A Tale of Two Scholars: Max L. Margolis (1866–1932) and Harry M. Orlinsky (1908–1992)

In the fall of 1931, Max L. Margolis walked into his classroom at Dropsie College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Among the first scholars to receive a teaching post at this institution, which was founded in 1907, Margolis had decades of experience in classroom pedagogy.At least one new student was in attendance.This was Harry M. Orlinksy, then twenty-three-years old, a Canadian who had sought admission at Dropsie primarily to learn Biblical Studies from Margolis.Unfortunately, Orlinsky was able to learn from Margolis in person for only a brief period.The senior scholar suffered an illness from which he did not recover.Nevertheless, Margolis' influence on Orlinsky was variegated and profound.It covered all of the disciplines that the two shared: Bible translation, history writing and other popular publications, and Septuagint studies.In a previous article I presented and analyzed Margolis' influence on Orlinsky as a Bible translator. 1 As it happens, Margolis was editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society's (JPS) English-language version of 1917.And Orlinsky chaired the committee that produced the Torah translation for Tanakh, the JPS edition that appeared starting in the 1960s.As I observed, Margolis and Orlinsky each adopted a distinctive approach toward translating: Margolis favored the literal approach that we speak of as formal equivalence, while Orlinsky was a pioneer of a freer style that is termed functional equivalence.So it is that these two scholars, following opposite styles, were nonetheless allied in their overall approach to the Sacred Text.For this article we look closely at Margolis and Orlinsky as Septuagint scholars.In certain respects, Orlinsky closely followed Margolis' carefully grounded techniques.This had to do with the division of Greek manuscripts into families and other groupings.In this enterprise, as Orlinsky observed, Margolis was building on a platform constructed by Paul de Lagarde.But Margolis also asserted, with no sustained argument, that the Greek translator of Joshua had before him a Hebrew Vorlage almost identical to our Masoretic text, which he frequently modified, generally in the direction of curtailment.In contrast, Orlinsky judged that in general Greek Joshua accurately reflected its underlying Hebrew text, which was overall shorter than the Masoretic version.In what follows we will emphasize Margolis' often groundbreaking achievements in the division of Greek manuscripts, which as I noted above Orlinsky largely 1 Greenspoon, "When Harry Met Max."

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