The Onomastica Sacra: A Neglected Corpus of Hexaplaric Data

Biblical textual critics have never systematically studied the onomastica sacra. Nevertheless, these etymological corpora deserve being studied, since they potentially contain a considerable amount of Hexaplaric data. After all, although their aims and methods differed, both the Jewish pre-Hexaplaric revisers and the Christian patristic and Byzantine exegetes (the authors of the onomastica) sought to cope with problematic proper names. By studying these names in the book of Canticles, this paper draws attention to the agreements between the minor versions and the onomastica, in an attempt to stimulate scholarly interest in the latter corpus. It is beyond doubt that the onomastica sacra can be useful in drawing the picture of the Christian Nachleben of Hexaplaric variants, which in turn can help us in doing Hexaplaric textual criticism.status: publishe