Miscellaneous

Septuagint Day: An Interview with Karen Jobes

It’s hard to believe that it’s already upon us, but if you were not aware, today is the ninth annual International Septuagint Day. If you are interested, you can find out a bit more about what that means in my post from last year. In brief, in November of 2006 the IOSCS approved the institution of this grand day. Here is an excerpt from the General Business Meeting minutes:

A motion to establish February 8 annually as International Septuagint Day to promote the discipline on our various campuses and communities was moved by Karen Jobes, seconded by James Aitkin and carried. And there was much rejoicing.

Okay, I added that last part. But …

An Interview with Karen Jobes

In the spirit of “promoting the discipline” on Septuagint Day, I decided to interview one of the top American septuagintalists, Dr. Karen Jobes. Karen is the Gerald F. Hawthorne Professor of New Testament Greek & Exegesis at Wheaton College in Illinois, and was kind enough to entertain my questions.

1) Can you describe how you first became involved in LXX studies, and what drew you to it?

I was first introduced to the LXX at Westminster Theological Seminary where Dr. Moisés Silva taught a course that was rumored to be the most difficult course offered by the seminary. Being a woman who enjoys a challenge, I couldn’t resist. I was particularly drawn to the opportunity to work with both Hebrew and Greek. I discovered that Septuagint Studies is beautifully complex.

2) How have you participated in the discipline over the course of your teaching and writing career?

Perhaps the most significant contribution I’ve made to the discipline is the book I co-authored with Dr. Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint (Baker Academic, 2000), which has become one of the standard textbooks in English for LXX studies. That book actually grew out of the course I took with Dr. Silva, because as a beginning student I saw a need for an introductory book. My course notes became the initial outline for the book.

I have also participated in the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) in various roles. I have been a member since 1990. My first paper on LXX was presented at the IXth Congress of the IOSCS in July 1995 in Cambridge, England. I served a term as the Secretary 2006–2008, on the Program Steering Committee since 2009, on the Editorial Advisory board of the SBLSCS since 2012, and a member-at-large on the Executive Committee since 2012. I was awarded the IOSCS prize for an outstanding paper in 1995. (I believe that award has since morphed into the John W. Wevers prize.)

My publications have focused on methodologies in LXX studies, (e.g., “Quantitative Methods for Exploring the Relationship between Books of the Septuagint.” Pages 73–95 in The Bible as Book: The Transmission of the Greek Text. Edited by O. O’Connor. London: The British Library, 2003), and on the LXX as literary and theological background for NT exegesis (e.g., “The Minor Prophets in James, Peter, and Jude” pp. 135–153 in The Minor Prophets in the New Testament. Edited by Maarten J.J. Menken and Steve Moyise. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2009. And “The Septuagint Textual Tradition in 1 Peter.” Pages 311–333 in Septuagint Research: Issues and Challenges in the Study of the Greek Jewish Scriptures. Edited by Wolfgang Kraus and R. Glenn Wooden. Society of Biblical Literature Septuagint and Cognate Studies 53. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 2006.)

I am also pleased that since coming to Wheaton I have had the privilege of teaching a graduate level course in Exegesis of the Septuagint and an undergraduate Greek reading course in Septuagint. I’m proud of my former students Myrto Theocharous, Seth Ehorn, and Jeremiah Coogan who went on to further graduate work in Septuagint Studies.

3) How have you integrated LXX studies into your work as a professor of New Testament?

All of my NT courses have an emphasis on the importance of the LXX for proper NT exegesis, and the complexities of handling the Greek versions.

4) How has the field changed since you’ve been involved?

It seems to me the field has blossomed, judging from the number of texts and reference works that have become available in the last twenty-five years and from a growing interest among students to learn about the LXX. When I began, there was no recent LXX lexicon, and now we have two (Lust et al and Muraoka), as well as Taylor’s Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint. There was no recent English translation, and now we have NETS [on which see this post] as well as several other translations in modern languages. There were no commentaries focused on the LXX, and now we have two (the Brill series and the IOSCS series). There is also now the Wevers Institute of Septuagint Studies at Trinity Western University [on which see this post] that holds great promise for the future of the discipline.

5) What issues do you focus on in your graduate course in LXX studies?

My course, Exegesis of the Septuagint, has to meet curricular requirements for the MA in Biblical Exegesis, and so we focus on exegeting the LXX text and the complexities of interpreting a translated text. Of course, we also look at the Hebrew and discuss how the translator has exegeted and contextualized the biblical text for his audience.

6) For the benefit of graduate students who are potentially interested in LXX studies in doctoral work, what in your opinion are underworked areas and topics in need of further research?

There is fresh ground in the books of the LXX that have received little scholarly attention. Although it probably not prudent to speak of “a Septuagint theology” there are interesting questions toward better understanding how the translators contextualized their source text for their audience. And the question of how the Greek versions developed and are related to one another is an extremely difficult question that needs some new energy and perhaps new methodologies.

7) In 2000 you published Invitation to the Septuagint (Baker) with Moisés Silva, which has a revised edition forthcoming later this year. What prompted the revision, and can you describe what changes you have made?

There have been many developments and new scholars entering the field in the fifteen years since Invitation first appeared. We have revised every chapter, including new theories (e.g., the interlinear theory) and incorporating the work of younger scholars. We have updated the bibliographies and added some hopefully helpful appendices, e.g., an English translation of the abbreviations used in the Göttingen apparatus.

8) What other projects in Septuagint are you working on?

I have just sent off the manuscript of Exploring the Septuagint: A Guided Reader to Kregel. This was a collaborative effort with nine students. The guide contains about 625 verses of Greek from nine books of the LXX, providing syntactical notes, vocabulary help, etc to aid students who have at least three semesters of Greek to start reading the LXX. Given the structure of academic departments in Bible and theology, the LXX can be a topic of benign neglect, so just getting students to read it provides them an introduction to the field.

9) Finally, what is the future of Septuagint studies?

The future of LXX studies is really the young people, like yourself, who are entering the field. Because the LXX is caught between the division of academic departments into Old Testament/Jewish Scriptures and New Testament, it has a somewhat liminal position in the academy. No one, or very few, are able to devote their full time to the LXX, and that hampers the field. I don’t see that changing, but it would be a nice dream to see chairs funded in LXX studies. We also need more doctoral programs in North America that allow students to focus their dissertations on LXX.

I hope you enjoyed and benefited from the interview with Dr. Jobes as much as I did. Hopefully in the future I will be able to conduct similar interviews with other scholars in the discipline.

International Septuaginta Summer School – July 2015

Septuaginta-Unternehmen

For the fifth year running the Universität Göttingen will host the International Septuaginta Summer School, from July 6-10. This is an exciting and unique program run at one of the foremost institutions of higher educations in the discipline. The university is home to some significant figures in Septuagint studies, and has produced many others. Both Alfred Rahlfs and Robert Hanhart were professors at Göttingen (of the Rahlfs-Hanhart Septuagint), and the list of previous Old Testament faculty reads as a who’s-who of biblical studies, among whom are figures such as Wellhausen, Smend, von Rad, and Zimmerli for starters (not to mention figures in New Testament such as W. Bauer and J. Jeremias).

In the early 20th century, Rahlfs and Smend undertook the foundation of the Göttingen Septuaginta-Unternehmen. With backing from Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, the institute launched in 1908 and has had an illustrious history since then. The main production of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen has been a critical edition of the Septuagint, taking into account every known textual witness to date. While there are still several books to be completed (including, regrettably, my chosen book of study, Judges), the finished Göttingen LXX volumes are the gold standard of the discipline, as they reflect a text that hypothetically precedes all recensions.

Septuagint Summer School

Situated at the Lagarde-Haus in Göttingen, the Septuaginta-Unternehmen hosts annual “summer school” for the Septuagint. This is no remedial program for slackers and flunkies, like the American notion of “summer school.” Run by the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in conjunction with the Faculty of Theology at Göttingen, the summer school only takes 16 applicants in either graduate or postgraduate stages.

More importantly, each year the summer school has been conducted by a keynote speaker. In 2014 this was Dr. Alison Salveson of the University of Oxford, lecturing on Greek Isaiah in interpretive history. This year the speaker is Dr. James K. Aitken of the superlative University of Cambridge.

Complete information, including application procedures, is given on the Septuaginta-Unternehmen website (here).

Greek Language & Septuagint Vocabulary

Aitken’s topic is “From Language to Social Context: The Pentateuch and Later Traditions.” As the site states, this year’s summer school “will examine the evidence and methods for interpreting the context of the Septuagint, while contrasting the Pentateuch to the later traditions of translation (Kaige). The course will introduce students and doctoral students from Europe and all over the world to the issues and methods in Septuagint study, and in particular will teach analysis of the language and vocabulary as a means for evaluating the Septuagint text.” This should be an excellent lecture series, as study of the language and vocabulary of the Septuagint is the foundation for so many other aspects of the discipline.

The best part about the Septuagint Summer School is the cost. At only €300, inclusive of five nights hotel lodging with breakfast, all sessions and materials, and a “cultural program,” it is an incredible deal.

The 2014 Conference Season: A Review

San Diego was Awesome

It probably goes without saying, but this year’s biblical studies conference location is the best I’ve yet experienced. This was only my third year participating in these events, but 70 degrees and sunny every day sure beats the dreary, sub-freezing temperatures I was met with in both Chicago (’12) and Baltimore (’13).

That being said, it was about a 20-hour journey there from Cambridge, all told, so it did not come without pain on my part. Nevertheless, I did have the opportunity to present at both the ETS and SBL conferences, as I wrote about here.

A Study in Contrast

It should go without saying that not everyone who participates in the one conference participates in the other. Indeed, ETS, being as it is evangelical (‘E’), is quite a bit smaller than SBL. The latter tends to throw conferences that are dumbfoundingly well-organized and impressive, fueled by the huge amounts of members and funding poured into the society year after year. On the other hand, ETS is – well – poor. As a result, ETS is rarely in the same venue as SBL for these conferences, and this year the difference was particularly humorous. Both sites were nice, don’t get me wrong. But that was due largely to the fact that they were both in sunny San Diego where palm trees grow like dandelions.

I’ll let you puzzle out which conference center was the venue for which society.

Option A:

Option B:

The Papers

Naturally, I benefited equally from both conferences, however. Just because ETS is poor does not mean it’s not worth your time. Just the opposite! It’s the perfect reason to become involved. The smaller group makes it actually a bit more fun than SBL, where one tends to float anonymously through seas of scholars of all stripes.

“‘There is No Spoon’: Text-Critical Question-Begging in the So-Called ‘Acrostic’ of Nahum 1

To briefly overview the topics I presented on, at ETS I discussed the acrostic of Nahum 1, which in truth is really only a partial acrostic. If you don’t know what an acrostic is, it only gets more obscure from here. The partial acrostic in the first eight verses of the book has a few “problematic” lines, which do not begin with the “right” letters. It is fairly common, therefore, for commentators to “fix” or “emend” the text in one way or another to “restore” it. To attempt to do so is fine as far as it goes. But the problem is that most commentators go too far.

One of the challenges of OT studies is the scant textual evidence at hand. Basically, we have the Masoretic text, the versions (the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and other translations), and the Qumran scrolls. This makes arguments for changing the MT very challenging to make well. In short, in this paper I go through the common arguments for changing the MT to “restore” this acrostic on the basis of the LXX as a text-critical witness, and pick them apart one at a time. Mostly, the arguments are poorly founded or misuse the evidence, especially when the LXX version is understood in light of its translational character.

I am hoping to get this paper turned into a published article.

The Divergent Battle Language in LXX-Judges: ΠΟΛΕΜΕΩ and ΠΑΡΑΤΑΣΣΩ

This paper is directly related to my dissertation research. I have realized that the most straightforward way to explain what I am doing here at Cambridge is to say “Greek lexicography.” Now, that may not help some people, but it is accurate. And I am using the Greek texts of LXX-Judges as a “heuristic environment” of sorts. Basically this means I’m looking at the ways in which the two Greek translations of the one Hebrew book phrase things in different ways, and then investigating why that might be the case.

The way I do that is to dive into Greek documentary evidence for better understanding of the word or words in question. Believe it or not, there is a vast body of Greek writing out there that is mostly ignored by Greek scholars. The reason (simply put) is because it is koine Greek, and not the high-flying and academically respectable Classical Greek that has been so popular for, oh, two thousand years. There is a bit of an academic tradition of snubbing koine Greek, although a major reason for that is because we didn’t quite know that koine Greek was a thing until about a century ago. Until then, the Greek Bible was about the only existing koine document, which is why scholars though it was “Holy Ghost Greek” or a special Jewish-Greek dialect.

But when huge amounts of papyri and inscriptions written in the same kind of Greek were literally dug up about a century ago, all that changed, although there is still lots of work to be done. That’s where I fit in. My paper focused on the differing terminology used for “to battle” or “battle” in both translations. I found that in the B-text, the less common and seemingly unlikely words were chosen in most places. As I investigated the data, I uncovered what I believe is a previously unnoticed semantic change in the words in question: παρατάσσω and παράταξις. These words are used in ways similar to the B-text of Judges as in koine historical literature, and so I suggest that the B-text has literary or specialized terminology in it.

Other Points of Interest

There is too much else to say about these conferences. Suffice it to say that I truly enjoyed my involvement in the Institute for Biblical Research (or IBR, here), and the Scripture and Hermeneutics sub-group (through the Paidaia Centre, here). It was also a great pleasure to meet and talk with many senior scholars in various fields. I’ve said before that attending these conferences pays for itself in terms of the conversations that are available there. The feedback on one’s work and the chance to learn about initiatives and opportunities you did not and would not otherwise know about are invaluable.

I’m already looking forward to next year! As a teaser, there are rumblings of a new Septuagint section at the next ETS conference. But we will have to wait and see what happens.