Jason Olson and Dr. David R. Seely, Religion
My ORCA project was the experience of a lifetime! I actually had the opportunity to assist Dr. Seely in creating a manuscript for publication to Yale Anchor Bible, the most prestigious and respected Biblical commentary in the world.
We were assigned the Book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five Books of Moses. What an exciting opportunity!
Dr. Seely gave me great responsibilities for this project, for which I will always be grateful to him.
My first order was to create an original translation into English from the original Hebrew. How amazing is that! Dr. Seely assigned me various chapters throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to translate. I took the original Hebrew text , from the Masoretic version, and then translated it into my very own English rendering! The only benchmark I had to adhere to was Moshe Weinfeld’s translations of certain words. Otherwise, I could use my scholarly skills I gained in Hebrew language during my undergraduate education at BYU to translate!
Moshe Weinfeld was the famous Israeli Biblical scholar who wrote the Yale Anchor Bible Commentary for the first 11 chapters of Deuteronomy. Sadly, he passed away before he could finish the rest of the book. Dr. Seely was given the charge to complete Weinfeld’s work, and I was graciously hired on to assist. Dr. Seely treated me as an equal and we worked together on producing an original translation for the Book of Deuteronomy. It was an honor to work with him, and in fact I learned so much from him during the course of the project. He really taught me the critical methodology necessary to look at the Bible from a linguistic and historical point of view. With translation, he would help me to render certain phrases in a more professional way. I would also edit and look over his translations, replacing words and phrases which I thought were more true to the Hebrew text.
Dr. Seely treated my suggestions with so much respect that he did take my suggestions when they were appropriate. This allowed me to grow in exponential ways as a scholar and realize that I was capable of independent research. I also had the fantastic opportunity to search for textual variations that were aberrations from the Masoretic Hebrew text. This was one of my favorite parts of the project. Dr. Seely has an incredible technological tool for doing this. It is called “Accordance Bible Software.” I was able to use this expensive tool on Dr. Seely’s computer and able to compare side-by-side the traditional Masoretic text with the Dead Sea Scrolls! This was a lot of fun.
I was able to find numerous variations. They were far too numerous to count. Some were minor, resulting in a similar translation, but other variations in the Dead Sea Scrolls version of Deuteronomy caused significant theological differences! These even included the nature of God, as well as the terms and conditions of the covenant with Israel. It was a thrill to go back into the ancient world and find out how their Deuteronomy looked and how it was different from ours.
Another amazing task I was charged with was searching for and creating viable commentary and textual notes for Dr. Seely’s publication. Dr. Seely allowed me access to the brand new Biblia Hebraica Quinta: Deuteronomy publication. This publication noted all of the textual variations amongst the various translations of Deuteronomy. I was amazed to find out how the Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions rendered the text differently from our traditional version! I had the opportunity to include in our final manuscripts research that I found important for our commentary readers.
I also had access to the very best commentaries written on Deuteronomy. I researched these thoroughly and sifted through the best comments I could and had the opportunity to include these in the final manuscripts for the commentary section. Not only was I able to improve my critical methodology skills, but I was also able to learn so much more about the Biblical text!
One example was the uncanny similarities between the ancient Assyrian treaty formulas and the Deuteronomic treaty formula. My conclusion on the research was that the author of Deuteronomy purposely used the treaty/covenant formula of Assyrian vassals with their rulers to illustrate that Israel’s covenant was not with the king of Assyria, but rather with God. The author of Deuteronomy wanted Israel to know that God was their King and that Israel was God’s vassal.
This is especially apparent in the blessings and curses God gives to Israel as a result of their obedience or disobedience. The author of Deuteronomy wanted Israel to know that they owed allegiance and obedience to God only and no other nation or king. Deuteronomy promises punishments for Israel’s disloyalty to God. God shows Israel that he wants them to obey and revere Him only as their king. The Assyrian kings also demanded complete loyalty and obedience from their subjects. But, the God of Israel would have none of this. The God of Deuteronomy wanted Israel to give even total political loyalty to Him. Israel was to rely on its God alone for its sustenance and protection. But, the nation had to be completely obedient to His commands to receive these blessings. If Israel was disobedient, it was liable to be destroyed by other nations.
This is so interesting when we correlate it with the modern understanding of obeying the laws of the ruler who we live under. Deuteronomy categorically rejects this ideology, rather attempting to convince Israel to reject the laws of the rulers of the region and to obey only the laws of their God. What a different world!