PARTICIPACIÓN ESTUDIANTIL

and if he would repeat giving without grumbling, then this would be remarkable

The Greek aorist optative deuterwvsh/ plus the conditional eja;n (“if he would repeat”) and the Syriac imperfect _{A]+], plus the} conditional wh n)w (“and if he would repeat”), could be transla- tions of each other or of a Vorlage having

hnvy !aw

“and if he would repeat.” The additional infinitive in the Syriac, _{l+~| “to} give,” which has no corresponding element in the Greek, would point to a Vorlage with

tthnvy !aw

“and if he would repeat to give.” However, the Greek deuterwvsh/ could be a one word equivalent of

tt

hnvy

, in which case the Syriac text would provided the best clue for reconstructing the Vorlage.

THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON

88 _{Gray (1913: 639) translated “even that is marvelous” and Wright (1985: 657)} rendered it “this is remarkable.”

89 _{If the stem were hmt, there may have been confusion of hmtyw and hmttyw,} i.e., a dittography or haplography of the_t. On the confusion of _h and _{y w} which is analogous to the confusion of _t and _{y w}, see Delitzsch, 1920: 121 §132.

The Greek aorist optative 2s qaumavseia" was correctly translated by Ryle and James (1891: 59) as “thou wouldst marvel,” and Trafton (1985: 78) offered “you would wonder at this.” But other translations actually paraphrase to avoid the difficulty of the second person.88 _{The Syriac has the noun )HI#+ “wonder,”}

presumably going back to a Vorlage with

hmt

or

alp

. Either of these words could account for the difference between the Greek having a verb and the Syriac having a noun since the difficulty is with the prefix rather than the stem. Following the conditional

!a

“if,” one would expect a

w

“then” + imperfect in the apodosis. This would suggest an original

hmtyw

“then you would wonder.”

In the Syriac tradition the

yw

of

hmtyw

(or

alpyw

) was evidently read as the definite article

h

affixed to the noun, whereas in the Greek tradition the

yw

was read as the 2ms verb prefix

t

.89 _Con-

textually, the second person would have to be addressed to God, but it is most unlikely that the poet wanted to tell God that he (God) would be amazed by a second act of human charity. Therefore, the Syriac text is preferable for reconstructing a Vorlage which would account for the differences in the text traditions.

5:14b (G), 5:16b (S)

kai; ou| ejstin hJ ejlpi;" ejpi; sev ouj feivsetai ejn dovmati and the one whose hope is in you will not be lacking gifts

)+bhW~b sW{]d k=W|d )RB* +I|w and there is no hope towards you

PSALM FIVE

90 _{Of the forty-five times ou jk appears in the Psalms of Solomon, it is missing} twice (in 3:1 in ms 253* and in 17:5 in ms 769) and in 4:21 the k was lost through haplography following an inversion of ka i; ou jk to ouj kai;.

@tmb rsjy al ^l rbc @yai

the weary one hoping in you will not be lacking in (receiving) gifts

The Greek tradition is inconsistent in that mss 253, 655, and 659 read the negative oujk instead of the relative ou|. The negative +I| in the first phrase of the Syriac has no corresponding negative particle in the majority of the Greek manuscripts, and the negative ouj in the second half of this line has no corresponding negative in the Syriac. The first of these differences between the Syriac and the majority of the Greek manuscripts could be accounted for by assuming the Syriac translator used one of the three manuscripts having oujk (or a manuscript in the same recension). Otherwise, if the Syriac were translating from the Greek one would have to assume the Syriac translator in this case failed to distinguish the difference between smooth breathing and rough breathing, as well as the absence of the k of the negative particle coming before a vowel. Of the twenty occurrences of ou (either the negative particle or the relative) there is no other example of the Syriac translator confusing the ouj and the ou|.90

Of the sixty-five occurrences of ouj, ou| and oujk, there is no similar confusion. The differences between the Syriac and the Greek requires a more reasonable explanation. The differences are best accounted for by positing a Vorlage which began with

@a

or

@ya

. Hebrew

@ya

has four possible meanings, the most common of which is its being the particle of non-existence,

@yae

“is not,” and the least common meaning being “whence.” Other meanings are listed in the lexicons under the root

@wa

“trouble, sorrow, oppression, falsehood” (BDB, 19; Jastrow, 29–27). The Arabic cognate of

@wa

is the medial

y

stem

zå

, meaning either “to be present” or “to be fatigued, to be tired” (Lane, 1863: 138).

THE PSALMS OF SOLOMON

91 _{See GKC § 72}p _{and the example cited of the active participle!ymiwoq, with the} vowel letter _w, for the anticipated usual participle_!ymiq; without the vowel letter.

A Vorlage with

@a

or

@ya

or

@wa

could have been understood as the active participle

@yai

or

@ai

91 _{meaning “being tired” or “being}

present.” The Greek ou| ejstin equals the latter definition, i.e.,

@yai

“being present,” whereas the Syriac +I| equals the very common

@yae

“is not.” Given the context which speaks of distress and hunger, the poet probably intended the

@a

or

@ya

to have the meaning “being tired, being fatigued.”

Once the Syriac understood the

@a

or

@ya

in its Vorlage to be the negative particle

@yae

, the negative particle in the second half of the line, which would have matched the Greek ouj feivsetai “he will not be lacking,” would have produced a contradictory statement. Consequently, its second negative (

al

. . .

@ya

) dropped out of the Hebrew translation.

5:16a (G), 5:18 (S) makavrio" ou| mnhmoneuvei oJ qeo;"

ejn summetriva/ aujtarkeiva"

happy is (the person) whom God remembers with a moderate sufficiency

)=W[<%~b AiR# yhWiR>d+]d

blessed is the man whom the Lord remembers in poverty

yd tnmb hwhy dqpy rva yrva

blessed is the one (to) whom Yahweh appoints a measure of sufficiency

The Greek aujtarkeiva “sufficiency” and the Syriac _+!# “sufficiency” (found as the first word of Syriac 5:19) could be translations of each other or of a Vorlage having

yd

. But the Syriac )=W[<%~ and the Greek summetriva cannot be translations of each other. The Greek summetriva “measured, due portion” (Wright’s “moderate”) points to the stem

hnm

in the Vorlage, and

PSALM FIVE

92 _{See Delitzsch, 1920: 116 §120}b_.

the Syriac _{)=W[<%~ “poverty” points to the noun}

hkym

, from the stem

^wm

, meaning “reduction to poverty” (BDB, 557; Jastrow, 741, 773). Were

hkym

written scriptio defectiva as

hkm

it closely resembles

hnm

. Therefore, the difference in the two translations appears to be an error in the Syriac of reading a

k

for a

n

, an error well attested elsewhere.92

The Syriac Vorlage must have been: . .

wyd .tkmb hwhy dqpy rva yrva

“blessed is the one whom God has appointed for poverty. His sufficiency . . . .” The reading of “sufficiency” with the next verse must have come after the misreading of the

k

for a

n

, since “poverty of sufficiency” would have produced an oxymoron.

The mnhmoneuvei and _{yhWiR>d+ could reflect translations of}

rkz

“to remember” or

dqp

“to remember (I Samuel 15:2, KJV), to appoint” (Nehemiah 7:1). The reconstructed Vorlage uses

dqp

since the divine appointments rather that divine memory seems to be the issue addressed by the poet.

5:17a (G), 5:20a (S)

iJkano;n to; mevtrion ejn dikaiosuvnh moderate (wealth) is adequate – with righteousness

)=WOidZb )=W[<%# A{Of advantageous is poverty with righteousness

In document GABRIELA ANGULO RAMÍREZ CRISTIAN DAVID FREIRE MENA. Proyecto de grado para optar al título de Comunicador/a Social y Periodista (página 66-73)