Multiple Originals: New Approaches to Hebrew Bible Textual Criticism

357 Pages·2010·1.91 MB·English

by  Gary D. Martin

M O
ultiple riginals
Text-Critical Studies
Editor
Sidnie White Crawford
Volume 7
M O
ultiple riginals
M O
ultiple riginals
New Approaches to
Hebrew Bible Textual Criticism
Gary D. Martin
Society of Biblical Literature
Atlanta
M O
ultiple riginals
Copyright © 2010 by the Society of Biblical Literature
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Martin, Gary D.
Multiple originals : new approaches to Hebrew Bible textual criti-
cism / by Gary D. Martin.
p. cm. — (Society of biblical literature. Text-critical studies ;
no. 7)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58983-513-9 (paper binding : alk. paper) — ISBN
978-1-58983-514-6 (electronic format : alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T—Criticism, Textual. I. Title.
BS1136.M35 2010
221.4’046—dc22
2010042308
Printed on acid-free, recycled paper
conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994
CONTENTS

Lists of Tables & Figures................................................................................vii
Preface................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements.........................................................................................xi
Abbreviations.................................................................................................xiii
Introduction.......................................................................................................1
PART ONE THEORETICAL MODELS.........................................................9
1 In Search of the Original..............................................................................11
2 Theories and Methods of Orality...............................................................63
PART TWO MULTIVALENCES OF MEANING......................................77
3 Split Visual—Aural/Oral Issues in Hebrew Texts.................................79
4 Split Visual—Aural/Oral Tradition in the Song of Songs.....................99
5 Christian Interpretation History of Song 1:2..........................................137
6 Jewish Interpretation History of Song 1:2...............................................161
7 Textual Conversion: The Christian Reading Becomes the
Jewish Reading........................................................................................167
8 Arguments for the “Equivocum” of (cid:71)(cid:71) in the Song............................183
9 More Multivalence in the Song................................................................193
PART THREE MULTIVALENCES OF TEXT...........................................203
10 Textual Theories and the Decalogue.....................................................205
11 Textual Categories of Decalogue Manuscripts.....................................231
12 Application of Formulaic Methods to Decalogue Texts.....................237
13 Letter Confusion in the Prophets...........................................................249
v
MULTIPLE ORIGINALS
PART FOUR AGENDAS.............................................................................263
14 Audiences and Agendas..........................................................................265
15 To Where from Here?..............................................................................271
Appendix 1: Extended Citations for Chapter 1.........................................277
Appendix 2: Sources for English and German Bibles..............................281
Appendix 3: Decalogue Text Comparison.................................................285
Bibliography..................................................................................................317
Index of Modern Authors............................................................................333
Index of Biblical References.........................................................................337
LISTS OF TABLES & FIGURES

Table 1: Frequency of “differ-vocal” by Book in BHQ...............................90
Table 2: Oldest Manuscripts of Song 1:2....................................................102
Table 3: Patrologia Latina Database, Old Latin & Vulgate Readings....156
Table 4: Patrologia Latina Database, Nova Vulgata Readings................156
Table 5: Percent Total Variants in Decalogue Manuscripts.....................226
Table 6: Percent Orthographic Variants in Decalogue Manuscripts......227
Table 7: Percent Non-Orthographic Variants in Decalogue
Manuscripts.....................................................................................228
Table 8: Correlation Between Orthographic and
Non-Orthographic Variants..........................................................229

Figure 1: OCLC Records for Oral Studies by Decade (Keywords:
“oral Poetry,” “oral tradition,” “oral literature”).........................64
Figure 2: OCLC Records for “Orality” by Decade......................................64
Figure 3: OCLC Records for “Textual Criticism” (By century from
1506–1805; by decade thereafter)....................................................65
Figure 4: OCLC Comparison: Oral Studies vs. Textual Criticism............65
Figure 5: Labat, Development of the GAL-4 Sign.....................................118
Figure 6: Graph of Orthographic Variants.................................................227
Figure 7: Graph of Non-Orthographic Variants.......................................228

vii

PREFACE
This book aims not only to underscore shortcomings in those prac-
tices of textual criticism that operate predominantly from a reductionist
view of text, but also to offer theoretical and practical approaches to
account for multivalent realities of textual origins that are generally
overlooked in the text-critical enterprise. Typically, a text-critical edition
presents to the user a single primary text block thought to represent the
closest possible approximation to a putative original text. The assump-
tion is that, among variant extant textual witnesses, there can be only one
correct reading. This book challenges that assumption on two fronts,
which I categorize as multivalences of meaning and multivalences of
text. Thus, I argue that in reconstructing textual histories of early Jewish
writings, scholars need to become more alert to the possibility that tex-
tual variations in their earliest known historical contexts are not
necessarily the results of intentional or unintential scribal intrusions into
a hypothetical pristine original. Current text-critical practices suppress
multivalences as a result of a narrow a priori view of textual origins. In
some cases multivalences can be demonstrated to have been intended by
the composer, in other cases multivalences of texts during the periods
from which our earliest extant manuscripts derive simply fell within
certain limits of acceptable variability by those who valued and
transmitted those texts. Therefore these do not need to be corrected or
reduced to univalent readings. Variant readings must not always be
thought of as competing for the exalted status of singular original when
they rather represent a multivalent original.

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