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ADRIAN SCHENKER (ed.), The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered (SBLSCS 52; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003). Pp. xii + 153. Paper $29.95.
The Hebrew biblical manuscripts discovered at Qumran have forced a scholarly reconsideration of the development of the text of the Hebrew Bible, including a reappraisal of the Hebrew Vorlagen of the Jewish-Greek scriptures. As Schenker notes in his introduction, at the same time that the biblical manuscripts from the Dead Sea were revolutionizing the study of the Hebrew Bible, the field of Septuagint studies was undergoing a revolution of its own, especially in light of the discovery of the scroll of the Greek Minor Prophets at Nahal Hever. The panel discussion (held at the meetings of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies in 2001) where the seven articles in this volume were originally presented grew out of the realization that the relationship between the MT and the Hebrew Vorlage of the LXX required reassessment. The first six papers examine this problem in specific books of the LXX; the final programmatic essay considers some methodological issues concerning the place of the MT and the LXX in the textual history of the Hebrew Bible.
The articles...