Transformations in 11Q10 and Old Greek Job

Abstract

The thesis compares aspects of translation technique of the earliest Aramaic and Greek translations of Job which date from the Second Temple period. While some preliminary studies have noted certain similarities between 11Q10 and OG Job, the present study represents a fresh systematic analysis of both texts (chapter 1). To this end, Andrew Chesterman?s ?Causal Model? of translation from the field of translation studies has been adapted to provide a framework with which to align and compare these two translations from different linguistic systems (chapter 2). In the body of the thesis (chapters 3-6) four major categories of ?transformations? have been analysed: pluses, minuses, transpositions and substitutions. In each of these chapters, examples of smaller transformations ranging from the representation of individual morphemes to larger transformations involving entire cola or more, are examined and seen to reflect translation tendencies such as standardisation, explicitation and simplification. It is also shown how both 11Q10 and OG Job display sensitivity to aspects of style and rhetorical features as well as Jewish scribal techniques such as the manipulation of source text letters. Furthermore, renderings which can be characterised as ?exegetical? or ?interpretative? in nature are rather restrained in both versions. The broad range of transformations observed in 11Q10 and OG Job suggest that there existed a continuity of translation approaches between the Jewish-Aramaic and Jewish-Greek traditions from the Second Temple period (chapter 7). Given the range of transformations displayed in 11Q10 and OG Job, similar renderings can be understood as arising due to polygenesis rather than being due to a common variant Vorlage. The thesis therefore contributes to our overall conception of Jewish biblical translation as it indicates important points of continuity between Jewish-Aramaic and Jewish-Greek approaches to translation from the Second Temple period, but also certain differences with later Aramaic and Greek translations.