The Impact of Dominique Barthélemy's Les Devanciers d'Aquila on LXX Research

Les Devanciers d'Aquila by Dominique Barthélemy (1963) is an epoch-making work on the textual history of the Septuagint. On the basis of his analysis of the Nahal Hever Minor Prophets Scroll, Barthélemy developed his theory of an early Hebraizing revision (so-called kaige revision), designed to bring the traditional text of the Septuagint closer to the Hebrew text, and recognized examples of it in the B-text of books such as Joshua, Judges, and Samuel-Kings. The work of these early Hebraizing revisers resembled the later very literal translation by Aquila; hence the name of the book, the predecessors of Aquila. Textual scholars of today continue in the footsteps of Barthélemy and work on the same questions that were raised in Devanciers: How extensive was the influence of the kaige revision and how can it be recognized? What is the nature of the Lucianic text: when does it represent the Old Greek and when does it give a stylistically revised text? What is the relationship between the kaige revision and Theodotion's revision of the Septuagint? The present volume mainly consists of papers presented at the 50th anniversary symposium of Les Devanciers d'Aquila that was held in connection with the SBL International Meeting in St Andrews, Scotland, in 2013. The papers focus on history of research, case studies on the text of Samuel-Kings (14 Kingdoms), and studies on the text-historical position of specific witnesses.

Autorentext

Dr. theol. Adrian Schenker ist em. Professor für Altes Testament an der Universität Freiburg, Schweiz. Er ist Autor vieler renommierter Veröffentlichungen im Bereich der Biblischen Theologie und zahlreicher Untersuchungen über rechtliche und kultische Fragen des Alten Testaments, so wie auch über die Geschichte der Textkritik des Alten Testaments. Er ist Mitherausgeber der Biblia Hebraica Quinta, Stuttgart.

Dr. theol. Philippe Hugo ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Departement für Biblische Studien der Universität Fribourg. Pablo Torijano ist Professor für Hebräische Studien an der Complutense Universität Madrid. Dr. Raimund Wirth ist Pfarrer in Darmstadt und Mitglied des Research Project for Textual Criticism of the Septuagint. Anneli Aejmelaeus ist Professorin für Altes Testament und vorderasiatische Kultur und Literatur an der Universität Helsinki. Dr. Tuukka Kauhanen is Academy Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki.