Reading the Sealed Book: Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament)

by J. Ross Wagner

Interest in the Septuagint has never been greater, with major translation and commentary projects completed or well underway in German, French, English, and Spanish. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, these translations open a window onto early Jewish interpretation of the Bible. Yet crucial problems of "Septuagint hermeneutics," particularly the question of how to identify interpretive elements in a translated text, remain unresolved. Drawing on important work both in translation studies and in literary theory, J. Ross Wagner develops an interpretive approach that combines patient investigation of the process of translation with careful attention to the rhetorical shape of the translated text. The author demonstrates the fruitfulness of this method through a close reading of Isaiah's opening vision (Isa 1:1-31) as both translation and text. Published in North America by Baylor University Press, Waco.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Tyler Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of useful analysis and some good insight on methodology and description, but still somewhat more limited than I'd hoped. A great deal of the first two chapters is dependent on Cameron Boyd-Taylor to the degree that it limits its usefulness. It think Wagner has a couple of important advancements, but not enough original material to warrant the 60 pages that these take up. That reliance also means that Wagner's approach has the same issues that I have with Boyd-Taylor in Reading Between the Lines. Of course, I might be wrong and they might be right, but again, the problem is that Wagner doesn't do enough of what Boyd-Taylor didn't do to make these first two chapters really worthwhile.

A further question I have is, if this is the kind of book we really need to be writing in LXX studies. It's just not at all a fun read, even while Wagner is absolutely an engaging writer. It's the depth of minute analysis and how long it takes to go through it, paying attention as well to both Hebrew and Greek texts. I wonder if there are other ways to get at this kind of material that would make for better reading...and thus better dissemination?

I found myself often thinking about the language we end up using to describe what the translator does. Especially in the final chapter, there is a cluster of descriptive language that I worry about. I think rather than good vs. bad Greek, we should probably shift the rubric to something like the question of natural language production. My issue with the terminology here is that it seems to set up an artificial imaginary of how the translators worked and what they accomplished. I feel like when we describe them doing something clever or studied, what we've actually discovered is that we ourselves our clever to see it, and that they were just naturally producing natural language.

Definitely worth the read, probably close to essential for anyone interested in LXX Studies.