LXX-Genesis 37:25 (the Story of Joseph) : εκαθισαν δε φαγειν αρτον και αναβλεψαντες τοις οφθαλμοις ειδον και ιδου οδοιποροι ισμαηλιται ηρχοντο εκ γαλααδ και αι καμηλοι αυτων εγεμον θυμιαματων και ρητινης και στακτης επορευοντο δε καταγαγειν εις αιγυπτον (NETS: Then they sat down to eat bread, and looking up with their eyes, they saw, and see, Ismaelite wayfarers were coming from Galaad, and their camels were laden with fragnant substances and pine resin and oil of myrrh. Now they were traveling to bring them down to Egypt).
In the Apparatus of different critical Editions there are some words that I didn’t find in any of my dictionaries:
1: Holmes-Parsons: to ρητινης : κηριν ; to στακτης : πισσαριν (both refering to ms 131, superscript of second hand)
(Vers 24 in their edition: The Oxford Greek Septuagint – with critical readings — Volume 1 of 5 : Holmes, Robert 1748-1805 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.
2: Brookes-MacLean: to ρητινης : κηριν ; to στακτης : πιαγαριν (both refering to ms. 130 = Wien Nationalbibliothek Theol.Gr. 3 (Nessel 57) [NOTE from me: probably this reference is wrong], Between angled Brackets, meaning they mention the reading, relying on Holmes-Parsons, not having checked/found the reading in any manuscript)
3: Göttingen : to ρητινης : κηριν ; to στακτης : πιαγαριν (they refer to ms. 131, corrected by firsthand = Wien Nationalbibliothek Theol.gr. 57)
((Featured) Septuaginta, Vetus Testamentum Graecum - Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis Editum - Vol. 1 Genesis, Edidit John William Wevers | PDF ; Web-page 360).
Since the Wien Nationalbibliothek has no online-exemplars of the above cited manuscripts I couldn’t check these.
I consulted my dictionaries (Jakobitz, Passow, Pape, Bailly, Montanary, LSJ):
None of them has either κηριν, πισσαριν, πιαγαριν.
At least the first two have similar words in the dictionaries:
κηρινος (waxen), κηριον (honeycomb)
πισσα (pitch), πισσηρης/πισσηεις/πισσηρος (pitch, pitchy)
There is no word listed that shows any similarity with πιαγαριν.
I could imagine, κηριν to be short for κηρινος, but what’s with πισσαριν and even more difficult πιαγαριν?
2 posts - 2 participants