CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ILonion: FETTER LANE, E.G. C. F. CLAY, Manager M A GRAMMAR OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IN GREEK ACCORDING TO THE SEPTUAGINT BY HENRY St JOHN THACKERAY, M.A. SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE VOL. I INTRODUCTION, ORTHOGRAPHY AND ACCIDENCE Cambridge : at the University Press 1909 ; TO MY WIFE Twalna avhpeiav ri? evpiqcrei TifumTepa 8e eWii> \L6mv iroXvreXmv rj Totavrrj. PREFACE THE Grammar, of which the first portion is here published, has during the last eight years been the occupation of the very limited leisure of a civil servant. It owes its origin to the suggestion of Dr Swete, who has throughout its preparation been the writer's kindly and encouraging epyoSiw/cTys. It is due to his good offices that this portion now appears in the form of a his separate volume, and it is needless to add that it is edition of the text, together with the Concordance of the late Dr Redpath, which alone has rendered such a work possible. is there for the work ? It may be asked : What need Why write a Grammar of a translation, in parts a servile translation, into a Greek which is far removed from the Attic standard, of an original which was often imperfectly understood ? A sufficient answer might be that the work forms part of a larger whole, the Grammar of Hellenistic Greek, the claims of which, as bridging the gulf between the ancient and the modern tongue upon the attention of <f>L\e\\r)ves and philologists have in recent years begun to receive their due recognition from a growing company of scholars. The Septuagint, in view both of the period which it covers and the viii Preface variety of its styles, ranging from the non-literary vernacular to the artificial Atticistic, affords the most promising ground for the investigation of the peculiarities of the Hellenistic or 'common' language. "La Septante est le grand monument de la Koivrj," says Psichari. But the Septuagint has, moreover, special claims of its own. Though of less paramount importance than the New Testament, the fact that it was the only form in which the older Scriptures were known to many generations of Jews and Christians and the deep influence which it exercised upon New Testament and Patristic writers justify a separate treatment of its language. Again, the fact that it is in the main a translation gives it a special character and raises the difficult question of the extent of Semitic influence upon the written and spoken Greek of a bilingual people. The period covered by the books of the Septuagint was mentioned. This may conveniently be divided into three parts, (i) There is every reason to accept the very early tradition that the Greek Pentateuch, to which, it would seem, at least a partial translation of Joshua was soon appended, originated in the third century B.C. We are, then, in the Hexateuch taken back to the dawn of the Koivrj, to a period when certain forms and usages were in existence which had already become obsolete in New Testament times. Some of these are moribund survivals from classical Greek, others are experiments of the new language on their trial. (2) As to the remaining books, one result which clearly emerges is that the order in which they were translated was, roughly speaking, that of the Hebrew Canon. We may conjecture that the Prophets made their appearance in Preface ix a Greek dress in the second century B.C., Isaiah near the beginning of it, the group consisting of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve (or large portions of this group) also probably nearer the close : the close of the century saw the appearance of I Kingdoms and portions of the 2 and 3 Kingdoms. (3) The versions of most of "Writings" (Psalms perhaps excluded) and the com- position of most of the apocryphal books seem, not- withstanding the oft-quoted statement in the Prologue of Ben Sira, to belong to a period not earlier than the first century B.C., while books like the Greek Ecclesiastes and Theodotion's Daniel carry us as far down as the second century of our era. To the third period (at least if we may judge from the character of the texts which have come down to us) we must also probably assign the translations of some of the later historical books, which the Hebrew Canon classed with the Prophets, viz. the bulk of Judges and large portions of 2—4 Kingdoms. Broadly speaking, we may say that the Greek of the first period attains the higher level exhibited by the papyri of the early Ptolemaic age (the Petrie and Hibeh collections), while in that of the second period we may see a reflection of the more degenerate 1 style of the papyri of the end of the second century B.C. (e.g. the Tebtunis collection). In the third period two opposite influences are at work : (i) the growing reverence for the letter of Scripture, tending to the production of pedantically literal versions, (ii) the influence of the Atticistic school, strongest, of course, in free writings like 4 Maccabees, but which 1 See Mahaffy, Empire of the Ptolemies, 360. x Preface seems also to have left some marks on versions such as 4 Kingdoms. I can claim no special equipment for my task other than a persistent interest in the subject, and am conscious of many imperfections in its execution. In arrange- ment and treatment I have in general followed the guidance of the late Professor Blass in his Grammar of New Testament Greek, with which special associations have familiarized me. One subject there treated at length is missing in the present work. " Word-formation," an outlying province of grammar, is, for the LXX, so vast a subject that any approach to an adequate treatment of it would have immoderately swelled this book, which already exceeds the prescribed limits. Possibly an opportunity may arise in the future for making good the omission. It may be thought that too much space has been allotted to Orthography and Accidence. I may plead in excuse that it is in these depart- ments that the papyri are specially helpful and afford some clear criteria as to dates, and it is hoped that the evidence here collected may be of service to the textual critic in the reconstruction of the original text of the LXX. Even the long series of references often have their message in showing the distribution of a usage, (jxovdevra crvverolcriv. A complete and independent Grammar of the LXX has until quite recently been wanting, and the student had to be content with such casual assistance as was given in the New Testament Grammars. The useful treatise of Thiersch, now nearly seventy years old, was Preface xi limited to the Pentateuch. In recent years the "Septua- gintarian " (if the word may be allowed) has had the advantage of a valuable chapter on the language in Dr Swete's Introduction, while two Oxford scholars have produced a very handy little volume of selections pre- 1 ceded by a concise but partial Grammar . My ambition to produce the first complete Grammar has, through unavoidable delays, been frustrated, and Germany has led the way. I have thought it best to work quite 2 of independently of Dr Helbing's book , the first part which appeared just over a year ago : indeed most of my book was written before the publication of the German work. I append a list, not exhaustive, of works which have been consulted. Psichari's admirable essay 3 only came into my hands when the pages had been set up. My slight incursions into modern Greek, with which I hope to become more closely acquainted, have convinced me of the truth of his statement that a knowledge of the living language is indispensable for a proper understanding of the koivt} SiaXe/cros as repre- sented by the LXX. The pleasant duty remains of acknowledging assist- ance of a more personal and direct kind than that obtainable from books. Of my indebtedness to Dr Swete, the "onlie begetter" of this volume, I have already spoken. I owe more than I can say to the counsel and encouragement of Dr J. H. Moulton, Greenwood 1 Selections from the Septuagint, F. C. Conybeare and St George Stock, Girm and Co., Boston, 1905. 2 Grammatik der Septuaginta, Laut- und Wortlehre, R. Helbing, Gottingen, 1907. 3 Essai stir le Grec de la Septante, Paris, 1908. xii Preface Professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo-European Philology in the Victoria University of Manchester. He has been good enough, amid his manifold duties, to read through the whole work in MS, and his generous and never-failing help has enriched its pages and removed many errors and imperfections. Through the Prolegomena to his brilliant Grammar of New Testament Greek and through private communications he has introduced me to much of the extensive literature bearing on the subject and held up a model of how a Grammar should be written. My thanks are also due to another Fellow of my own College, the Rev. A. E. Brooke, co-editor of the larger Cambridge Septuagint, who has kindly read the bulk of the proofs and offered useful suggestions. In the laborious work of verifying references much help has been rendered by Mr W. R. Taylor, sometime Scholar of St Catharine's College, Cambridge: he has also prepared the Index of quotations. Assistance of a kindred nature has been given by my sister, Mrs Loring, and by my wife. In conclusion, I must express my thanks to the Syndics of the University Press for their indulgence in consenting to the publication of this portion of the work as a separate volume and to all the officers, readers and workmen of the Press for their constant vigilance and well-known accuracy.