Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 57:2 (NA 2006)
Article: ‘Not Made With Tracing Paper’
Author: James K. Palmer

TynBull 57:2 (2006) p. 317

‘Not Made With Tracing Paper’

Studies In The Septuagint Of Zechariah1

James K. Palmer

Fidelity is surely our highest aim, but a translation is not made with tracing paper. It is an act of critical interpretation. (Edith Grossman) 2

One of the fundamental controversies in the study of the LXX concerns the basis on which the divergences between LXX and MT should be explained. Using the biblical and non-biblical finds at Qumran, the first chapter of this study outlines the tension between the two main explanatory categories of divergent Vorlage and diverging translator. The first of these, which is referred to as a ‘text-critical’ approach, contends that the majority, if not all, of the divergences occurred in the Hebrew tradition and were faithfully represented in the Greek translation. The second explanation of the divergences is that the translator used a Vorlage which was essentially the same as the MT, but that his translation expressed the theological concerns and interests of the translator as well as his cultural and religious context, an approach we call ‘midrashic’. The portrait of the translator and his practice is frequently the decisive factor in choosing between explanatory strategies, but often a particular portrait is assumed rather than demonstrated.

Since our view of the translator is critical, chapters two to four are given over to establishing his characteristic mode of translation. The second chapter begins by outlining Barr’s typology of literalism, and the refinements to it made by Tov. The second part of the chapter looks at where the LXX and MT diverge over small details which have negligible chance of being caused by a different Vorlage and therefore show the translator’s tendency to translate the sense of the Hebrew as he understood it rather than seeking to imitate or represent the form and

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shape of the Vorlage. The third part of the chapter describes the stereotyping tendencies of the translation and the phenomenon of elegant variation, or variatio, is noted. Our brief survey notes that word-order is almost always literally rendered. Since there are different ways of being literal and free, a translation can be literal and free at the same time but in different ways.

In the third chapter the translator’s strategies for translating words that he did not understand are analysed. This approach gives us a deeper insight into his priorities in translation. We consider six strategies suggested by Tov as the outline in this discussion: (...