The Original Text of the Bible? Reflections on Textual Criticism
Edward Lipiński
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, , BelgiumAbstract
The textual criticism of the Bible, as viewed traditionally, has for its primary object the reconstruction of the original text from manuscript versions and quotations in ancient writings. Since biblical texts have been often expanded and changed in Antiquity, it is not evident what one should regard as original version. Therefore, the scientific object of textual criticism is to trace the history of the text, to identify and characterize its various recensions or adaptations. This is done in the article by examining a few cases in order to illustrate various kinds of intentional changes or developments and of accidental errors, which happened most often in foreign words, place-names, and personal names. Besides, the same consonantal texts can sometimes be understood in different ways, the masoretic vocalization being one of these interpretationsKeywords:
Yhwh-’l, Ararat/Urartu, Nisroch/Sarrukin, Samgar/samagra, Togarmah/ Tugdamme, Kilmad/Kullimer, wayyqtol/qātal, sheol/Shuwala, Aram/Edom, ġazzīrKatholieke Universiteit Leuven,
Edward Lipiński is born on June 18, 1930 in Łódź, Poland, where he first got acquainted with a Semitic tongue and the history of the ancient Near East. After World War II he completed Graeco-Latin humanities at Sint-Truiden, Belgium(1944-1950). He started his scholarly career in the field of philosophy and theology, with a major interest for Kant and Hegel. This was soon followed by oriental and biblical studies at Louvainand in Rome. His university life was briefly interrupted in 1957-1958 by a teaching period at Łódź in a middle school. Back in Belgium, he obtained in 1961 a doctorate at LouvainUniversityand a second one, in 1964, at the Biblical Institute in Romeunder the tutelage of W.L. Moran, a renowned Assyriologist. Thanks to the monumental monograph La royauté de Yahwé dans la poésie et le culte de l’ancien Israël, which was awarded the prize of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, Edward Lipiński earned in 1965 the highest degree of ‘fellow’ of Louvain University, where he started teaching in 1967. Appointed professor in 1969, he taught the comparative grammar of the Semitic languages, Semitic epigraphy, both West-Semitic and South-Arabian, and history of ancient Near Eastern religions and institutions. His research in these fields is based mainly on his experience in biblical studies, his knowledge of Near Eastern cultures, and his acquaintance with ancient Semitic tongues, as well as with Classical Greek and Latin.
As head of the Department of Oriental and Slavonic Studies from 1978 to 1984, he has been the protagonist of the creation of study programmes in Sinology and Japanology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. According to the Foreword of the Anniversary Volume prepared in 1995 by his colleagues and friends, ‘he has always been keen to share his knowledge with others, young and old. Apart from the many classes he taught, he took the initiative to organizing international conferences at the Department, the most successful among them being the one on State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East (1978)’. He participated in many international meetings, in particular those held by Assyriologists and Semitists of Central and Eastern Europe (Shulmu) at Budapest, Leipzig, Prague, Poznań, and he is a member of the Editorial or Advisory Board of various scholarly journals (Zeitschrift für Althebraistik, Vetus Testamentum, Latomus, Mediterraneo Antico, Scripta Biblica et Orientalia).
As head of the Inter-University Research Group on Phoenician and Punic history and culture, he directed the publication of the first ever Dictionnaire de la civilisation phénicienne et punique (1992) and of the series Studia Phoenicia, which at present counts twenty volumes (1983-2009). Due to his Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics (1975, 1994) and to his synthesis on The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion (2000), presented by a reviewer as ‘an indispensable tool for the research’, he is regarded as one of the main living protagonists of Aramaic studies. His contributions to the Bible studies are represented, among other, by many articles published in the Encyclopaedia Judaica and in the Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la Bible. In 1992, he accepted to cooperate in a teaching program in the Middle East and until 1998 he taught the comparative grammar of the Semitic Languages to the Arab students of theYarmoukUniversity atIrbid,Jordan.
In 1995 he retired as professor emeritus at the Louvain University, but continued unabated his researches, mainly in the field of Aramaic and Phoenician, and kept on lecturing in various places, among them at Aleppo and Tunis Universities, without forgetting his evening lectures on history and archaeology of ancient Israel at Martin Buber Institute of Brussels University. In 2003, he was awarded the title of Doctor honoris causa by Lund University, Sweden, mainly in recognition of his linguistic studies, in particular his Semitic Languages. Outline of a Comparative Grammar (1997, 22001). The Belgian State awarded him the titles of Officer of the Leopold Order and of Commander of the Crown Order for the role played in international relations.License
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