14
The MT and an English translation of 1Kings 21:11, however, is as follows:
x;Te(p;m.Ki rgEßx olLeîh;t.yI-la;
"Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself like he who takes it off."
The reading of the verse in the later Vulgate basically agrees with the MT:
Ne glorietur accinctus aeque ut discinctus.
This rather odd example points up the fact that Christians used the LXX translation exclusively in
the early church. When they did use a Latin text, it was an Old Latin one that agreed with the Old Greek
rather than with the Hebrew that survived as the MT. At least this was the case until well into the fifth
century when Jerome's version became dominant.
However, one of ST's OT "citations" still does not fit with any rational explanation. Theophilus
mentions the reading of Psalm 95:10 (96:10 in the MT), "He reigned from the wood" - Dominus regnavit
a ligno (ST VI, 25). Justin Martyr had mentioned this verse in his First Apology 41:4 (Greek evba,slieuse
avpo tou xulou) and later told Trypho that his Jewish "rulers" had erased it from their Bibles (Trypho, 73).
The simple fact, however, is that no ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript ever contained this additional
phrase "from the wood." Justin made this charge with no supporting manuscript evidence and later
Evagrius/Theopilus simply cited what is now acknowledged by all as an early Christian interpolation.
29
The Dialogue of Timothy and Aquila
The last in chronological order of our three dialogues and the largest in length, the Dialogue of
Timothy and Aquila has also received the greatest attention in recent years. Four doctoral dissertations
were written on Timothy and Aquila from 1986-2000.
30
However, this greater amount of attention
devoted to TA has not always been the case. As mentioned earlier, at the end of the nineteenth century ST
was receiving greater scholarly attention. In Conybeare's publication of the Greek texts of Athanasius
29
Tertullian also referred to this reading (Adversus Judaeos III,19,1) and other Old Latin texts contain it, but only
two medieval LXX manuscripts contain the reading, each of which have an accompanying Latin text on facing
pages. For a thorough discussion, see Skarsaune, Proof from Prophecy, 35-42.
30
See Varner, 4 and 5 for a discussion of these dissertations.