REVIEWS

Ginze Russiyah contains facsimiles of Genizah Manuscripts of Bible, Mishnah; Talmud, Midrashim, Halakah, Liturgy and Judeo-Arabic from the Antonin Cairo Genizah Collection in Leningrad. Includes part of Ben Asher's Bible Codex (B 19a) of the Firkowitch Collection which was copied in Old Cairo in 1008/9 A.D. Compiled, Arranged and Identified by Pr. Abraham I. KATSCH, New York. University Library of Judaica and Hebraica, N.Y., 1958, Part II. x + 138 pp. VT avait d6ja signale 1'interet du travail du Professeur KATSCH (VT VIII, 321). Ce second volume commence par une breve introduction de huit pages et donne ensuite une s6rie de facsimiles, plus ou moins lisibles mais toujours interessants, de manuscrits bibliques, mishnaiques, talmudi- ques, midrashiques, haggadiques, liturgiques et divers. Pour les biblistes les plus importants se trouvent p. 1-14 (Gen. xxi 1-17, 17-27; xlvii 17-24; xlvii 25-xlviii 4; xlix 33-1 9; 1, 10-20; 1 Reg. ix 9-15, 16-22; xi, 11-17, 18-23; 2 Reg. xv 23-29; xvi 3-17; xvi 17-xvi'i 20; Ps. cxix 22-40, 52-103 (mutile); Pr. xxv 16-xxvi 18; Dn. v 16-vi 17; viii 25-x 1, tires de six manuscrits plus des haftarit sur la Gen?se, l'Exode et le Deut6ronome tires de deux manuscrits. Les numeros (166-173) sont ceux que leur a donn6s la bibliotheque de New York et non ceux de la collection Antonin d'ou ces textes ont ete microfilm6s. Sous le numero 246 A.I.K. donne ensuite 44 folios de c6l?bre codex de Ben Asher, B 19a (Esdras, N6h6mie, massore finale, illustrations et colophon) qui a servi a P. KAHLE pour l'edition de BH3 (L). Un troisieme volume nous est promis, remercions 1'auteur. Paris H. CAZELLES

- Joseph SCHREINER, Septuaginta-Massora des Buches der Richter. Analecta Biblica, Roma (Pontificio Istituto Biblico), 1957, XI, 137 pp. Price : $ 5.-. This study is a collection of examples from the LXX Judges chosen to illustrate its relationships with the Masoretic Hebrew text. It originated in a prize essay in the Theological Faculty of the University of Wiirzburg on the theme: ,Septuaginta-Massora der B3cher Josue, Richter, 1 und 2 Samuel, 1 und 2 Konige'. Judges alone was treated, as the whole subject was too vast. In a brief introduction the author mentions some of the previous work and explains that his own contribution does not deal with the problems of the Greek Judges generally. The following pages are fully within these prescribed limits and incidentally illustrate the difficulties of trying to treat only one aspect of a very knotty problem. Each chapter is devoted to one topic: the rendering of frequently recurring words and expressions, passages presupposing a Hebrew text better than the Masoretic, REVIEWS 109 doublets, misreadings, etc. The chapters are divided into sections, each of which begins with a sentence or two explaining the point illustrated by the following examples. These examples are arranged in a careful sequence: ones found in all the MSS. are put together and those found only in certain groups of MSS. are arranged by group. Explanatory comments are given with each example, varying from a single word to a whole paragraph. No end of trouble has been expended on the selection and presentation of examples, and the mastery of the apparatus of BROOKE-McLEANis no small achievement. Any who wish to know the results of this study will be disappointed, for the author draws no conclusions from this Gargantuan feast of material. With the citation of the last example the study finishes. This does not mean that everything is known about the relationships of Greek and Hebrew (one can imagine what RAHLFS would have made of this theme!), but the scope of the work did not require more than examples. In many cases the comments contain valuable observations, and the author makes good use of his knowledge of Aramaic and Syriac. One feature of the work is very surprising. The author seems to have read very little not in German. One could imagine that he did not even know of BURNEY'S commentary or THACKERAY'S Grammar of the Old Testamentsin Greek. BILLEN'S work on the Greek and Old Latin is similarly neglected 1). It comes as no surprise after this to note that the latest com- ments on parsedon 2), for example, are not known (p. 115, on iii 22), and that the Dead Sea scrolls have made no impact. An even more fundamental lack than literature is the absence of a serious attempt to face the issues involved in the relationship of Greek to Hebrew. In this inquiry so much depends on whether the Hebrew original used by the translator can be discerned from the rendering. When it is completely uncertain if the translator is slavishly following his original or freely handling it, the Greek is an unknown quantity for comparison with the Masoretic Hebrew. Unfortunately for LXX critics this problem has usually been the occupation of students of the Hebrew text wanting to prove that the LXX does, or does not, offer a superior reading. WELL- HAUSENin his Der Text der Bucher Samueli.r was a most outstanding exception to this, in that he laid down and illustrated the principles which apply to a scientific use of the LXX for the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. By now it is generally recognized that the LXX, unlike Aquila, cannot necessarily be put back word for word into Hebrew. SCHREINER,however, is of the opinion that in xiii 21 the translator read lhr't, not the Masoretic lhr'h, because he translates (p. 41), and affirms that in xviii 1 an awkward occurrence of the preposition be was not read by the translator because he omits it from his rendering (p. 41). So do all other translatorsl I The recognition that the LXX often has free and careless renderings has, however, led to an extreme in which confidence in the Masoretic text has