The Links Between the LXX Translation of Kings and Chronicles
(2025) LXX.D — Location: Wuppertal
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- Abstract
- At first sight 1 Kings 5:6 seems like an uninteresting verse. It relates the amount of horses Solomon had for his chariots (40,000) as well as the amount of horsemen (12,000). Studying this verse more closely feels much like entering a rabbit hole: behind every corner there are more twists and turns. First, the verse seemingly has a doublet in 1 Kings 10:26, second, the LXX translation of this doublet seems to translate a variation to 1 Kings 5:6 and is found twice in 3 Kingdoms (in 2:46i and 10:26), but is missing at 1 Kings 5:6. Third, this verse also appears twice in Chronicles: once in 2 Chron 1:14, seemingly the equivalent to 1 Kings 10:26, and once in 2 Chron 9:25, seemingly the equivalent to the Hebrew Vorlage of 3 Kgdms 10:26. The most interesting element in this case is not merely the issues in connecting the different versions of this verse that exist in Hebrew, but rather the possible link that exists on a Greek level between LXX 3 Kingdoms 10:26 and the LXX translation of 2 Chron 9:25, LXX 2 Paralipomenon 9:25. 2 Par 9:25 clearly is a direct translation of 2 Chron 9:25: the interesting element is that it is identical to LXX 3 Kgdms 10:26. Extrapolating to the surrounding verses shows a similar phenomenon: 2 Par 9:24-28 and 3 Kgdms 10:25-28 are almost identical and seem to have been translated by the same hand. This parallel has been noticed by some scholars, but has commonly been explained as a fluke, a one time event in which either the translator of 2 Paralipomena borrowed from 3 Kingdoms (so Van Keulen [2001]) or a later revisor of 3 Kingdoms used the translation of 2 Paralipomena (so Gooding [1969]) for its revision. Using 2 Par 9:24-28/3 Kgdms 10:25-28 as a basis, I want to look at other possible parallels between Paralipomena and Kingdoms in order to determine whether this is indeed simply a fluke or whether a stronger link between the translations of Paralipomena and Kingdoms can be discovered.
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Citations
Beukenhorst, M. (2025). The Links Between the LXX Translation of Kings and Chronicles. LXX.D, Wuppertal.