Is Bathsheba guilty? The Septuagint's perspective

Abstract

Much has been said about Bathsheba’s guilt in 2 Samuel 11. The text’s ambiguity has lead to quite a number of different interpretations. One of the earliest of these various voices is the Septuagint text. Being a translation, the Septuagint is inevitably also an interpretation. In this article, a closer look will be taken at the perspective of the Septuagint’s translator. By comparing the Hebrew text with that of the Septuagint, taking into account the nature of the translation, slight clues to the translator’s perspective emerges. This sheds some light on the way in which ancient readers appraised the role Bathsheba played in the drama contained in 2 Samuel 11.