A Genealogy of Lust

Journal article

Abstract In this study I argue that the translator of Prov 24:50–51 LXX (30:15–16 MT) adapts the Hebrew text to his Hellenistic audience by alluding to Hesiod’s Theogony. The core message of these verses—the ineluctability of cosmic greed—remains the same, yet the images employed in the Septuagint are engrained in and originally belong to the Hellenic mythological understanding of how the universe came into being. The use of classical literature to convey the message contained in the texts of the Hebrew Bible speaks to the hybrid character of the Jewish community of the Egyptian diaspora. When the translator quotes or alludes to Greek literature, he is not borrowing foreign material, but rather drawing wisdom from his very own well. In Alexandria, the waters that flowed from the rock at Horeb and from the Hippocrene spring have merged their course.

Authors: Olivero, V

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Journal: Textus
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 28-42
• Publication date: 2021-01-18
• DOI: 10.1163/2589255x-bja10012
• EISSN: 2589-255X
• ISSN: 0082-3767
• Language: English
• Keywords: Horeb; Bible translation; greed; intertextuality; lust; Septuagint; cosmogony; Alexandria; Hesiod's Theogony; Hellenistic Judaism; classical allusion