Subject: Re: tc-list OT scripture

From: "Steve & Jules Carson-Rowland" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 07:49:05 +1000

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, "Steve & Jules Carson-Rowland" <[email-masked]>
wrote:

>I am sorry if this is a little off-topic. It it is and anyone can help
with the question please reply to me off list.
>
>In Book 2 of 'Against Apion', Josephus writes:
>'..for, says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all
things." '
>
>(This is the internet version of Against Apion. My library doesn't have
the Loeb Classic of this work, but the numbering of this reference in the
internet version is Book 2:25.)

Bob Waltz
Can you check that number? I'm looking in the Loeb Josephus, and AA 2:25 is
about the Sabbath, not the relations between a woman
and her husband.

Is it possible that this should be II.ii.5, or some such? If not, can you
give us a larger quotation to work from?

STEVE CR
It is approx 2/3 of the way through book 2. That section (in the internet
version) begins with:

[oops, hit the wrong key last time and sent an unfinished version...]

25. But, then, what are our laws about marriage? That law owns no other
mixture of sexes but that which nature hath appointed, of a man with his
wife, and that this be used only for the procreation of children. But it
abhors the mixture of a male with a male; and if any one do that, death is
its punishment. It commands us also, when we marry, not to have regard to
portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor to persuade her deceitfully
and knavishly; but to demand her in marriage of him who hath power to
dispose of her, and is fit to give her away by the nearness of his kindred;
for, says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all
things."...

Steve Carson-Rowland
Queensland, Australia

---

From: "Robert B. Waltz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 18:21:10 -0500

>for, says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her husband in all

OK. For what it is worth, this is section #24 in the Loeb version,
not #25. But the cause of the confusion is that the #24/25 is
not the Loeb numbering system; it's the classical system. The
Loeb numbers for this section are I.199-203. (For what it's
worth.)

So with that said, here is what the Loeb edition reveals (BTW,
this is section 201 in the Loeb edition.)

The Greek text reads

  gunh ceirwn, fhsin, andros eis apanta. toigaroun upakouetw,
  mh pros ubrin, all an archtai* qeos gar andri to kratos edwken.

This whole passage is in brackets. There is no manuscript
evidence for the omission, but the note on the Greek side
says "Passage suspected by Niese; cf. Ephes. v.22 and other
N.T. parallels."

On the English side, the translation reads

  The woman, says the Law, is in all things inferior to the man.
  [etc.]

The note attributes the quotation to Gen. 3:16. Doesn't look
much like the LXX to me -- but what do I know? :-)

Bob Waltz
[email-masked]

"The one thing we learn from history --
   is that no one ever learns from history."