Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ III. Filologiâ (Dec 2017)
Devision of the weeks in Daniel 9.25: the origin of Theodotion's translation and it's relation to the Masoretic text
Abstract
This article deals with the disscusion of Daniel 9.25, where the author foresees the coming of the “anointed prince”. The problem in question is the term after which this event will occur. In masoretic version the sentence is rendered in such a manner that the term from ”the going forth of the commandment” to rebuild Jerusalem to the anointed prince will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks will be the term of the rebuilding of the city. According to the Theodotion's translation the anointed prince will come after 62 weeks and 7 weeks. In our opinion the whole passage can be estimated according to the syntax of the verse without any regard to later Masoretic punctuation. The usage of conjunction waw in the verse 9.25 strongly advocates masoretic interpretation of the passage. On the other hand, the text of Theodotion's translation enables us to reconstruct Hebrew Vorlage with the alternative application of waw conjunctions. Following grammatical criteria we can suggest that the extant masoretic rendering was indeed the original one and later Theodotion's version emerged as a result of misunderstanding of the prophecy. We can suppose that the scribe, who produced Theodotion's protograph, in line with a tradition of the day, treated different messianic and royal figures from Dan 9. 24-27 as the same person, what resulted in alteration of the syntax of the passage.
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