Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/57

40 and like it also closely approximates, in sound and formation, to the Syriac. From this translation which excels the lxx in grammatical accuracy and has at its basis a more settled and stricter text, we learn the meaning of the Psalms as understood in the synagogue, as the interpretation became fixed, under the influence of early tradition, in the first centuries of the Christian era. The text of the Targum itself is at the present day in a very neglected condition. The most correct texts are to be found in Buxtorf and Norzi's Bibles. Critical observations on the Targums of the Hagiographa are given in the treatise עוטה אור by Benzion Berkowitz (Wilna, 1843). The third most important translation of the Psalms is the Peshı̂to, the old version of the Syrian church, which was made not later than in the second century. Its author translated from the original text, which he had without the vowel points, and perhaps also in a rather incorrect form: as is seen from such errors as Psa 17:15 (אמונתך instead of תמונתך), Psa 83:12 (שדמו ואבדמי dele eos et perde eos instead of שיתמו נדיבמו), Psa 139:16 (גמלי retributionem meam instead of גלמי). In other errors he is influenced by the lxx, as Psa 56:9 (בנגדך lxx ἐνώπιόν σου instead of בנאדך), he follows this version in such departures from the better text sometimes not without additional reason, as Psa 90:5 (generationes eorum annus erunt, i.e., זראותיו שׁנה יהיו, lxx τὰ ἐξουδενώματα αὐτῶν ἔτη ἔσονται), Psa 110:3 (populus tuus gloriosus, i.e., נדבוּת עמך in the sense of נדיבה, Job 30:15, nobility, rank, lxx μετὰ σοῦ ἡ ἀρχή). The fact that he had the lxx before him beside the original text is manifest, and cannot be done away by the supposition that the text of the Peshîto has been greatly distorted out of the later Hexaplarian translation; although even this is probable, for the lxx won such universal respect in the church that the Syrians were almost ashamed of their ancient version, which disagreed with it in many points, and it was this very circumstance which gave rise in the year 617 a.d. to the preparation of a new Syriac translation from the Hexaplarian lxx-text. It is not however merely between the Peshîto and the lxx, but also between the Peshîto and the Targum, that a not accidental mutual relation exists, which becomes at once apparent in Psa 1:1-6 (e.g., in the translation of לצים by ממיקני and of תורת by נמוסא)