A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

upz 68.6 (152 B.C.) έγώ γαρ ενύπνια όρώ πονηρά, βλέπω
Μενέδημον κατατρέχοντά με.
BGU 1747. 24 (64/3 B.C.) τούς δ' "ίππους εις άσθένειαν [···
δια τήν] ύποδεικνυμένην αΐτίαν βλέποντες προσ [...
Some further information about this period may be gained
from Polybius (c. 202-120 B.C.). The transitive use of βλέπω
24
in the sense of 'see' occurs fifteen times in his writings,
e.g.
18.46.8 βουλομένων τών ανθρώπων μή μόνον άκούειν, άλλα
κα! βλέπειν τόν λέγοντα
18.20.7 ... ώστε ... μήδε τούς έν ποσί δύνασθαι βλέπειν.
The word is however still most often used in its earlier sense
of 'look' (at, towards), with preposition following. Unfortunately
no information is available from the lexicons for
« 25
Polybius' use of οραω, but we can almost certainly assume that
2 6
he used it more often than βλέπω·
Finally, we can add from the inscriptions an example of
βλέπω 'see' from the first century B.C.:
siG 1104.42 (c. 37/6 B.C.)... ϊνα ... πολλοί ζηλωταί γίνωνται
(τού) τήν σύνοδον έπαύξειν, βλέποντες τόν κτίσαντα
τυγχάνοντα τής πρεπούσης εύνοιας τε καί μνήμης.
This is the only example in the inscriptions collected in
Dittenberger, SIG.
It seems likely that in the third century B.C. όράω was
still the normal word in the pres. and impf. Although not as
many as we should like, the comparatively large number of its
occurrences, 27, as against none of βλέπω, makes that conclusion
probable. βλέπω may, however, have been used occasionally, as
24. Mauersberger, Polybios-Lexikon, s.v.
25. Mauersberger's lexicon is still in progress, and the earlier
lexicon of Schweighäuser does not note any occurrences of the
word.
26. Examples of όράω noted at random are at 5.26.14, 6.2.7,
6.5.8.