A Lexical Study of the Septuagint Version of the Pentateuch

CHAPTER IV
NEW SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENTS
IN OLD WORDS
The use of many old words in new senses is a well-known
characteristic of the Koine. It is the purpose of this chapter
to show that the vocabulary of the Pentateuch is in close
agreement with many of the developments of this kind that had
taken place by the third century B.C. The examples selected are
those for which adequate evidence exists from the translators'
own time.
Some words are examined in detail, others more briefly,
with a note merely of the new sense, its occurrences in the
Pentateuch, and one or two examples close in time and place to
the Pentateuch. This briefer treatment has been given espec­
ially to the more straightforward examples and to those that
are well known or have been considered fully by others. It has
however been necessary to notice in this way some examples of
which a more detailed treatment would be useful.
The words have been grouped as far as possible according
to subject-matter. We begin with a number of agricultural
terms. Such terms are often required in the Pentateuch, and
are also of course very common in documents of the time.
παράδείσος 1
Originally a borrowing of a Persian word π. appears
first in Greek in Xenophon, who uses it specifically of the
parks or pleasure-grounds of the Persian kings and nobles. The
two features of a παράδεισος mentioned by X. are trees of all
kinds, An. 2.4.14 εγγύς παραδείσου μεγάλου και καλού και δασέος
παντοίων δένδρων, cf. Oec. 4.14, and wild animals for hunting,
1. Cf. Deissmann, BS 148, MM, Grenfell in PRev. Laws, pp.
94ff., Petropoulos in PSA Athen., pp.101-3.
2. "aw. [Avestan] pairi-daëza- m. 'Umwallung, Ummauerung' (= gr.
*περι-τοιχος) entsprechenden mitteliran. *pardez, np. pâlëz
'Garten'", Frisk.
2