|
Evidently the Hebrew is difficult here and scholars aren't too sure what to make of it. According to the NIV text note, a few late copies of the Septuagint say Saul was 30 years old.
I suppose most of you don't have a copy of the RSV, but I still have my New Oxford Annotated Bible I acquired years ago from taking a NT class at a liberal college. Remember that the ESV is basically a light revision of the RSV with the theological problems and liberal bias fixed. Quite often, whenever I find an idiosyncratic rendering in the ESV (meaning one a bit different from other versions) I find that it is a rendering carried forward from the RSV, and that is the case here at 1 Sam 13:1. Not knowing the original languages, I don't know whether it is more accurate than other versions or not in these places, which is one reason why I've never switched to the ESV.
|