A critical edition of the hexaplaric fragments of Ecclesiastes

Abstract

This dissertation provides the first full-scale critical edition of the hexaplaric fragments of Ecclesiastes since 1875, when Frederick Field published his monumental two-volume edition of the hexaplaric remains of the entire Old Testament, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt sive veterum interpretum graecorum in totum Vetus Testamentum fragmenta . Chapter 1 situates this project within the history of significant editions of the hexaplaric fragments and explains the methodology that was developed for the dissertation. This chapter also provides recommendations on how to use the work and explains how the edition presupposes many of the conventions of the Göttingen Septuagint editions.

Chapter 2 describes the textual sources used for the project: notes in the margins of Greek/LXX Bible manuscripts, marginal readings in Syriac from the Syro-Hexapla, the works of early church fathers, and the Catena traditions. The chapter also takes note of certain source materials that were not available at the time that the dissertation was completed.

Chapter 3 constitutes the main body of the work. Critical readings from the Three--Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion--as well as readings from sources which are hexaplaric by association, are provided along with a critical apparatus and editorial discussions. The hexaplaric reading is given in conjunction with the Hebrew and LXX lemmas to which it corresponds. The layout of the critical apparatus allows the reader to see the following: which sources are extant for the lemma of the critical reading, how much of the lemma is extant for the source, how the source varies from the critical reading, how the attribution to one of the Three in the source varies from the attribution in the critical reading, and how the non-Greek sources read in their respective languages. The editorial discussions elucidate the text-critical choices made by the editor and interact with secondary literature.