APPENDIX C ON
HOMOEOTELEUTA IN THE MSS. AND PRINTED TEXT OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
As a Figure of Speech, Homoeoteleuton is applied to certain words which occur together, and have a similar termination. See page 176, where the figure is described and illustrated by examples.
but the term Homoeoteleuton is used of a certain class of mistakes made by copyists in the transcription of the sacred text.
A Scribe, in copying a MS., would come to a certain word; and, having written it, he would sometimes carry his eye back, not to the word which he had just copied, but to the same or a similar word, or a word with the same termination occurring in the immediate context, and thus omit a few words or a whole sentence.
A number of examples are given by Dr. Ginsburg in his Introduction to the Hebrew Bible; where a whole chapter (Part II. chap. 6) is devoted to this subject, which is there treated of for the first time. It is there shown that, while the Septuagint preserves Homoeoteleuta which are omitted in the present Hebrew text, there are examples of Homoeoteleuta in the LXX [Note: XX the Septuagint Version (325 b.c.).] itself, arising from the same cause. The printed Hebrew text also exhibits Homoeoteleuta, as compared with the MS. text. One or two examples may be quoted by way of explanation:-
Joshua 2:1. -“And they went, and came [ to Jericho, and they came ] into an harlot’s house,” etc.
Joshua 9:27 (26). -“And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord [ and the inhabitants of Gibeon became hewers of wood, and drawers of water for the altar of the Lord ] even unto this day.” (This is preserved in the LXX [Note: XX the Septuagint Version (325 b.c.).TCTCT)C.
Joshua 10:12. -“Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, [ when they destroyed them in Gibeon, and they were destroyed from before the children of Israel, ] and he said in the sight of Israel,” etc. (This is preserved in the LXX [Note: XX the Septuagint Version (325 b.c.).TCTCT)C.
In Joshua 1:21-45 , verses 36 and 37 are not in our ordinary printed Hebrew text at all, and they are omitted in most MSS. The LXX [Note: XX the Septuagint Version (325 b.c.).] preserves them: and they are inserted in the A.V. [Note: The Authorized Version, or current Text of our English Bible, 1611.] without a word of explanation. The R.V. [Note: The Revised Version, 1881.] calls attention to them in a marginal note.
Judges 16:13 (14). -“If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web, and fastenest them with a pin [ then shall I be weak as another man. And it came to pass, when he was asleep, that Delilah took the seven locks of his head, and wove them with a web, and fastened them with a pin ], and said unto him,” etc.
1 Kings 8:16. -“Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose [ Jerusalem that my name might be there, and I chose ] David to be over my people Israel.” (The LXX [Note: XX the Septuagint Version (325 b.c.).] in some MSS. preserves this).
We must refer the reader to Dr. Ginsburg’s work for further examples.
Some various readings in the Greek New Testament are doubtless due to a similar cause.