Subject: RE: tc-list Psalms 40:7/39:6 -- MT or LXX better attested?

From: "Lund, Jerome" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 15:13:23 -0400

This is a difficult problem about which there is no consensus solution. It
is not of question of whether the MT has better readings than the LXX in
general, but a question specific to the phrase in question. Neither the MT
nor the LXX make a lot of sense in the context. Furthermore, it is difficult
to retrovert the LXX to Hebrew close to the Hebrew preserved by the MT so as
to explain how the one Hebrew reading derived from the other. The particular
phrase in question ("a body hast thou prepared for me") does not play a
major role in the argument of Hebrews as far as I see.

> ----------
> From: 	Joseph Crea[SMTP:[email-masked]]
> Reply To: 	[email-masked]
> Sent: 	Tuesday, September 14, 1999 2:23 PM
> To: 	TC List
> Subject: 	tc-list Psalms 40:7/39:6 -- MT or LXX better attested?
> 
> Hello everyone!
> 
>    I know this sounds like a really simple question, but I'm stumped.  I
> ran into  an individual who champions the superiority of the LXX over the
> MT and claims that the citation of Psalms 40:7/39:6 at Hebrews 10:5 is
> just
> icing on the cake since the "inspired" author would have cited the better
> rendition.  He also asserted that the LXX rendering is both better
> attested
> and the earlier reading, mentioning the DSS in passing but providing no
> details.
> 
>    I thought that debunking this would be a piece of cake -- but when I
> pulled out my copy of BHS and looked up the passage in question I couldn't
> find a mention of the LXX version, or of any variants whatsoever.  Since
> the LXX reading quite definitely is different from the MT, I'm leery of
> accepting the claim of the apparatus that there are no other variant
> readings out there.  I managed to locate an online Vulgate and was happy
> to
> see that it supports the MT (at least in the Gallican Psalter), but what
> about all the other early versions like the Roman Psalter, the Old Latin,
> the Peshitta, etc.?  I'm on a student's budget so getting copies of
> Rahlf's
> LXX or the Stuttgart Vulgate has to be as I can afford them and up to now
> that hasn't been possible -- and ordering a copy of the Peshitta from the
> ABS, while affordable, won't arrive in time to be of use.  Can anyone shed
> some light on this for me?  Thanks in advance.
> 
> 
> With Mettaa,
> 
> Joseph Crea
> <[email-masked]>
>