Whittle, Benjamin William;
(2022)
The Translation of Biblical Hebrew Verbal Stems in the Septuagint of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This dissertation analyses the translation of Biblical Hebrew verbal stems in the Greek version of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets codified in the Septuagint. The Biblical Hebrew system of stems differs significantly from the Greek verbal system, and therefore systematic investigation of the strategies employed by the Greek translators can shed light on the ways in which they negotiated this linguistic difference, as well as contributing to our understanding of ancient perceptions of the functions of the Biblical Hebrew stems. This analysis complements previous research on the Biblical Hebrew verbal system in Greek translation. Recent studies of verbal translation (Evans 2001; Good 2003) have focused largely or wholly on the conjugations, while Wevers’ (1985) assertion that the nuance of the verbal stems is ‘partially reproduced by Greek voice’ and that other distinctions ‘can only be handled lexically’ has remained underinvestigated. The dissertation interrogates Wevers’ claims through detailed analysis of the translation of the qal, piel, hiphil, hitpael, niphal, pual, and hophal. The translations are analysed in terms of Greek voice morphology, as well as in terms of factitive-causative elements seen in lexis, some verb endings, and compound verbs. With respect to voice, the majority of verbs in the qal, piel and hiphil are translated actively, and a small majority of verbs in the niphal, the pual, and the hophal are translated passively, while the hitpael has no clear majority translation for voice. Differences in voice between Hebrew and Greek are often due to the use of Greek deponent verbs. The proportion of Greek lexemes which allow a factitive-causative meaning and are used to translate the ‘active’ Hebrew stems follows the pattern hiphil > piel > qal. This same pattern can also be seen with the use Greek lexemes featuring denominative/deverbative verb endings and preverbs when translating the three ‘active’ stems.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The Translation of Biblical Hebrew Verbal Stems in the Septuagint of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Hebrew and Jewish Studies UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144380 |
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