Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew: Review of an Approach from the Perspective of Paraleipomenon
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This monograph is a slightly revised Ph.D. dissertation that was completed at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003 under William M. Schniedewind as the principal advisor.
The book's argument is clearly stated in the foreword and then later at several points:
[T]he [Greek] translation of Chronicles (Paraleipomenon) slices through two diachronic developments: the development of the Hebrew verbal system and the trend toward a more literal translation of the Bible. Firstly, in the translation of Chronicles we can see the development of the Hebrew verbal system in the Hellenistic period (approx. 150 BCE) as part of the continuum in the development of the Hebrew verbal system from classical biblical Hebrew to rabbinic or Mishnaic Hebrew. Secondly, the translation of the book of Chronicles is part of a trend in the process of the translation of the Bible from the freer (but still literal) translation of the Pentateuch and Samuel/Kings to the slavishly literal translation of Aquila. This was motivated by the desire to bring the reader to the source text and an increasing reverence for the holy writings
(p. xii; cf. pp. xi-xii, 1-5, 14-15, 203, 243-249).
In short, Good argues the dual thesis that the translation of Hebrew verb forms into Greek in LXX Chronicles exposes diachronic developments in both the Hebrew language and Greek translation technique.
The book is organized into six main chapters. Chapter 1, "Introduction," summarizes the argument and structure of the book and its relationship to previous studies. Chapter 2, "The Translators, Their Task and Achievement," reviews the cultural context of the translators of the book of Chronicles and the translation principles behind their translation, especially in terms of the background and translation precedents of the Jewish community in Alexandria. Chapter 3, "The Hebrew and Greek Verb Systems," reviews the inventories of Biblical Hebrew and Hellenistic Greek verb forms, [End Page 397] considering the similarities and differences between the verbal systems of the two languages, and explaining how Hebrew and Greek verbs function in their respective text-linguistic contexts. This chapter also introduces the concepts of tense, aspect, Aktionsart, and lexis, and the influence of clause types and discourse pragmatics on the choice of translation equivalents. Good accepts the prevailing view that verb forms in both Hebrew and Greek primarily grammaticalize aspect rather than tense.
Chapter 4, "The Translation of Hebrew Verbs in Chronicles," is the longest chapter in the book and comprises more than half of the pages of the six chapters altogether. In this central chapter, Good proceeds systematically through the Hebrew verb forms in Chronicles and their Greek translation equivalents. He focuses his research on the 4168 indicative or non-volitive Hebrew verb forms in Chronicles (compared to 4331 total Hebrew verb forms). He includes the waw consecutive (wayyiqtol), perfect (qatal), waw with perfect (weqatal), imperfect (yiqtol), active participle (qotel), passive participle (qatul), infinitive construct (qetol), and infinitive absolute (qatol), whereas imperative, cohortative, and jussive forms are excluded from the study.
The discussion of each Hebrew verb form is organized in a similar way. For example, the discussion of the wayyiqtol form begins with a brief introduction. This is followed by a (Hebrew to Greek) table giving statistics for individual translation equivalents (wayyiqtol > aorist indicative, 91.79%, wayyiqtol > imperfect indicative, 5.24%, etc.). The table also summarizes non-verb translation equivalents (adjectives, adverbs, nouns) and minuses, and includes columns specifying percentages for translation equivalents in narrative main clauses, reported speech main clauses, and subordinate clauses. Following the table, a complete list of references is presented according to clause types and verb translation equivalents. Then comes a relatively detailed discussion of the principles or reasons for each translation equivalent (e.g., wayyiqtol > aorist indicative). It is also in these discussions where Good mentions translation equivalents that give support to the two theses of his book, regarding diachrony in Hebrew language and Greek translation technique (summarized above; also referred...
