The Origins of the Kaige Revision

The so-called kaige revision was discovered and first described by Dominique Barthélemy on the basis of the Naḥal Ḥever Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXIIgr, 1st cent. BCE). This was the first time that evidence emerged concerning Jewish revisional activity on the Septuagint with the aim of approximating its wording to the Hebrew (practically proto-Masoretic) text. Traces of this activity have been found especially in the historical books (Judges, Samuel–Kings): in different areas of text or different witnesses in varying degrees of concentration. This paper wishes to inquire into the origins of this activity, not only into (1) its geographical location and dating, but more importantly into (2) its exegetical and theological prerequisites and into (3) the question of which persons and institutions possibly were its initiators.
(1) In the scholarly literature, the kaige revision is often described as Palestinian and it is usually dated to the 1st centuries BCE and CE. This is also what the Naḥal Ḥever discovery suggests. Considering that knowledge of the Hebrew language and orientation by the Hebrew scriptures were declining among the users of the Septuagint in the Diaspora, it seems all the more plausible that the revisional activity was a phenomenon at home in Palestine or perhaps more precisely in Jerusalem.
(2) The kaige revision had an exegetical and theological motivation. It was connected with the rise of word-for-word interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures, and especially, with the emergence of the scriptural status of the historical books, which meant that these books were gaining interest as objects of exegesis. It is intriguing that greater interest in the historical books also meant increasing editorial activity on the Hebrew text, in order to render these texts more suitable to be regarded as scripture and interpreted in matters of life and faith.
(3) The most intriguing question of all is the question concerning the initiators of the kaige revision. Where can we find those learned people who had the need for a “correct” Greek rendering of the Hebrew scriptures, who had good knowledge of both Hebrew and Greek, who were capable of reading Hebrew and reading and writing Greek, and who had the authority to do this kind of work? The place where I would look for them is the Greek-speaking synagogue.