Moshe A Zipor
When Midrash Met Septuagint: The Case of Esther 2,7
Est 2,7: »Mordechai took her (i.e. Esther) as his daughter (lebat)« is read midrashically by R. Meir as lebayit »for a home«, i.e., as his wife (bMeg 13a). This is unexpectedly similar to the LXX: ϵiς γυναĩκα »for a wife«. The LXX cannot be influenced by the midrash, since R. Meir lived several generations after the translators. Nor can the LXX reading be a translation of MT lebat and the source of the lebayit midrash. It is proposed that the midrash stems from a conjectured Hebrew variant »Mordechai took her to his home (lebêtô, labbayit)«, which the midrash understands as an idiom for marriage. As for the LXX, the ancient textual witnesses that the authentic reading was »for a daughter« and that only some fourth-century MSS were contaminated by the midrashic reading.
Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0044-2526
Volume: 118, 03/2006
Pages: 82 - 92
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