Stuart D. Chepey, «Samson the ‘Holy One’: A Suggestion Regarding the Reviser’s Use of a#gioj in Judg 13,7; 16,17 LXX Vaticanus», Vol. 83 (2002) 97-99

While the use of the Greek term a#gioj, ‘holy one’, as a reference to Samson and rendering of the Hebrew religious technical term ryzn, ‘Nazirite’, in LXX^B Judg 13,7 and 16,17 seems odd given their lexical disparity, an association between the terms does occur in the law for the Nazirite to be holy respecting the growth of hair in Num 6,5.8. A contextual similarity between the Numbers passage and Judg 13,5.7 and 16,17 occurs in that Samson is accorded only one proscription — the use of a razor upon his head. It is likely therefore, perhaps as a way of introducing a new and unintelligible term, that the reviser of LXX^B Judg followed the word association made in Num 6,5.8 and used the two terms, nazir in 13,5 and a#gioj in 13,7 and 16,17, interchangeably in his version of the Samson story.

6,8 the mandate to be holy is reiterated in the context of the proscription against contacting a corpse. As indicated by vv. 9-12, it is the hair that forms the basis of the Nazirite’s holiness and reason for abstinence from corpse impurity. If a dead body is accidentally contacted it is the hair that becomes defiled, shaved after a seven-day rite of purification (v. 9), and re-consecrated (a(gia/sei — LXX; #dq — MT) along with the Nazirite’s avowed number of days (vv. 11-12). Based on such contextual similarity, what may lie behind the reviser’s alternating use of nazir and a#gioj, two lexically unrelated terms, for ryzn — is an influence of the law for the Nazirite to abstain from the use of a razor on the one hand, and the related law for the Nazirite to be holy because of his sanctified hair on the other. Our translator simply followed the association made between the terms ryzn and #dq already present in Num 6,5.8 and utilised the two terms interchangeably in his translation in Judg 13,5.7 and 16,17.