Sorry. My comment was not aimed at the description of Aquila's
translation, which seems right on target, but the description of Aquila's
personal history (a gentile who comes over to Christianity but practices
astrology and gets marginalized so he becomes a Jew out of spite, sort
of). This sounds quite suspect, historically, as emanating from those who
opposed the work associated with Aquila's name. Of course, it could be
true -- but we don't have sources by which to evaluate it, and it fits the
pattern of slanderous accusation. (Note how carefully Rahlfs treats
Aquila's background.)
I apologize for not being clearer about the focus of my discomfort!
Incidentally, I have now electronified (with slight modifications) my
rather technical article from the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible on
LXX/OG, and added it to my available epublications (URL below;
publications, Judaism, LXX/OG), if anyone is interested. Thanks for the
push!
Bob
--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
[log in to unmask]
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html
>
> Aquila's version was painfully literal,
> >> staying faithful to the Hebrew idiom at the expense of any attempt at good
> >> Greek grammar.
> >
> >The Christian traditions, clearly unsympathetic to Aquila, give such
> >reports. Whether we should transmit them as reliable history is quite
> >another matter!
>
> You have the advantage of me, in that I must rely on secondary material.
> But my remarks here are based on Alfred Rahlfs' introduction to his edition
> of the Septuagint. He begins (p. LVIII):
>
> 'As a result, the Judaism of this period fashioned an entirely new Greek
> translation of the Old Testament. Aquila, a Greek proselyte and a disciple
> of Akiba, rendered every detail of the sacred Test as precisely as possible
> into Greek, and he did not shrink from perpetrating the most appalling
> outrages to the whole essence of the Greek language.'
>
> I cannot reproduce his detailed argument here because it involves comparison
> between a number of Hebrew and Greek forms, and I do not know how to
> transmit either alphabet by e-mail. However it looks pretty odd Greek to
> me. Rahlfs concludes:
>
> 'Aquila's translation of the Bible must on occasions have proved altogether
> incomprehensible to Non-Jews, and it is not to be wondered at that Jerome
> made fun of peculiarities such as 'syn ton ouranon kai syn ten gen'. The
> Jews, however, held this translation in the highest esteem, and they came to
> use it for centuries, employing it even in their religious services.'
>
> Bill.
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