Shorter or longer text in Ezekiel 6: The role of genre (original) (raw)
The text of Ezekiel continues to present some challenges to students studying it. This is in view of what one school of thought identify in the Ezekiel text as extensive redactions and revisions, whilst another school of thought is hesitant to subject the Masoretic Text (MT) to such critical analysis. Amidst these differing viewpoints, I have discussed by means of literary analysis, the possibility that chapter 6 of Ezekiel may have been intended as a prophetic poetic message, or was later edited to conform to the genre of prophetic poetry. This is in the light of the so-called repetitions or 'additions' reflected in the MT if compared against the LXX, as well as the general problems associated with the Hebrew text of Ezekiel. The findings indicate that the text of Ezekiel 6 probably already had a complete theological corpus when it left the hand of the prophet Ezekiel or those who penned his words down. However, scribes saw it necessary to restructure, organise and colour the prophetic oracle in a literary form and structure they thought was necessary. This finding could be vital for solving literary and text critical problems in Ezekiel. 1.A critical edition based on Papyrus 967 and Codex Vaticanus (B); main witnesses to the pre-Hexaplaric Old Greek text (cf. Van Rooy 2004:142). 2.I refer in this article to that text which is in the MT but missing in the LXX (967) as the 'additional text'. 3.Ezekiel 6 in the MT is apparently one of the chapters considered by Zimmerli as having been perfectly preserved (Lust 2006:155). 4.The Oxford Hebrew Bible project, currently underway, has been modelled in line with these presuppositions (Van Rooy 2004).
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