Literalism and Left Dislocation in the Greek Pentateuch

Abstract

This article argues that literalism in the Greek Pentateuch is an epiphenomenon of crosslinguistic symmetry. I examine translation of the Left Dislocation construction in the Greek Pentateuch and demonstrate that the translators were aware of its discourse-pragmatic meaning. I argue the best explanation for its distribution in the Pentateuch is that the translators licensed crosslinguistic symmetry in order to interpretively resemble the source.