Peshitta Forum

Full Version: Law or Name? And how do we say this happend.
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
In Matthew 12:21 in the Peshitta, it reads:
ܘܒܫܡܗ ܥܡܡܐ ܢܣܒܪܘܢ

"And in His Name the Nations will hope."

This is a direct quote by the Apostle Matthew from Isaiah 42:4b


The Peshitta OT for Isaiah 42:4b, reads thus:

ܘܠܢܡܘܣܗ ܓܙܪ̈ܬܐ ܢܣ̈ܟܝܢ

"And unto His Law the Islands will look."


We know that the Peshitta OT is a translation of the Hebrew OT text.


The Hebrew OT text for Isaiah 42:4b, reads thus:

ולתורתו איים ייחלו
 
"unto His Law the Islands will wait."


The Greek translation of the OT (Septuagint), reads thus:

και επί τω ονόματι αυτού έθνη ελπιούσιν

"And upon His Name the Nations will hope."


Q: If The Apostle Matthew wasn't quoting from the Greek translation of the OT, then where did he get his quotaton from?

His quotation does not match either the Hebrew, or the Peshitta translation of the Hebrew OT for Isaiah 42:4.

It matches the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT for Isaiah 42:4.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Shlama
(09-05-2016, 08:13 PM)Thirdwoe Wrote: [ -> ]In Matthew 12:21 in the Peshitta, it reads:
"And in His Name the Nations will hope."

This is a direct quote by the Apostle Matthew from Isaiah 42:4b

The Peshitta OT for Isaiah 42:4b, reads thus:

"And unto His Law the Islands will look."

Q: If The Apostle Matthew wasn't quoting from the Greek translation of the OT, then where did he get his quotaton from? 

Hello Thirdwoe,

translation is not always about remaining literal. The ancient Jewish translations knew well of idiomatic meaning and how to relate it. In the case of Isaiah 42:4, the Jewish translators of the LXX translated the ancient Jewish poetic idiomatic expression in words they expected Greek gentiles to better understand. They translated not wrongly or callously, but with consideration for a "modern reader's" mind. It is also possible Matthew and maybe also the LXX worked with a now lost Targumic translation, an oral tradition or a commentary.

When Matthew wrote his gospel, it seems he shared that view, although the entire quote shows us that he did not follow the LXX (even this line is not in 1:1 agreement) but rather created his own translation *and* interpretation of the entire passage (he even leaves out a line for poetic reasons, so he's certainly *not* trying to make a literal quote). In other words, Matthew did not simply blindly copy the LXX (which he likely knew), he agreed that its interpretation of the last line is proper and good. He thereby connects the gentiles from Verse 1 to the Islands in Verse 4, i.e. establishes a parallelism.

"Nations" and "Islands" is used parallel to each other in Isaiah 40:15 - in light of the question we can easily consider this to be a (synonymous) parallelism. "Nations" and "Islands" have meanings close to each other that overlap. Same in 59:1 ("People from afar" and "Islands"), it seems throughout Isaiah the Islands are often simply the far away (hence gentile) nations.


Also consider those cases where the translation of Matthew is closer to the Peshitta OT, like Matthew 19:5 quoting Genesis 2:24, Matthew 21:9 quoting Psalm 118:26, Matthew 22:37 quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 etc. If his LXX-like translation means he quoted it, then what do these imply?
______________________

So, the different translations express the same, but in different ways. To wait is to look is to hope. The islands are the gentiles are the nations. And His Name is our Law.
The Old Latin (from Sabatier): ... & in nomine ejus gentes sperabunt. (name)
 .. in contrast to ..
Vulgata: ... & legem ejus insulæ exspectabunt (law)

So we have the most ancient Greek and Latin versions + Matthew as witnesses for name.
And the Hebrew and Aramaic versions + Vulgata as witnesses for law.

In Greek the variations would read:
ΚΑΙΕΠΙΤΩΟΝΟΜΑΤΙΑΥΤΟΥΕΘΝΗΕΛΠΙΟΥΣΙΝ (name)
ΚΑΙΤΩΝΟΜΩΑΥΤΟΥΝΗΣΟΙΕΛΠΙΟΥΣΙΝ (law)

The words νομος and ονομα are similar, so one would like to think that a scribal error happened when someone read from a Greek exemplar, but if the scribe copied from Greek to Greek, the addition or excision of επι would need to be explained too.

LEH mentions Numbers 4:27.

LXX: ... καὶ ἐπισκέψῃ αὐτοὺς ἐξ ὀνομάτων πάντα τὰ ἀρτὰ ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν (by name)
MT:  ופקדתם עלהם במשמרת את כל–משאם

Could משמרת be ambigous enough to cause both readings?