Symmachus in Antioch?: The relationship between Lucian and Symmachus in 1 Kings
Mr Timothy Law, Oxford
Studies on the translation of Symmachus in the last several decades have prepared the ground for research into the influence this translator exercised on the later recensional history of the LXX. The lexical and syntactical studies by Busto Saiz and González Luis, coupled with the most recent exegetical analysis of Symmachus in the Pentateuch by Salvesen have enabled us to gain a more accurate picture of this translator, his methods, and his style. The question that begs an answer is whether or not the version of Symmachus had any effect upon the recensional work of the Antiochene revisors. Now with the critical text of the Antiochene recension fixed for the historical books, and with the completion of a preliminary study on Symmachus in 1 Kings, we are in position to assess the question of the interrelationship of the two for this book. A short introduction to the work of Symmachus on 1 Kings will give way to an analysis of those lexical and syntactical features shared by both Symmachus and the Antiochene text. This study is on the one hand an answer to a plea made by Natalio Fernández Marcos more than a decade ago at the Rich Seminar on the Hexapla in Oxford, and on the other, a compliment to his own study recently completed with regard to Symmachus and Lucian in Ezekiel.