Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

The Peshitta of the Old Testament - Part 7

If the ages of the patriarchs are used to create a chronology from the creation, producing years abbreviated AM (Anno Mundi, the year of the world), the following issues arise from the years given in the different texts. According to the MT, the Flood occurred in the year AM 1656. According to the SP, the Flood occurred in the year AM 1307. According to the LXX, the Flood occurred in the year AM 2242.

With these dates, the following results occur. With the MT, Lamech died 5 year before the Flood in the year AM 1651. With the SP, Lamech died in the year of the Flood, AM 1307. With the LXX, Lamech died 35 years before the Flood, in the year AM 2207. Using the dates of the MT, Methuselah died in the year of the Flood. This is also true of the dates resulting from the MT numbers. However, according to the numbers from the LXX, and the resulting dates, Methuselah lived until AM 2256, fourteen years after the Flood.

From these results, different solutions have been proposed. The first is that the MT may have adjusted the numbers it received from prior copies of the text so that Methuselah did not outlive the Flood, but that this adjustment of dates was made only with the case of Methuselah, as otherwise the patriarchs had died before the Flood. This explanation of course assumes that the numbers the MT received had various problems in it that required adjustment of the text. It has also been suggested that the numbers of the LXX are original, and that the translator of the LXX recognized the problem caused by Methuselah’s outliving the Flood. However, he did not wish to adjust the numbers he received in the text before him and thus left the unsolved problem in the text. Other proposals have suggested that none of the three sets of figures are original. These proposals then take an eclectic approach to trying to play with the numbers to produce a hypothetical “original” set of numbers.

In a certain sense, because we do not possess the original manuscripts of any of the texts, we will never know for certain what the original situation was. However, given that both the SP and the LXX seem to attempt a systematic adjustment of ages relative to the MT, and that the MT does not result in the problems clearly showing in the other two text traditions (as noted above, and noting the radical shortening of Methuselah’s life-span in the SP) it seems best to suppose that the MT represents the original numbers. Again, this cannot be proven, but the fact that all the translations follow this set of numbers, and do not note the variations in the textual tradition suggests that most scholars also adopt this view.

Next week, we will take note of some of the treatments of these ages that suppose some sort of figurative meaning to them.

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