Symmachus uses the lexeme ἀσχημόνησις twice in his translation of the Psalter, once in Psalm 43[44]:16 and once in Psalm 68[69]:8.¹ The first passage (Ps 43[44]:16) reads as follows in the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text:

The second passage (Ps 68[69]:8) reads as follows:

1. Hexaplaric Evidence for ἀσχημόνησις (σ' Pss 43:16; 68:8)

The Göttingen Hexapla Database, which is in its Beta version, gives the following information for Psalm 43[44]:16a:

The Database gives the following information for Psalm 68[69]:8b:

1.1. MT

In both passages (Pss 44[43]:16a; 69[68]:8b), the Masoretic Text has the noun כְּלִמָּה.² The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament describes the significance of the root כלם as follows: “A person to whom klm is applied is degraded both subjectively and objectively. That person is isolated within his previous world, and his own sense of worth is impugned. He becomes subject to scorn, insult, and mockery, and is cut off from communication.”³ A paradigmatic example – and the only instance of the root כלם in the Pentateuch – is found in Numbers 12:14 with reference to Miriam: “But the Lord said to Moses, ‘If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame (תִכָּלֵם) for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in again’” (NRSVue).

            The ancient translations use words that belong to the semantic domain of shame. In both passages (Pss 44[43]:16a; 69[68]:8b), the Targum uses the noun כיסופא (“shame”), the Peshitta the noun ܒܗܬܬܐ (“shame, disgrace”) and Jerome(iuxta Hebr) the noun confusion (“embarrassment”).⁴ The Greek translations also use words related to shame. The following chart shows each occurrence of the word כְּלִמָּה in the Psalter, together with its attested Greek translation equivalents:⁵

1.2. LXX

In both passages (Pss 43[44]:16a; 68[69]:8b), the Septuagint translates כְּלִמָּה with the same Greek word: ἐντροπή. Muraoka defines this word as “sense of shame,” and Bauer et al. as “the state of being ashamed.”¹⁰ In the Greek Psalter, there is a one-to-one equivalence between ἐντροπή and כְּלִמָּה; the former always translates the latter, and the latter is always translated by the former. Perhaps the Greek translator was influenced by the translation of Pentateuch, where the verb כלם (niphal) is translated with the Greek verb ἐντρέπειν (Num 12:14).¹¹

1.3. Symmachus

Among the Hexaplaric translations, only the translation of Symmachus has survived for each of these verses. The Database, in its Beta version, has drawn these readings from Field’s edition of the Hexapla.¹² The following table shows the readings in Field’s edition, together with his sources for each reading:

The following two sections discuss the manuscript attestation and patristic evidence for each reading in turn, beginning with Psalm 43:16a.

2. Manuscript Attestation and Patristic Evidence I (σ' Ps 43:16)

For the Symmachus reading in Psalm 43:16a, the only primary source which Field cites is Eusebius.¹³ In addition to Eusebius, however, Chrysostom also provides relevant information. 

2.1. Eusebius

The quotation of Eusebius and the reading ἡ ἀσχημόνησίς μου can be seen, for example, in the Palestinian Catena Manuscript Ra 1121 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barocci gr. 235), on page 379v:

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barocci gr. 235 (Ra 1121), f. 379v

The full passage reads as follows according to Villani’s preliminary edition:¹⁴

2.2. Chrysostom

Chrysostom, after quoting the text of Psalm 43:16a, cites “another version” (ἄλλος) that reads ἡ ἀσχημοσύνη μου. This reading can be seen, for example, in Ra 9100:

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Grec 654 (Ra 9100), f. 152r

The same reading appears in all of the extant direct witnesses to this passage: Ra 9101 (f. 15r), Ra 9105 (f. 170v), Ra 9106 (f. 69r), Ra 9107 (f. 95v). The passage reads as follows according to the Göttingen preliminary edition (Chr.43.516–518):¹⁵

            The anonymous “other” (ἄλλος) version in this passage is probably Symmachus.¹⁶ There are two reasons for this conclusion. First, the lexemes ἀσχημοσύνη and ἀσχημόνησις are similar, and, as will be seen below in the discussion of Psalm 68:8, scribes sometimes substituted one for the other. Secondly, it appears that Symmachus used words from the ἀ-σχη- word group relatively often, especially to translate words from the Hebrew root כלם.¹⁷ For example, in Psalm 34:26, according to Ra 1098, where Aquila and Quinta use the lexeme ἐντροπή to translate כְּלִמָּה (so LXX), Symmachus alone has ἀσχημοσύνη. He also uses the verb ἀσχημονεῖν in Psalm 39:15 and Psalm 68:7 to translate the verbs חפר (qal) and כלם (niphal) respectively.¹⁸ Thus, Chrysostom appears to preserve a variant reading for Symmachus: ἀσχημοσύνηinstead of ἀσχημόνησις. The reading ἀσχημοσύνη is probably secondary, however, because it is a relatively common word and thus the lectio facilior.¹⁹

2.3. Refined Representation of Hexaplaric Evidence I (σ' Ps 43:16)

A refined representation of the reading in question and its attestation looks like this:

3. Manuscript Attestation and Patristic Evidence II (σ' Ps 68:8)

For Psalm 68[69]:8b, Field cites Eusebius as the main primary source for the reading ἀσχημόνησις. He also cites three other sources that provide, or mention, the variant reading ἀσχημοσύνη. First, Montfaucon reports one manuscript that reads ἀσχημοσύνη.²⁰ Second, “Nobilius” also reads ἀσχημοσύνη.²¹ Finally, the “Commentarius Heracleotae” in the second volume of Balthasar Corderius’ Expositio Patrum Graecorum in Psalmos (“Catena PP.GG., T. II”) also reads ἀσχημοσύνη.²²

3.1. Eusebius

The quotation of Eusebius is based on the 10^th century manuscript Codex Coislinianus 44, the only direct witness of Eusebius’ commentary for Psalms 51–95. The reading attributed to Symmachus for Psalm 68:8 – ἀσχημόνησις – appears on page 161v, column two, near the middle of the column:

Codex Coislinianus 44, f. 161v

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b11004562j/f165.item.zoom

            The full passage reads as follows according to Bandt’s edition:²³

In the apparatus, Bandt notes two manuscripts (“G” = Ra 273; “Dd” = Ra 1266) that read ἀσχημοσύνη.²⁴ The same variation between ἀσχημόνησις and ἀσχημοσύνη was seen above in the witnesses to Psalm 43:16. It seems that scribes consistently struggled with ἀσχημόνησις and replaced it with the more common word ἀσχημοσύνη.

            It is also worth noting that Eusebius reads τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ instead of the expected τὸ πρόσωπον μοῦ. Field attributes this to an error.²⁵ It is also possible that Eusebius is paraphrasing. In either case, given the wider context and the most likely underlying Hebrew text, it is virtually certain that Symmachus would have read τὸ πρόσωπον μοῦ and not τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ.²⁶

3.2. Refined Representation of Hexaplaric Evidence II (σ' Ps 68:8)

A refined representation of the reading in question and its attestation looks like this:

4. Analysis of σ' ἀσχημόνησις in Pss 43:16; 68:8

The word ἀσχημόνησις, which Symmachus uses to translate כְּלִמָּה in Psalm 43:16 and Psalm 68:8 is a nominative feminine singular noun of the third declension. The lexeme is unattested outside of Symmachus’ Psalter.²⁷ The consulted lexica analyze the word as follows:

            These lexical entries can be synthesized into the following points. First, ἀσχημόνησις describes some form of “shame/dishonor” (Montanari; Schleusner: opprobrium) or “inappropriateness” (cf. Adrados et al.; Bailly – Hugo Chávez 2020). Second, ἀσχημόνησις is at least partially synonymous with the lexeme ἀσχημοσύνη (Stephanus; Dimitriakos; Liddell and Scott; Montanari). This point would seem to be confirmed by the readiness of scribes to substitute ἀσχημοσύνη for ἀσχημόνησις in the manuscript tradition (see above) as well as the fact that Symmachus himself appears to have used both words to translate the same Hebrew word (כְּלִמָּה): ἀσχημοσύνη in Psalm 34:26 (so Ra 1098) and ἀσχημόνησις in Psalms 43:16; 68:8 (see above). Third, ἀσχημόνησις is derived from the contract verb ἀσχημονεῖν(ἀσχημονέω) (Schleusner; Montanari; Bailly – Hugo Chávez 2020). As Schleusner notes, ἀσχημόνησις “can be derived from ἀσχημονέω by the same rule as, for example, ἀγανάκτησις and ἀμφισβήτησις from ἀγανακτέω and ἀμφισβητέω, and other such nouns which we know descend from verbs ending in εω.”²⁸

            The verb ἀσχημονεῖν, from which ἀσχημόνησις derives, often means to “behave disgracefully, dishonorably, indecently.”²⁹ The verb consists of an alpha privative plus the root σχη-, which is related, for example, to the noun σχῆμα (“form”). As Bauer notes, “the noun σχῆμα refers to someth[ing] that has a pattern or form, freq[uently] of a type that the public considers standard or laudable.”³⁰ Thus, “to act contrary to the standard” (ἀ-σχημονεῖν) is to behave in a way that is inappropriate and, thus, disgraceful.³¹

            Symmachus uses the verb in a slightly different sense, however. In Psalm 39:15 and Psalm 68:7, where it renders the Hebrew verbs חפר (qal) and כלם (niphal) respectively, ἀσχημονεῖν does not mean “behave disgracefully,” but rather “experience disgrace.” The focus, in other words, is not on the moral appropriateness of an action but on a persons’ social experience, even when that person has not actually done anything deserving disgrace. See, for example, how Symmachus (according to Eusebius) uses the verb in Psalm 68:7:³²

It is clear that the verb here does not mean “behave disgracefully,” but rather “experience/suffer disgrace.”

            If ἀσχημονεῖν in Symmachus’ Psalter means “experience shame, disgrace, humiliation,” then the noun ἀσχημόνησις most likely refers to the abstract state of “shame, disgrace, humiliation.” The suffix -σις is used to form verbal abstracts. In Classical Greek, -σις was “the most productive action noun suffix; it could be added to virtually any verbal root, especially in the formation of a technical or scientific vocabulary,”³³ and it continued to be productive in the post-classical period.³⁴ Symmachus elsewhere uses this suffix to form unique lexemes, for example, ἐγκάκησις(“loathing,” Ps 118:143a) which derives from ἐγκακεῖν (ἐγκακέω) (“to loathe”).

            This basic meaning of the word (“disgrace, humiliation”) makes sense in the context of Symmachus’ translation. Fortunately, thanks to Eusebius, the context for Psalm 43:16 is especially well preserved.³⁵

In Psalm 43:16, the psalmist faces public insults (ὀνειδίζειν) and cursing (βλασφημεῖν), and this leads him to experience “humiliation” (καταισχυμμός; cf. καταισχύνειν) and “disgrace” (ἀσχημόνησις). 

            The immediately surrounding context for Psalm 68:8b is not preserved, but subsequent verses (e.g., vv. 11–13) give a clear enough picture to see how ἀσχημόνησις in this psalm also refers to public shame, or “disgrace:”³⁶