From: Harold R. Holmyard III (hholmyard@ont.com)
Date: Thu Apr 13 2000 - 15:30:52 EDT
Dear Maurice,
Thank you for the medieval Jewish interpretation of Psalm 4:4-5. Was
this not my point when I originally wrote: "The LXX translator chose the
sense 'be excited in anger' for Psalm 4, but another possible translation
would be 'quake' (before the Lord)"? My comment suggests a rendering of
R-G-Z that might be better than the word choice of the LXX translator of Ps
4:4, given the base meaning of R-G-Z and the context in Ps 4:2-5. I
understand that the Jewish community more or less refrained from using the
Septuagint after the Christian community employed it to support
Christological doctrine. So medieval Jewish interpreters would probably
have been working from the Hebrew rather than the Greek.
However, the apostle Paul in Eph 4:26 was using the Septuagint. His
wording is exactly the same as that of the LXX. Since Paul knew the Hebrew,
he probably could have changed the translation if it had struck him as
completely incorrect. He must have been satisfied with Ps 4:4 in the Greek.
It is not necessary to conclude that the LXX translator translated without
any basis in fact, for R-G-Z can mean rage, or be angry, in several stems,
and even in the Qal (Prov 29:9; Ezek 16:43; cf. Isa 28:21). The lexicons
indicate that ORGIZESQE means "be angry," not "quake." So the permissive
imperative is the best handling of ORGIZESQE in Psalm 4:4 LXX.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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