| The goal of this dissertation is to describe and analyze as exhaustively as possible the translation technique and exegetical practice of the translator of the Septuagint of Amos. The dissertation is divided into two main parts addressing in order the translation technique and the theology of LXX-Amos. The focus of the study is the differences between the MT and the LXX in Amos, which are the main indicators of the translator's translation technique and theology. The three chapters that address translation technique consider in order in what ways the translation is literal or free, the rendering of difficult and unknown words, and the rendering of visually ambiguous phenomena, specifically homonyms, homographs, and word divisions. The translation is fairly literal, but the translator renders difficult and obscure passages freely and does not hesitate to make changes in difficult contexts to make sense of them. Normally it is these same difficult or obscure sections of the Vorlage where his theological biases also are found. Three areas of theological bias or Tendenz are especially important in LXX-Amos and they are addressed in the latter part of the dissertation. They are anti-Syrian and anti-Samaritan bias, the doctrine of God, and finally Gentiles, eschatology, and messianism. A final chapter considers the translator of LXX-Amos. It is argued that he was more of a scholar-scribe than a dragoman he was skilled at exegeting his text and using parallels to interpret it. He probably made the translation in Egypt in the mid second century BCE, and the evidence from LXX-Amos suggests he was also the translator of the other Minor Prophets. Although he is free to contemporize his translation, the contemporizing is not so programmatic that it should be called "fulfillment-interpretation." The evidence also indicates that the Vorlage of LXX-Amos was a Hebrew text very similar to the MT. |
