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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Song of Deborah (Judges 5): Meaning and Poetry in the Septuagint A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Nathan LaMontagne Washington, D.C. 2013 The Song of Deborah (Judges 5): Meaning and Poetry in the Septuagint Nathan LaMontagne, Ph. D. Director: Rev. Francis Gignac, S.J., D. Phil. Although the Septuagint is an underrepresented field in the world of biblical studies, there is much to be gained by examining it on its own merits. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of the Song of Deborah in the Greek translation in its own right and to determine what parallels it has with other sections of the Greek Old Testament. This involves, beyond exegesis, a study of the poetic style and the translational technique of the Greek text, especially in light of the other historical works of Greek-speaking Judaism, such as the Letter of Aristeas. This study will proceed along four lines of investigation. First of all, there is no Greek text of the Song of Deborah which enjoys widespread acceptance among scholars. Therefore, the first task of the study is to review all of the critical evidence of the Song of Deborah and produce an eclectic text which is as near as possible to the original Greek translation as can be obtained by modern means. Once established, the critical text of the Song of Deborah is used as the basis for the rest of the study. Chapter Three examines in detail the language and style of the translation, analyzes its composition, and attempts to explain how and why the Greek text came to be in this form. Chapter Four pays special attention to the issue of poetics and seeks to determine what kinds of poetic styles and devices the translator used to convey his understanding of the original poetry. The discussion of poetics focuses on the possibility of metrical analysis as well as parallelism for the basis for poetry, and discusses in detail the use of paronomasia by the translator. Chapter Five presents a fresh translation and an exegesis of the Song of Deborah in the context of the Greek Old Testament. It also compares the Song of Deborah to other works of Greek literature, and explores how the Song, its characters, and Israelite religion were perceived as being superior in nearly every way to comparable aspects of Greek culture. This dissertation by Nathan LaMontagne fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Biblical Studies approved by Francis Gignac, S.J., as Director, and by Robert Miller II, and David Bosworth as Readers. ____________________________________ Rev. Francis Gignac, S.J., D. Phil. ____________________________________ Robert Miller II, Ph. D. ____________________________________ David Bosworth, Ph. D. ii Table of Contents Chapter One: Interpretation History of the Song of Deborah ……………………………. 1 Chapter Two: Greek Texts of the Song of Deborah …………………………………..… 27 Chapter Three: Language and Style in the LXX Song of Deborah …………………….. 57 Chapter Four: Poetic Style in the LXX Song of Deborah ………………………………. 94 Chapter Five: Meaning of the Greek Song of Deborah ……………………………….. 130 Appendix A: Code of Statistical Analysis …………………………………………….. 161 iii Chapter One: Interpretation History of the Song of Deborah Introduction The Song of Deborah has received much attention throughout the history of biblical studies and accordingly has also been the subject of some controversy. Many have written about the composition of the Song, or its date and Sitz im Leben, or its relationship to the narrative of Deborah in chap. 4 of Judges. There are discussions on how historically reliable the Song and the narrative of Deborah are, and how one should interpret the data of archaeology in light of the text, and vice versa. There is still much that is unclear and much still to learn, and there are almost as many ways of approaching the text as there are scholars who wish to study it. These questions are not easily answered, but they are crucial questions that illuminate the meaning of the text. This dissertation aims to explore some of the aspects and nuances of the Song of Deborah. Whereas most scholarship in the Song has focused on its meaning in Hebrew and its place in the context of ancient Near Eastern literature, I intend to focus on the original old Greek (OG) translation of the Song of Deborah and its meaning in the context of Greek thought and literature in its probable setting of Alexandria. The translation that was produced by the Greek-speaking Jews demonstrates an understanding of the Song that is quite different from the way that the Hebrew is understood today, and it is the task of this dissertation to highlight this and to explore the meaning of the Greek text. This project involves several divergent approaches that support one another in building a picture of how the text was read and understood in its Greek context. The first task of this 1 2 dissertation is to create a best approximation of the OG. This is not insignificant, since the LXX manuscripts of Judges are vastly different, demonstrate a history of revision that spans many centuries and editorial philosophies, and blend examples of readings from various traditions without distinction. Once a critical text is established, there are two methods of analysis that will lay the foundation for understanding the meaning of the Greek text. First, I will examine the quality of the translation and attempt to uncover some of the reasons the original translator(s) made the lexical and grammatical choices that they did. Such an analysis depends heavily on understanding how the translator read his Hebrew text, and this, in turn, depends on my own ability to understand the problems of the Hebrew text. Second, I will explore the text of the Song in terms of its poetry and poetic qualities. Poetry frequently does not translate well into other languages, and the OG of the Song of Deborah is no exception. Nevertheless, the process of translation allows the translator a degree of flexibility, and it is possible to find evidence of a poetic style even in a translated document. Once an analysis of the text and its style are complete, I will translate the Greek text and explore the meaning of it. Most importantly, I will also relate the themes of the Song of Deborah to similar themes within Greek literature or in other books of the LXX. The various tasks of this dissertation must necessarily be based upon careful research. The text critical portion must proceed with a careful knowledge of the manuscripts of Judges and how much weight should be accorded to each. In discussing the way in which the Greek translator handled his Hebrew text it is necessary for me to have a thorough knowledge of the ways in which the Hebrew could be interpreted or translated, which is the focus of much modern 3 research on the Song of Deborah. Understanding the Song in its Greek context must be based on an understanding of the history of the Judges, and in what way the Song is a part of that history. Because my translation and exegesis of the Song in Greek is, in a sense, based on a hypothetical translator and audience (the real translator and audience being lost to history), I must proceed with as much firm data as modern research can equip me, lest the construct I create topple under its own weight. The History of Scholarship on the Song Early Christian and Jewish (Premodern) Origen is the earliest Christian writer to address Judges; he gave a set of nine homilies on the book. Origen’s interpretation is primarily allegorical: Sisera represents the animalistic person, one who is completely unspiritual (Hom. in Jud. 4)1; Deborah, “Bee,” represents the word of God, in as much as she is a prophet and that the words of God are “sweeter than honey” (Ps 18 [LXX 19]:11); Barak, whose name Origen translates “flash,” represents the unenlightened Israel, who had a glimpse of God but have subsequently forgotten it—thus, according to Origen, Israel, like Barak, will be led to victory (i.e., salvation) by another, namely, the Christian Church; Jael, Origen identifies as the Church, the one who secured the victory by destroying the unenlightened philosophy of the world (Sisera).2 Origen emphasizes that Jael pierced him through his jaw, an interpretation which is found in the LXX but not in the MT. In general 1 Origen, Origen: Homilies on Judges (trans. Elizabeth Ann Dively Lauro; FC 119; Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010) 4. 2 Ibid., 5. 4 though, Origen only expounds on the narrative section and does not deal specifically with the Song of Deborah as a separate piece. Ambrose (Concerning Widows, 8.43-51) holds up Deborah as an exemplary widow and analyzes the situation in much the same allegorical way as Origen, treating the victory achieved by Jael as a prefiguring of the Gentile Christian Church’s adoption into the children of God.3 Ambrose reflects the ancient tradition that Deborah is a widow and Barak is her son, although these are stated neither in the Hebrew nor in the Greek text. It is because of this that Ambrose uses these figures as a model for the care of widows and the duty of children to parents. Theodoret of Cyr treats Judges only briefly in his Questions on the Octateuch but has some significant remarks on the meaning of the Greek.

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