The Greek of the Pentateuch: Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint 2011–2012 by John A. L. Lee (review)

In this volume, John A. L. Lee, Honorary Fellow at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, offers the substance of his 2011–2012 Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint, with one change. He published separately the lecture materials on “The Literary Greek of Isaiah” and has substituted a chapter entitled “Greek Idiom” and added a final chapter “Conclusions.” The titles of the other lectures are “Evidence,” “Language Variation,” “Educated Language,” “Collaboration” and “Freedom of Choice.” In this work, he enlarges on his dissertation, which was similarly related to the Greek of the Pentateuch (A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch [SCS 14; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983]).

In the course of these lectures, L. examines “the language of the Greek Pentateuch” in order to evaluate the translators’ “knowledge of Greek, their methods, and the translators themselves” (p. 259). By careful examination of many different Greek idioms, lexical selection and variation, and translation choices, he demonstrates that the translators “had full competence in Greek” (p. 259) and that “Greek syntax, not Hebrew, is the translators’ starting point” (p. 262). He acknowledges interference from the Hebrew text in various ways, but cautions that it is not as extensive as some propose. Further, he categorizes the form of Greek as “middle-level Koine Greek of their time” (p. 264), showing some affinities with “official or bureaucratic style of the third century BC” (p. 264).

On the basis of these results, L. observes that “the translators were acquainted with the literary and poetic registers of their day, built on Classical models” (p. 265). The translators show competence in word formation and previous terminology. He concludes that all five translators demonstrate this competence, although they were not “exactly equal in the way they used the language” (p. 267). Some of the data, in his view, point to collaboration on the part of the Pentateuch translators. He relies here particularly on the common use of distinctive, technical vocabulary. He speculates that they created and used “a common glossary” (p. 270). He further suggests that their education exceeded the norm, having full competence “in writing standard Greek,” and this “included the sort of training that scribes and bureaucrats received in writing in the official style” (p. 268). In the end he concludes that the translators approached their task as “a scholarly endeavour”; that is, they brought “a scholarly attitude to the task” (p. 271) and had the training to do so. In all this he does not forget that “the content is Jewish, and the style has a Hebraic slant; more than that, we can tell that the translation was carried out by Jews” (p. 273) who possessed an advanced knowledge of the Hebrew language and interpretation of these texts. Their intended audience was educated, Greek-speaking Jews, but a non-Jewish audience would have appreciated the translation as well.

Using his recognized expertise in Classical and Hellenistic Greek, lexicography, and the papyri related to the third century b.c.e., L. provides a wealth of detail to support his arguments and conclusions. Some segments he published previously, for example, his discussion about the onoma rule (2014). The data he reviews and the careful deductions he makes generate a compelling series of arguments. In many ways L. supports the conclusion reached by John William Wevers that “the product of the Alexandrian translators was throughout sensible” (Notes on the Greek Text of Exodus [SCS 30; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990] xv). As important as the Hebrew Vorlage remains for understanding the translation and respecting the reality of some degree of Hebrew interference in the translation produced, L. concludes that the translators endeavored to produce a Greek text that would generally read well for a Greek-speaking audience.

Lee’s volume challenges views that regard the Greek translation of the Pentateuch as merely a crib for the underlying text, rather than a product designed to be appreciated in its own right...