Re: Exodus 2 - Strange Occurrences
Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:27 pm
I've often said that when we find these kinds of deviations from the MT, we are seeing an early pre-Targumic interpolation or expansion.Jason Hare wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:06 pm Have you read the second chapter of the Exodus? There are a lot of textual issues in that little chapter (of 25 verses).
The first odd thing is the fact that the names of the characters are lacking from 2:1 and don't appear in the text until 6:20.
2:1 — וַיֵּ֥לֶךְ אִ֖ישׁ מִבֵּ֣ית לֵוִ֑י וַיִּקַּ֖ח אֶת־בַּת־לֵוִֽי׃
6:20 — וַיִּקַּ֨ח עַמְרָ֜ם אֶת־יֹוכֶ֤בֶד דֹּֽדָתֹו֙ לֹ֣ו לְאִשָּׁ֔ה וַתֵּ֣לֶד לֹ֔ו אֶֽת־אַהֲרֹ֖ן וְאֶת־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וּשְׁנֵי֙ חַיֵּ֣י עַמְרָ֔ם שֶׁ֧בַע וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֛ים וּמְאַ֖ת שָׁנָֽה׃
Why wouldn't the names of the characters be introduced as soon as the story begins as part of the background information? What could the motivation be for delaying to inform the reader of the names of the parents of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. (By the way, both the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint add Miriam to 6:20, while the Masoretic Text doesn't include her.) Along these lines, it's also odd that Yocheved is called simply בַּת־לֵוִי "the daughter of Levi," as if she were his direct daughter and his only one. Levi was some 350 years before her birth, so we are given to understand this as "a descendent of Levi," but it's written as if it were definite: "the daughter of Levi."
Also, the Septuagint changes דּוֹדָתוֹ "his aunt" to θυγατέρα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ "his father's brother's daughter" (his cousin).
The whole "she saw him that he was good" in verse 2 brings to mind the creation of the world, where God "saw that it was good" on several occasions.
I'm not sure why we see הַצְּפִינוֹ instead of הַצְפִּינוֹ in verse 3. It's as if the dagesh has simply been placed in the wrong letter!
In verse 4, וַתֵּתַצַּב has apparently been written instead of וַתִּתְיַצַּב.
Verse 5 ends without a sof pasuk in the Leningrad Codex. Odd.
Verse 6 is all kinds of weird. It literally says: "and she opened, and she saw him the boy, and behold a youth crying." Normally, if there is also an explicit object, then אֵת is read as "with." So, "she saw him with the boy." That doesn't make sense, either. And why did the baby suddenly become a youth (נַ֫עַר)?
This is just the beginning of the odd features of Exodus chapter 2. I've never really taken note of its strangeness in the past, just reading through it quickly.
Any comments?