1 Sam 15:11 LXX

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Barry Hofstetter
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1 Sam 15:11 LXX

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Παρακέκλημαι ὅτι ἐβασίλευσα τὸν Σαοὺλ εἰς βασιλέα...

Anyone want to comment on the use of παρακαλέω to render נחם? It seems like such an unusual choice, and only attested in this sense in the LXX.
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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: 1 Sam 15:11 LXX

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Just a quick follow up, on B-Greek Ken Penner, who worked on the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) pointed out that נחמ can also mean "comfort, console" and thinks that the LXX translator at this point for whatever reason defaulted to that meaning without attention to the context (note that the LXX translates it correctly in vs. 35), so that it was a translator competence issue.
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ἑκηβόλος
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Re: 1 Sam 15:11 LXX

Post by ἑκηβόλος »

LSJ - παρακαλέω
VI. Pass., relent, πρός, ἐπί τινι, towards a person, LXX Jd.21.6, 15, cf. 2 Ki. 24.16.
2. repent, regret, παρακέκλημαι ὅτι . . ib. 1 Ki.15.11.

It seems that the implied meaning is expressed. That is similar to if we were to only say, "He came to work with a brave face." In the use of παρακέκλημαι was an implied reason to comfort himself / be comforted, and in my example we can imply that there was some reason to need to put on a brave face - he was upset enough to need comforting / to try to find comfort.

Whether that was a transfer from the lexico-semantic pattern in נָחַם or a development in Greek is not clear.
τί δὲ ἀγαθὸν τῇ πομφόλυγι συνεστώσῃ ἢ κακὸν διαλυθείσῃ;

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