This episode is the third in the series, "On the Language of the Septuagint." Today I discuss John Lee's forthcoming work — based on his 2011-2012 Grinfield Lectures in Oxford — on the higher register of the Greek Isaiah. Previous episodes have discussed the translators' command of Greek mostly in the Pentateuch. Here, we turn to Isaiah, but we also learn that the translator's ability goes far beyond basic Greek, and he sometimes mimics the style of the greatest of Greek writers.

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Bibliography mentioned

J. Ziegler, Untersuchungen zur Septuaginta des Buches Isaias (Münster: Verlag der aschendorffschen Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1934)
I.L. Seeligmann, The Septuagint Version of Isaiah: a Discussion of its Problems (Leiden: Brill, 1948)
R.L. Troxel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation and Interpretation. The Strategies of the Translator of the Septuagint of Isaiah (Leiden: Brill, 2008)
A. van der Kooij: Numerous works can be found on his page here.
R. de Sousa, Eschatology and Messianism in LXX Isaiah 1-12 (New York: T & T Clark, 2010)
A.T. Ngunga, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah: an intertextual analysis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012)
R. Wagner, Reading the Sealed Book: Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2013)

Göttingen International Septuagint Summer School with Dr. Alison Salvesen: "Preparing the Way of the Lord: Greek Isaiah from Judaism to Christianity". Click here for more details.

Episode Notes

English translations are from NETS

Isa 6:5
καὶ εἶπα Ὦ τάλας ἐγώ, ὅτι κατανένυγμαι, ὅτι ἄνθρωπος ὢν καὶ ἀκάθαρτα χείλη ἔχων ἐν μέσῳ λαοῦ ἀκάθαρτα χείλη ἔχοντος ἐγὼ οἰκῶ
And I said, “O wretched that I am! I am stunned; for being a man and having unclean lips, I live among a people having unclean lips …”
וָאֹמַר אוֹי-לִי כִי-נִדְמֵיתִי, כִּי אִישׁ טְמֵא-שְׂפָתַיִם אָנֹכִי, וּבְתוֹךְ עַם-טְמֵא שְׂפָתַיִם, אָנֹכִי יוֹשֵׁב:
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips …”
Is 44:4
καὶ ἀνατελοῦσιν ὡσεὶ χόρτος ἀνὰ μέσον ὕδατος καὶ ὡς ἰτέα ἐπὶ παραρρέον ὕδωρ.
And they shall spring up like grass in the midst of water and like a willow by flowing water.
וְצָמְחוּ, בְּבֵין חָצִיר, כַּעֲרָבִים, עַל-יִבְלֵי-מָיִם
They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams.
Lee then gives a list of words that he finds in Isaiah, which indicate the translator had a command of the poetic register of Greek. Some words are extremely unusual and found nowhere else in the LXX, so one must ask where they come from.
κύω, metaph. “conceive in the mind”: Is 59:4, 13. Not elsewhere in LXX. The word Homer (κυέω) +; this use Plato, Xen., rare.
ἀποσκορακισμός, “rejection with contempt”: Is 66:15. Not attested again. Cf. σκορακισμός Si 41:19, then Plut. Lee footnotes: The origin of this group is in the Attic expression (Ar. +) ἐς κόρακας “(go) to the ravens” = “go to hell”
πυρίκαυστος, “burnt by fire”: Is 1:7, 9:4, 64:10. Homer +.