Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

The Peshitta of the Old Testament - Part 12

Exodus 8:23 in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (8:19 in the Hebrew text) reads, “I will make a distinction between my people and your people.” It notes, however, that the Hebrew text reads, “I will place deliverance.” The reading adopted by the HCSB is found in the Peshitta, as well as in the Septuagint, and the Vulgate. The Hebrew term (pduth) means “ransom,” which seems odd in the context. Hence, the Biblia Hebraica suggests that perhaps the original read pluth. That would give the meaning “separation” or “distinction,” but that particular form of the word is not otherwise attested in the Bible. It also seems unlikely that the “d” character could be mistaken for the “l” character or vice versa. Though a number of the letters in Hebrew can easily be mistaken for one another, depending on the script used, none of the known scripts would contribute to a d-l confusion. It may well be that the versions simply thought the Hebrew pduth to be mistaken, and sought a more likely term in its place, without any basis in the Hebrew manuscripts.

The HCSB in Exodus 13:5 reads, “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, and Jebusites.” The note on the passage shows that the Dead Sea Scrolls texts, the Septuagint, and the Peshitta include the Girgashites and the Perizzites. So which is correct? Should the Hebrew Masoretic text (MT) be followed, or should these other texts be followed? It is the judgment of the translators of the HCSB (and the ESV) that the MT should be followed. This listing of the nations that occupied Palestine before the entry of the Israelites occurs in a number of places, for example, Genesis 15:19-20, Exodus 3:8; 33:3; Numbers 16:14, and other passages. All of the listings vary to some extent from one another. Thus, it is likely that the editors of modern translations have concluded that the Dead Sea scrolls texts, the Septuagint, and the Peshitta have attempted here to harmonize this listing with other listings, making it unlikely that the reading preserved in these texts is the original reading.

Exodus 14:25 in the HCSB reads, He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and made them drive with difficulty.” The note on the text calls attention to the fact that the Peshitta, the Septuagint, and the Samaritan Pentateuch all read, “He bound their chariot wheels.” This is a notoriously difficult passage. It reads in a woodenly literal fashion, “And he made to depart (or turned aside, or loosened) the wheel of his chariots, and he drove (or led) him with heaviness.” Robert Alter comments, “There is some dispute about the sense of the verb, which usually means to ‘take away,’ ‘take off,’ ‘remove.’ The simplest explanation is that as the water begins to seep back and before it becomes a flood that engulfs the Egyptians, it turns the dry ground into muck. The chariot wheels rapidly become stuck in the mud and break off from the axles” (The Five Books of Moses, p. 395). The Peshitta, Septuagint, and Samaritan Pentateuch were probably trying to make sense of a difficult text, and hence do not preserve the original reading.

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