Symmachus uses the lexeme ἐκζηλοῦν in his translation of Psalm 77[78]:58. This verse reads as follows in the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text:
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LXX Ps 77:58a–b, ed. A. Rahlfs |
MT Ps 78:58a–b, ed. H. Bardtke (BHS) |
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aκαὶ παρώργισαν αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς βουνοῖς αὐτῶν bκαὶ ἐν τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν παρεζήλωσαν αὐτόν |
וַיַּכְעִיס֥וּהוּ בְּבָמֹותָ֑ם וּ֝בִפְסִילֵיהֶ֗ם יַקְנִיאֽוּהוּ׃ |
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English translation by NETS: |
English translation by NJPS: |
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And they provoked him to anger with their hills, and with their carved images they moved him to jealousy. |
They provoked anger with their high places; they kindled wrath with their idols. |
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German translation by LXX.D: |
German translation by Elberfelder: |
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und reizten ihn zum Zorn durch ihre Anhöhen, und durch ihre Schnitzbilder machten sie ihn eifersüchtig. |
Und sie erbitterten ihn durch ihre Höhen und reizten ihn zur Eifersucht mit ihren Götzenbildern. |
Hexaplaric Evidence for ἐκζηλοῦν (σ' Ps 77:58b)
The Göttingen Hexapla Database, which is in its Beta version, gives the following information for Psalm 77[78]:58b:
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LXX Ps 77:58b |
MT Ps 78:58b |
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LXX |
MT |
α' |
σ' |
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καὶ ἐν τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν |
וּבִפְסִילֵיהֶם |
καὶ ἐν γλυπ(τοῖς αὐτῶν) 1173 |
καὶ τοῖς γλυ|πτοῖς αὐτῶν 1173 |
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παρεζήλωσαν αὐτόν |
יַקְנִיאוּהוּ׃ |
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ἐξεζήλουν αὐτόν 1173 |
MT
The Tiberian Masoretic Text reads יַקְנִיאוּהוּ, a hiphil verb in the yiqtol conjugation (3ms + 3ms pronominal suffix). The hiphil stem of קנא occurs just four times in the Bible (Deut 32:16, 21; Ezek 8:3; Ps 78:58), two of which are in the Song of Moses (Deut 32).[1] The piel stem is far more common.[2] According to the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, קנא(hiphil, and sometimes also piel) describes a “process by which humans and deities provoke in someone else a sentiment of anger by lavishing one's attention on someone else rather than on that person – to provoke to jealousy.”[3] The following chart shows each occurrence of the biblical Hebrew word קנא(hiphil) together with its attested Greek translation equivalents:
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קנא hiphil |
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Deut 32:16 |
יַקְנִאֻהוּ |
παρώξυνάν με (LXX)[4] ἐζήλωσαν (α' [+ θ' Syh])[5] |
ἐκζηλόω ζήλος ζηλόω παραζηλόω παροξύνω |
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Deut 32:21 |
אַקְנִיאֵם |
παραζηλώσω (LXX)[6] |
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Ezek 8:3[7] |
הַמַּקְנֶה |
τοῦ κτωμένου (LXX)[8] ζήλος (σ')[9] παραζηλοῦντος (α')[10] |
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Ps 78[77]:58 |
יַקְנִיאוּהוּ |
παρεζήλωσαν αὐτόν (LXX) ἐξεζήλουν αὐτόν (σ') |
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LXX
In Psalm 77[78]:58, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew verb קנא (hiphil) with the lexeme παρα-ζηλοῦν: “to provoke tojealousy.”[11] The Psalms translator uses this lexeme a total of four times (Pss 36:1, 7, 8; 77:58), three times to translateחרה (hithpael) and only here to translate קנא (hiphil).[12] In choosing this word to render קנא (hiphil) in Psalm 77[78]:58, the translator might have been influenced by the Old Greek translation of Deuteronomy 32:21, where the same Hebrewword (אַקְנִיאֵם) is translated with the same Greek word (παραζηλώσω).[13]
In a sermon on Psalm 36, Origen provides unique insight into the lexeme παραζηλοῦν:[14]
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Τίς οὖν ἡ διαφορὰ τοῦ ‘παραζηλοῦν’ παρὰ τὸ ‘ζηλοῦν’ κατανοητέον. Οὐ πάνυ τίς ἐστιν ἡ λέξις Ἑλληνικὴ οὐδὲ τέτριπται ἐν τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὔτε τῶν φιλολόγων οὔτε τῶν ἰδιωτικώτερον φραζόντων, ἀλλ’ ἔοικε βεβιασμένη γενέσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν βουλομένων ἑρμηνεῦσαι τὸ Ἑβραϊκὸν ῥητὸν καὶ τὴν διαφορὰν παραστῆσαι κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει ‘ζήλου’ καὶ ‘παραζηλώσεως’. … Ὁ τοίνυν εἰς τὸ ζηλοῦν ἐρεθίζων τινὰ παραζηλοῖαὐτόν… Εἰ νενόηκας τὸ παράδειγμα ἀπὸ τῆς γυναικὸς τῆς ἐγειρούσης ζῆλον τῇ γαμετῇ, νόησον ὅτι τὸ ἐγείρειν ζῆλόν τινι καὶ τὸ ἐκκαίειν τινὰ ἐπὶ ζῆλον, τοῦτ’ ἔστι τὸ παραζηλοῦν. |
One must comprehend, then, what distinguishes “make jealous” from “be jealous.” The Greek wording is not ordinarily employed either in literary or in colloquial Greek, but it seems to have been forced into service by the translators wanting to translate the Hebrew statement and to set forth, as far as possible for human nature, the distinction between “making jealous” and “jealousy.” … Well, then, one who incites someone to jealousy would make him jealous… If you have understood the example of the woman who arouses jealousy in a spouse, you will understand that to arouse jealousy in someone and to kindle someone to jealousy is what it means to “make jealous.” |
Origen defines παραζηλοῦν, based on its context in Deuteronomy 32, as “to incite someone to jealousy” (εἰς τὸ ζηλοῦν ἐρεθίζειν τινά), “to arouse jealousy in someone” (τὸ ἐγείρειν ζῆλόν τινι), “to kindle someone to jealousy” (τὸ ἐκκαίειν τινὰ ἐπὶ ζῆλον). Origen also suggests that the Old Greek translators of Deuteronomy coined the term, since he was not aware of its use outside of the Bible.
Symmachus
For the verb in Psalm 77[78]:58b, Symmachus reads ἐξεζήλουν. The Göttingen Hexapla Database (Beta) has taken this reading from Ra 1173 (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 752). Neither Field nor Montfaucon made use of this manuscript. It was not until Schenker’s 1975 publication Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke that its numerous Hexaplaric readings appeared in print.[15] This manuscript and its readings for Psalm 77[78]:58b are discussed in the following section.
Manuscript Attestation and Patristic Evidence
Ra 1173
Ra 1173 is an 11th century Catena manuscript with numerous Hexaplaric readings embedded within the Catena. The readings for Psalm 77:58b appear as follows on page 250v:
Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 752 (Ra 1173), f. 250v
The Catena on Psalm 77:58b records readings for both Aquila and Symmachus by name:
α' καὶ ἐν γλυπ :
σ' καὶ τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν· ἐξεζήλουν αὐτον :
The reading for Aquila is abbreviated: καὶ ἐν γλυπ(τοῖς αὐτῶν).[16] Aquila’s translation differs from the LXX only in that it lacks the article τοῖς (cf. MT: וּבִפְסִילֵיהֶם). Symmachus differs from the LXX in three ways: (1) His translation lacks the preposition ἐν, using only the dative (τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν) to communicate the same idea; (2) he uses the lexeme ἐκζηλοῦν instead of παραζηλοῦν; (3) he uses the imperfect tense-form (ἐξεζήλουν) instead of the aorist (παρεζήλωσαν).[17]
Analysis of σ' ἐκζηλοῦν in Ps 77:58b
The word ἐξεζήλουν, used by Symmachus in Psalm 77[78]:58 to translate the Hebrew word קנא (hiphil), is an imperfect, active, indicative, third-person plural verb that can be traced back to the base form ἐκζηλόω (infinitive: ἐκζηλοῦν). This lexeme is a hapax in the Greek Bible and, according to the lexica below, occurs outside of the Bible only in later Byzantine writings: a reworking of Basil by Symeon Metaphrastes (10th century, PG 32,1345) and a work attributed to Niketas Eugenianos (12th century). Because the reading in Ra 1173 has only recently come to light, it is no surprise that the lexeme is not included in the lexicon by Biel and Mutzenbecher (1779) or its revision by Schleusner (1820). The lacuna has persisted in Greek lexica ever since these foundational works.[18] Only two of the lexica consulted include the lexeme ἐκζηλόω, and neither of these mention Symmachus:
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Adrados, et al., DGE (2006) |
ἐκζηλόω emular, imitar τῶν δὲ μὴ τοιούτων (sc. τῶν πονηρῶν) τὴν πολιτείαν Basil.M.32.1345B. |
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Trapp, LBG III (1999) |
ἐκζηλόω nacheifern, nachahmen: τί PG 32,1345B (Sym. Met.). MarkAnek E 18,31. |
The lexica define the word ἐκζηλόω as “imitate,” based on its use in the texts cited.[19] It is clear, however, that Symmachus, writing much earlier, uses the word in a different sense.
Fortunately, Ra 1173 has preserved enough of Symmachus’s translation to see his use of the word ἐξεζήλουν in context. Psalm 78[77]:56–59 according to Symmachus reads as follows:[20]
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καὶ ἐπείραζον καὶ παρεπίκραινον [τὸν θεόν τὸν ὑψίστον] καὶ τὰς διαμαρτυρίας αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἐφύλασσον ἀπενευον καὶ ἠσυνθήκουν ὡς οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν ὡς τόξον ἀπεστρέφοντο ἄτονον καὶ παρώργιζον αὐτον διὰ τῶν βουνῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν ἐξεζήλουν αὐτόν [ἤκουσεν ὁ θεὸς] καὶ ἐχολώθη καὶ ἀπεδοκίμασε σφόδρα τὸν Ἰσραήλ |
And they were testing and provoking [God Most High], and they were not keeping his testimonies. They were wavering and breaking covenant like their ancestors. They were turning aside like a slack bow. And they were angering him with their hills, and with their carved images they were provoking him to jealousy. [God heard], and he was enraged, and he totally rejected Israel. |
In light of the syntactic co-text (accusative object: αὐτόν; modifier: τοῖς γλυπτοῖς αὐτῶν) and the lexical environment (previous verb: παρώργιζον; following verb: ἐχολώθη) the verb ἐκζηλοῦν must have a factitive sense: “to provoke to jealousy, to cause someone to feel ζῆλος.”[21] It appears to be largely synonymous, then, with the word παραζηλοῦν, which the Old Greek translators coined for קנא (hiphil and piel) in the Song of Moses (Deut 32:21).[22] Perhaps the prepositional prefix ἐκ- (instead of παρα-) implies intensity or completion: they provoked him to intense jealousy, i.e., his jealousy reached a boiling point which would lead to him totally (σφόδρα) reject them.[23]
[1] Abraham Even-Shoshan, ed., קונקורדנציה חדשׁה לתורה נביאים וכתובים, 4th edn (Jerusalem: Kiryat-Sefer, 1983), 1020.
[2] For קנא (piel), see, e.g., Gen 26:14; 30:1; 37:11; Num 5:14, 30; 11:21; 25:11, 13; Deut 32:21; 2 Sam 21:2; 1 Kgs 14:22; 19:10, 14; Isa 11:13; Ezek 31:9; 39:25; Joel 2:18; Zech 1:14; 8:2; Pss 37:1; 73:3; 106:16; Prov 3:31; 23:17; 24:1, 19.
[3] Graham S. Ogden, “קנא,” in the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, https://marble.bible/dictionary?s=קנא&db=Hebrew. Cf. Ludwig Köhler/Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M.E.J. Richardson (Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000), 1110; Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 18th edn, ed. Herbert Donner (Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2013), 1174.
[4] John William Wevers, ed., Deuteronomium, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum III,2 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977), 350.
[7] The word in this verse is usually identified as a hiphil participle of the root קנא. See, e.g., H.F.W. Gesenius/E. Kautzsch/E.A. Cowley, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon, 1910), §75qq; Köhler/Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 1110.
[8] Joseph Ziegler, ed., Ezechiel, Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graecum XVI,1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1952), 117. The translator identified the root of this verb as קנה (“to acquire”) rather than קנא.
[9] Ziegler, Ezechiel, 117, retroverted from the Syro-Hexapla: ܬܢܢܐ. See Frederick Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, vol. 2 Job–Malachi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875), 787.
[12] Edwin Hatch/Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint and the other Greek Versions of the Old Testament: Including the Apocryphal Books, 3 vols. (Graz: Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt, 1975), 1059.
[13] Cf. Jan Joosten, “The Impact of the Septuagint Pentateuch on the Greek Psalms,” in XIII Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies: Ljubljana, ed. Melvin K.H. Peters, Septuagint and Cognate Studies 55 (Atlanta, SBL, 2008) 197–205, on p. 197: “The Greek translator of Psalms knew the Greek version of the Pentateuch and exploited it in several ways. Rare Hebrew words are rendered with the same equivalents in the Psalms as in the Pentateuch.” See also Emanuel Tov, “The Septuagint Translation of the Torah as a Source and Resource for the Post-Pentateuchal Translators”, in Die Sprache der Septuaginta: The Language of the Septuagint, ed. Eberhard Bons/Jan Joosten (Gütersloher: Gütersloher Verlag, 2016) 316–28.
[14] Origen, Die neuen Psalmenhomilien: eine kritische Edition des Codex monacensis graecus 314, ed. Lorenzo Perrone et al., Origenes Werke 13 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), 113–4; Origen, Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, trans. Joseph Wilson Trigg, The Fathers of the Church 141 (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 76–8.
[15] Adrian Schenker, Hexaplarische Psalmenbruchstücke: Die Hexaplarischen Psalmenfragmente der Handschriften Vaticanus Graecus 752 und Canonicianus Graecus 62, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 8 (Freiburg/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975).
[19] The relevant sentence in PG 32.1345B, which is part of a sermon (“de Temperantia et Incontinentia”), reads as follows: τἠν μὲν τῶνπροτέρων κακίαν ἐκφύγωμεν, τῶν δὲ μὴ τοιούτων τὴν πολιτείαν ἐκζηλώσωμεν.
[20] The text presented here is based primarily on Ra 1173. The final clause (καὶ ἀπεδοκίμασε… Ἰσραήλ) is from Eusebius. See Commentarii in Psalmos (Tom. II: Ps 51-100), ed. Cordula Bandt, latest edition: 10/21/2024, https://pta.bbaw.de/text/28560571/urn:cts:pta:pta0003.pta020.pta-grcBibex2; cf. Field, Origenis Hexaplorum, 229. Brackets indicate gaps that have been filled with text from the LXX.
[21] The verb ζηλοῦν (without the ἐκ- prefix) does not have a factitive sense; it means “be jealous” rather than “make jealous.” It seems unlikely that the ἐκ- prefix contributes the factitive meaning, since this is not a well-attested use of ἐκ-. See A Żłobińska-Nowak, “Ἐκ–Preverbal Role and Semantic Values through the Uses of Prefixed Verbs in the New Testament,” Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 172, no. 3 (2025), 561–93. Rather, the intended factitive sense seems to depend on the context and perhaps also the typical factitive function of -όω verbs: “to place in a state of ζῆλος.” On the various ways of expressing causative/factitive meaning in ancient Greek, one of which is the use of -όω verbs, see Leonid Kulikov, “Causative formation,” in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, ed. Georgios K. Giannakis (Leidn/Boston: Brill, 2004), 1:275–77.
[22] The Septuagint uses the same word παραζηλοῦν for both piel and hiphil whenever it has the sense of “provoke to jealously” (see e.g., Deut 32:21). One wonders whether Symmachus would have used ἐκζηλοῦν for hiphil and παραζηλοῦν for piel, but this is only speculation. Unfortunately, Symmachus’s translation of קנא (piel and hiphil) in Deut 32:16, 21 and 1 Kgs 14:22 – passages where it clearly means “provoke to jealously” rather than “be jealous” – has not been preserved.
[23] On the use of the preverb ἐκ- to communicate intensity and/or completeness, see Żłobińska-Nowak, “Ἐκ–Preverbal Role,” 561–93. See also Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Grammar (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966), §1688.2, who notes that ἐκ prefixed to a verb often contributes “an implication of fulfillment, completion, thoroughness, resolution.”
