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Document Details : Title: The Barberini Translation of Habakkuk 3 Subtitle: A Material Philological Approach Author(s): HADDOCK, Garrett M. Journal: Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies Volume: 57 Date: 2024 Pages: 131-153 DOI: 10.2143/JSCS.57.0.3294339 Abstract : The textual history of the book of Habakkuk is as complicated as it is intriguing. This history is especially convoluted in the third chapter of the work attributed to this prophet. Compounding the already complicated Masoretic Text (MT), which itself requires consulting the Greek to illumine its dense poetry, is the fact that alongside a Septuagint translation of this chapter, there exists a non-septuagintal version of the prayer/psalm/song of Habakkuk 3. Adding to this translation’s oddity is the fact that it is only attested for this chapter. Many interpreters have puzzled over this version, called Barberini after the name of its best textual witness (Vat. barb. gk 549, Ra 86; Barberini codex). Most studies, while instructive in so far as they deal with the translation differences and how Barberini relates to the Hexaplaric material, move quickly past the manuscripts and towards the 'ideal' Barberini. An instructive development in textual studies has arisen which might help illumine Barberini. This development is found in the so-called New Philology school of research. This approach, also known as material philology, emphasizes the material nature of texts. I argue that the materiality of the Barberini text, as it appears in its scant manuscript tradition, illumines a key face to the Barberini translation, i.e., the manuscripts always tie the Barberini version to the OG. In this way, one can see that the Barberini version borrows its authority from the OG. |
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