Jeremiah: A Translation and Commentary on Jeremiah in Codex Vaticamus

Abstract

This study investigates the Greek text of Jeremiah as found in the famous Vatican manuscript Codex Vaticanus 1209. It is the first major commentary to focus on the text of LXX Jeremiah in any modern language. Rather than seeing LXX mainly as a text-critical resource with variants to be explained, this commentary examines a specific manuscript in its own right as a document used by Greek readers unfamiliar with Hebrew. Included are a diplomatic edition, an English translation of Codex Vaticanus, and a detailed commentary. The edition follows the manuscript as closely as possible, preserving sections, paragraphs, spelling, and nomina sacra of the Codex Vaticanus itself. The translation has the ideal ambition of making a similar impression on the reader of the English translation today as the Greek translation had on an ancient reader, thus highlighting as much as possible those features of the Greek of Jeremiah which can be regarded as unidiomatic. Likewise it is the intention of the commentary to discuss these unidiomatic features. With the focus on the reception of the Greek text in the reading community the commentaries of Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Olympiodorus have been utilized to get an opinion about what could have been in the minds of the early readers of the text. Moreover, linguistic peculiarities are discussed wherever the Greek of Jeremiah appears to deviate from standard (extra-biblical) Greek. Further, the divergences from the Göttingen edition have been noted in the commentary.