Genesis 12

Notes

1. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 4, 52

   συγγένεια, "kindred," where the Masoretic version reads "birth" (מוֹלֶדֶת, the place and the people one is born among). Stephen quotes this Greek at Acts 7:3: "Go out from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you." The Greek has no word for the Masoretic version's "for yourself" (לְךָ), which is marked as a minus after "Go out."

2. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 52

   καὶ ἔσῃ εὐλογητός, "and you will be blessed," a promise about Abram, where the Masoretic version reads "and be a blessing," a command that makes him the blessing itself. εὐλογητός is the adjective of the doxologies: of God at 14:20, and in the New Testament "the Creator, who is blessed into the ages" (Rom 1:25; 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3).

3. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 4, 53

   Swete prints εὐλογηθήσονται, "shall be blessed," from Alexandrinus; Rahlfs and Göttingen read ἐνευλογηθήσονται, "shall be blessed in," with a doubled preposition and no difference of sense. Paul quotes the promise in the compound form, fused with 18:18: "in you shall be blessed all the nations" (Gal 3:8); Peter's version has "all the families of the land" (Acts 3:25, from 22:18). Here the Greek has φυλαί, "tribes," where the Masoretic version reads "clans," and γῆ, "land," where it reads "ground." Earlier in the verse the Greek has one verb, καταράομαι "curse," for both of the Masoretic version's: "the one making light of you I will curse" becomes "those cursing you I will curse."

4. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 52, 53

   ψυχὴν ἣν ἐκτήσαντο, "soul that they had acquired," the verb of the first clause again, where the Masoretic version reads "the soul that they had made"; the Greek makes the people of the household acquisitions like the goods. Swete prints ἐκ Χαρράν, "from Harran," where Rahlfs reads ἐν, with the Masoretic version's "in Harran"; the difference is a preposition and changes little.

5. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 18, 52

   ἐπὶ τὴν δρῦν τὴν ὑψηλήν, "to the oak, the high one," where the Masoretic version reads "as far as the terebinth of Moreh." The Greek reads the name מוֹרֶה as a description of the tree, perhaps from רוּם "be high." The same tree, by the same Greek reading, is "the oak that is in Shechem" at 35:4.

6. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 53

   Swete prints ἐν Βαιθήλ, "in Bethel," from Alexandrinus, where Rahlfs and the Masoretic version have Bethel bare: "Bethel toward the sea and Ai toward the east," the two towns that the tent stood between. With ἐν the tent stands in Bethel. The word has no lemma id in the packet and is untagged. ἔστησεν τὴν σκηνήν, "made the tent stand," where the Masoretic version reads "stretched out his tent."

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 52

   ἐστρατοπέδευσεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, "he encamped in the desert," where the Masoretic version reads "going and breaking camp, toward the Negev." The Greek has Abram halt where the Hebrew has him keep moving, and it renders the Negev, the dry south, by ἔρημος, "desert," as again at 13:1, 3. At 13:14 it gives the direction as λίψ, "southwest."

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 54, 143

   καὶ εἰσήγαγον αὐτὴν πρὸς Φαραώ, "and they brought her in to Pharaoh," where the Masoretic version reads "and the woman was taken into the house of Pharaoh": the Greek has no word for "house of" (בֵּית), which is marked as a minus.

9. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 52

   ἡμίονοι, "mules," where the Masoretic version reads "she-donkeys" (אֲתֹנֹת). The Greek also has the list in three pairs, without the Masoretic version's chain of "and."

10. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 52

    ἤτασεν … ἐτασμοῖς μεγάλοις καὶ πονηροῖς, "examined … with great and evil examinations," where the Masoretic version reads "touched … with great strokes." ἐτάζω is to examine by trial, the word for questioning under torture (Acts 22:24, 29 has the compound ἀνετάζω, of Paul to be "examined by scourging"). The Greek makes the plagues an inquiry into Pharaoh, and ὁ θεός, "God," stands where the Masoretic version reads ADONAI. "And evil" is seeded as a plus and adopted. Where the Masoretic version reads "on the word of Sarai," the Greek has περί, "concerning."

11. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 53

    Swete prints συνπροπέμψαι, "to send him off together," a compound of προπέμπω, "send on one's way" (Acts 15:3; 3 John 6), from Alexandrinus; Rahlfs spells it συμπροπέμψαι (συμπροπέμπω). The Masoretic version reads a finite verb, "and they sent him away." The Greek adds "and Lot with him," seeded and adopted, so that Lot leaves Egypt with Abram as he does at 13:1.