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Whose story is Exodus 4:24–26? - A Textual Comparative study of the Masoretic Text(MT), Septuagint(LXX) and Samaritan Pentateuch(SP)

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2019, 25(4), pp.253-281
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2019.25.4.253
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : October 15, 2019
  • Accepted : October 29, 2019

Kim Jin Myung 1

1장로회신학대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Exodus 4:24–26 shows 'Moses and family's journey back to Egypt' in the entire story of Moses' vocations in chapters 3-4. The ambiguous personal pronouns are used in this text can be difficult elements for interpretation of the text. This study focused on the ambiguity of the third-person personal pronoun “he” or “him” in Exodus 4:24–26, which implies the possibility of being translated as Moses or the Son of Moses or even as a presumption of Zipporah. However, this ambiguity is a difficult problem, but at the same time it can be interpreted as an element that provides possibility for various interpretations for the text. Because LXX focuses on the Son of Moses, and SP focuses on Zipporah and each of them describing the text as not simply a story centered on Moses, but a story in which the son or Zipporah had an important meaning or role. If the differences between MT, LXX, and SP are evaluated as features that show the versatility of the texts, not the superiority criteria, and in parallel, the ambiguity of the personal pronouns in MT is rather can function as a possibility to reflect diverse emphasis points.  Through the comparative study of the three texts, Exodus 4:24–26 shows that Moses' son (LXX) and wife Zipporah (SP) were closely related as family members in the calling process of Moses described in MT 3-4. It is possible to reflect the viewpoint and contents of each text, and to recognize the story with the possibility of highlighting various emphasis points for each character. The comparative study of the diversity of traditions of the three texts(MT-LXX-SP), and at the same time, the parallel work of comparing various final texts can help to understand the ambiguity and difficulty that can occur when studying each text individually.

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