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Law or Name? And how do we say this happend.
#2
(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?
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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.
Jesus is the one true God of the Bible.
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RE: Law or Name? And how do we say this happend. - by Andrej - 09-09-2016, 05:49 PM

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