Texts and Languages of Baruch/ Paraleipomena of Jeremiah
There are two textual traditions of 4 Baruch, one yielding a longer form of the story and another yielding a shorter form. There are large number of manuscripts extant in various languages, such as Greek, Slavonic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Romanian. All of these manuscripts are probably translations deriving (ultimately) from a Semitic (probably Hebrew) original. Robinson, offers the following evidence for a Hebrew original, noting some words that are likely transliterations:1
- "God Zar" for "foreign God" (7:29)
- "pray a prayer" (9:3, resembles distinctive Hebrew form)
- "stone with stones" (9:22, resembles distinctive Hebrew form)
- possible use of the Greek ek for the Hebrew min (5:35; 7:29)
- redundant use of personal pronouns following a relative pronoun: "in whom all judgment was hidden in him" (9:6)
With the numerous manuscripts available, the text is fairly stable. Given the fact that there are a half-dozen names attributed to this work, it would almost appear that scholars have a harder time determining its proper name than they do which manuscript variants preserve the original reading. Though undoubtedly overstated, the above statement does make the point that there is confusion over the precise name that should be given to the work, even though we are fairly certain about the actual content.
Notes
1S. E. Robinson, "4 Baruch," in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalyptic Literature & Testaments. Vol. 2, ed. James H. Charlesworth (New York: Doubleday, 1983): 413-14.
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