Activities at the Complutensian University Further Explained

Further to PJW's post on the work of the Madrid team on the Books of Kings in the Versions:

On 12-13 June, I was invited by Julio Trebolle-Barrera to attend a workshop at the UCM on the Books of Kings (III-IV Kingdoms). My work is on the non-LXX Greek (or, Hexaplaric) readings in Kings, so he invited me to be part of the meeting. There were only two other participants there, besides Julio, Andrés Piquer Otero (also the editor of 2 Kings for the new Oxford Hebrew Bible), and Pablo Torijano Morales. The Madrid team presented their current work in progress, this polyglot of Kingdoms and we had two days of intensive discussion about text history, textual criticism, and other matters pertaining to the text of III-IV Kingdoms. By the way, it should be noted that this is a work independent of the team at CSIC (i.e., Natalio Fernández Marcos’ team).

The project in which they are engaged began with the motivation to assist the preparation of the Göttingen LXX of III-IV Kingdoms, of which Trebolle and Torijano are the editors. The polyglot places six columns to the left of the layout and six columns to the right. There is the option for adding more columns, particularly if they are able to get funding to transform this into an electronic database. At present, however, they have omitted columns like the Syrohexapla. At any rate, the left side of the layout has six columns that are relevant to the text history of the Greek tradition. Thus, from left to right: Georgian, Armenian, Old Latin, Lucianic, B (Rahlfs), and Hexaplaric readings. In fact, to begin with, they were going to ignore the Geo and Arm texts because of uncertainty as to whether or not they would help clarify the picture. However, after discussions with R. Hanhart in Gottingen, they decided that more attention should be paid to the Armenian and Georgian texts. After some preliminary studies, it is surely a good thing that they did. On the right side, the six coumns which are relevant to the Hebrew tradition are: MT, Targum, Peshitta, Vulgate, Chronicles Parallels, and Varia (where Josephus, Syrohexapla, and/or Hebrew mss. variants might be listed).

As the abstract mentioned, the readings are colour-coded to show resemblances and divergences. It is a brilliant method, and one thing emerging early on is the relationship between Geo and Luc., a relationship which in many cases goes against the assumption that Geo and Arm are both so closely related as to be irrelevant for the purposes of text criticism of the LXX. It will be interesting to see how Geo and Luc continue to relate once the editors move from the Kaige section of III Kingdoms. Also of note, Arm’s relationship to the Hexaplaric recension is beginning to show itself diverging from the standard assumptions.

The aim is to have chs. 1-12 of I Kings (III Kingdoms) published by 2007-8. This might not happen, however, because progress is slow. A few more notes to mention:

1. Pablo is collating several Arm mss. that were NOT used by Zohrabian in his Bible of 1805. These mss. are providing him with an ad hoc critical text that will be a better base to work from than Zohrabian. So, while he is not creating an Arm Kings critical edition at the present, he could later publish these books, since he is making a critical apparatus for his own purposes. What will be inserted into the Polyglot will be his text, but obviously without his apparatus. His apparatus is brilliant, and would be a gem to have later on.

2. Andres is likewise working on new Georgian witnesses. All that was said of Pablo in #1 can equally be applied here.

3. I am gratefully supplying the Hexaplaric readings for the Hexaplaric column. That is not to say they are not also working on these readings. But, with the expertise they bring to the Arm and Geo texts, I am hopeful that I will have a better chance at obtaining some interesting results. Further, since I am preparing a critical text of these Hexaplaric readings, I can assist them in obtaining the most reliable readings.

4. Again, the critical text of the Gottingen III-IV Kingdoms is the ultimate goal of the Madrid team. This has its own problems of which they are exasperated with at the present.

The sum of the matter is that at some point in the next 5 years, we will have:

1. A Polyglott presentation of the Versions for III-IV Kingdoms,
2. A critical edition of the Hexaplaric readings for III-IV Kingdoms,
3. At least the seeds for a critical text of III-IV Kingdoms in Geo and Arm, and
4. A critical edition of the LXX of III-IV Kingdoms.