The Account of the Tabernacle
Translation and Textual Problems of the Greek Exodus

This lively, clearly written and controversial book will be of particular interest to theologians and biblical scholars.

D. W. Gooding (Author)

9780521111638, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 June 2009

132 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.18 kg

The relation of the Septuagint to the original Hebrew is of major importance to the study of the Old Testament. In the closing chapters of Exodus this relation becomes notoriously obscure; in recording the execution of God's instructions for the making of the tabernacle and the priests' vestments, the Greek differs seriously both in order and content from our present Hebrew text. This raises the problem of how the Greek and Hebrew accounts came to stand in their present form, why they differ so widely, and which represents the older tradition. Scholars during the last century have been almost unanimous in maintaining that the Greek account is earlier than the Hebrew and is translated from a primitive (and now supposedly lost) text. Moreover, because of inconsistencies in technical terms, this part of the Greek Exodus is thought to be the work of a second translator. Dr Gooding puts forward a completely different explanation. This lively, clearly written and controversial book will be of particular interest to theologians and biblical scholars.

1. The problem defined
2. The translation of technical terms in the Pentateuch
3. Some technical terms relating to the tabernacle
4. The Greek exodus: the first section
5. The second section: previous conclusions
6. The second section: fresh conclusions
7. Further peculiarities of chapter 38
8. The evidence of Numbers
9. Contents of the Greek second section
10. The original order of the second section
11. The summing up
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA]