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EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 100 books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Major Critical Texts and Manuscript Abbreviations of the Old Testament
AC: Aleppo Codex AT: Aramaic Targum(s)
B.C.E.: Before Common Era
BHS: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Edited by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph. Stuttgart, 1984. B 19A: Codex Leningrad c.: Circa, about, approximately LXX: The Greek Septuagint (Greek Jewish OT Scriptures in general and specifically used during of Jesus and the apostles) OG: Original Greek (Oldest recoverable form of the Greek OT (280-150 B.C.E.) SOPHERIM: Copyists of the Hebrew OT text from the time of Era to the time of Jesus. CT: Consonantal Text is the OT Hebrew manuscripts that became fixed in form between the first and second centuries C.E., even though manuscripts with variant readings continued to circulate for some time. Alterations of the previous period by the Sopherim were no longer made. Very similar to the MT. MT: The Masoretic Text encompasses the Hebrew OT manuscripts from the second half of the first millennium C.E. QT: Qumran Texts (Dead Sea Scrolls) SP: Samaritan Pentateuch SYR: Syriac Peshitta VG: Latin Vulgate
Genesis 4:8 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
8 Cain said to Abel his brother. “Let us go out into the field.” And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
The BHS has the reading “against Abel his brother,” while we have a variant in the LXX, SP, SYR, and VG “Let us go out into the field.” The Targums “make a number of characteristic adjustments to the text. Sometimes, a targum fills in exegetical details. In Gen. 4: 8 the Hebrew text says that Cain spoke to his brother Abel and then rose up to kill him. But what was his motivation? Targum Neofiti contains a lengthy expansion at this point in which Abel and Cain get into an argument about the nature of divine justice and whether there is punishment for the wicked. As the argument becomes more intense, Cain rises up and kills his brother.”[1]
The primary weight of external evidence generally goes to the original language manuscripts. The Codex Leningrad B 19A and the Aleppo Codex are almost always preferred. A represented reading from more than one version may be preferred to even a Codex Leningrad B 19A and the Aleppo Codex reading. The reason is that the odds are increased greatly against a reading being changed from the original in such a wide number of versions, especially if the Septuagint is in that number. The Septuagint continues to be very much important today and is used by textual scholars to help uncover copyists’ errors that might have crept into Hebrew manuscripts either intentionally or unintentionally. Again, the account at Genesis 4:8 reads: “Cain said to Abel his brother. [‘Let us go out into the field.’] And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”
The clause “let us go over into the field” is not found in the Codex Leningrad B 19A and the Aleppo Codex, nor is it found in the QT Qumran Texts (Dead Sea Scrolls; Scroll 4Q2). However, the reading is included in older Septuagint manuscripts and in SP, SYR, and VG. The Hebrew text has the word that normally introduces speech (וַיֹּ֥אמֶר; wayyōʾmer), but no words follow. On this, Hebrew Old Testament scholar K. A. Mathews writes, “In the Hebrew text there is no dialogue where we expect it following the customary introduction to conversation, ‘Cain said [wayyōʾmer] to his brother Abel.’ The AV’s translation ‘Cain told Abel’ (also NASB) is unlikely from the Hebrew,[2] and it implies that the foregoing words of the Lord were reported to Abel, a position held by some commentators but which is inconsistent with Cain’s disposition.[3] Ancient versions, followed by many English versions, supply ‘Let’s go out to the field.’”[4]
What could have happened? On this question, the NET Bible offers a textual note that covers the two possibilities. “The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Smr, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (ʾakhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָׂדֶה (bassadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָׂדֶה.”
Likely Genesis 4:8 originally included two consecutive clauses that end with the expression “in(to) the field” (בַּשָׂדֶה; bassadeh). It is most likely that the scribe’s eye skipped over the earlier expression ending with the expression “into the field” to the same word in the second instance; therefore, accidentally omitting the quotation. Clearly, the LXX, as well as the SP, SYR, and the VG have been useful in identifying this error in the Hebrew text. The odds are increased greatly that “let us go over into the field” was in the original because of it being found in such a wide number of versions, especially with the Septuagint being one of those versions.
Keep in mind that this instance does not suggest that the copies of the Septuagint are superior in quality to the Hebrew texts, as they are also subject to error, and many times the Hebrew text is referred to in correcting the Greek. Thus, comparing the Hebrew manuscripts with the Greek Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, the Vulgate, and even the Aramaic Targums results in finding translation errors as well as copyists’ mistakes, giving us a more accurate rendering of God’s Word.
[1] Brotzman, Ellis R.; Tully, Eric J. Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction (p. 78). Baker Publishing Group.
[2] דִּבֵּר is customary for “spoke, told,” not the unusual אָמַר.[1]
[3] Suggested parallels for such a construction in Gen 22:7; Exod 19:25; 2 Chr 2:11 [10] are not the same since they contain the object of the speech in subsequent verses (see Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 63–64).[2]
[4] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, vol. 1A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 272.
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