Justin's Old Testament Text
APPENDIX 3
JUSTIN'S OLD TESTAMENT TEXT
Justin MARTYR's authentic works are contained in only one extant MS, Parisinus 450, dated 11 September 1363. Harnack! held that the text was in a hopeless condition and his estimate has been echoed by many subsequent investigators.2 The discoveries by the Dead Sea since 1947 have however provided firm evidence that some of Justin's Old Testament quotations, in spite of the condition of the text, may be of high value.®
Furthermore recent study of the Testimony tradition underlying the New Testament and early Patristic writings suggests that certain of Justin's erroneous attributions, in quotations from the LXX, may have had a previous history in the Church's midrash pesher rather than be mistakes on Justin's part.* A fresh, detailed study of Justin's Old Testament quotations was therefore a prime need and this is now in process of being carried out.
J. Smit Sibinga published in 1963 the first part of his work, The Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr. I. The Pentateuch, in which he deals with the evidence in two parts: the Lists, giving the external attestation of the variant readings, and the Notes, which as far as possible examine every single instance on its own merits, in order to determine its most probable explanation.
As to internal attestation Sibinga applies a threefold classification:* (2) Readings uniformly attested in two or more passages, either as allusions or formal citations. These deserve confidence,
1 T. & U.1, 1-2 (Leipzig, 1882), 77-9.
2 W. Bousset, Die Evangeliencitate Fustins des Martyrers in ihrem Wert fiir die Evangelienkritik von neuem Untersucht (Gottingen, 1891), pp. 21-31 (on Isaiah and Amos). A. Rahlfs, Der Text des Septuaginta-Psalters (G6ttingen, 1907), pp. 203-6 (on the Psalms). W. Schmid, <.NV.T.W. xu (1941), 87-137.
P. Katz, Studia Patristica (Berlin, 1957), 1, 3433 D. Barthélémy, 'Redécouverte d'un chainon manquant de lhistoire de la Septante', R. Bibl. tx (1953), 18-29, and Les Devanciers d'Aquila,
Suppl. to V.T. vol. x.
4 See especially B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (1961), p. 26 n. 2.
5 E. J. Brill, Leiden. This book is produced to the highest standards of critical scholarship.
6 Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr. I. The Pentateuch, p. 15.
APPENDIX 3
although not all are genuine; (6) variants on which the evidence conflicts; and (c) variants of isolated attestation. (b) and (c) must be considered ontheir own merits.
Sibinga's important investigations are, as yet, in an early stage and he is not predisposed to attempt a synthesis of his results until he has analysed Justin's Old Testament quotations outside of the Pentateuch. He is however able to draw the following tentative conclusion,! namely that in Justin's quotations from the Pentateuch there is much material that is both ancient and valuable in spite of a certain amount of lemma and text alteration. He believes that a substantial part of Justin's quotations, including those variants which may be called archaic, belong to a stage in the LXX's history which ante-dates the data in our codices. There is the possibility that not only did
Hebrew texts influence the Greek traditions before Origen's time but that this influence may have worked the other way round.
Sibinga's further investigations will be eagerly awaited by students of Justin. His results, so far, indicate that ad hoc judgements as to the relative worthlessness of Justin's Old Testament text may be misplaced. These results are also of considerable significance for the study of the Testimony tradition underlying
Justin's Dialogue with Trypho.?
1 Old Testament Text of Justin Martyr. I. The Pentateuch, pp. 149-50.
2 The best critical review of Sibinga's work is that of R. A. Kraft in ibe XXXVI (1964), 572 f. See also D. W. Gooding in 7.T.S. xv1 (1965),
187-92.
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