιγοι? (The delights/accepts difference is simply a matter of what theme the Hebrew verb is in.)

Re: Help with odd rendering in LXX (Prov. 3:12)

Posted: October 11th, 2011, 11:09 am
by Ken M. Penner
Charlie Johnson wrote:μαστιγοῖ δὲ πάντα υἱὸν ὃν παραδέχεται
Hebrew:... וּכְאָב אֶת־בֵּן יִרְצֶה
Translation of Hebrew: ... as a father the son in whom he delights.
How did the word for father get confused with a word that could be translated μαστιγοι?
Since נכה is the typical word behind μαστιγόω in the Greek translation (see Prov 17:10 and 19:25), my preliminary guess we have one visual and one phonetic confusion, and a different word separation:
  • instead of a waw ו the translator saw a nun נ or yod י, from the root נכה in the suffix conjugation or prefix conjugation, respectively.
  • instead of aleph, the translator though read he, because of similarity of sound.
  • instead of dividing the words after the bet, the translator divided them before the bet.
So the Greek would be a translation of יכה ב rather than וכאב.
But then we have to ask how באת became πάντα.

Re: Help with odd rendering in LXX (Prov. 3:12)

Posted: October 13th, 2011, 12:01 am
by timothy_p_mcmahon
LXX Proverbs can sometimes be pretty loose... might it not be that the translator didn't understand the second colon (or that his manuscript was damaged) and he simply invented a parallelism for the first colon?

Re: Help with odd rendering in LXX (Prov. 3:12)

Posted: October 13th, 2011, 1:57 am
by George F Somsel
I don't really see any problem with the comparison of the LXX and the MT here. יכח is a cognate to נכח and [יכח] is obviously the word used in this passage. In the hiphil (which is the form used here) it indicates "to reprove" or "to rebuke." He has carried the force of יוְִיַח over into the second stich since that is the nature of Hebrew poetic structure. The verse is still divided after the atnah under יוכִיַח which is to be considered a part of the second half of the verse as well. Any translation will not be ablsolutely identical to the original, but that is to be expected.