“Yĕšurũn” e “yādîd”: le eccezioni all’uso di ἀγαπάω come traduzione di “ʾāhab” nel Pentateuco dei LXX

In LXX Pentateuch, ἀγαπάω always translates the Hebrew verb “ʾāhab.” The only two exceptions are “Yĕšurũn”, “favourite,” and “yādîd”, “beloved”, in Deuteronomy 32-33. The exceptions may be justified because they are included in a literary unit which was probably translated later, and in a different way than the rest of Deuteronomy. Perhaps the translators permitted themselves a freer rendering of the Hebrew text in these chapters, to avoid any implication that divine favor depended upon the just deserts of Israel. Therefore, ἀγαπάω is confirmed, in LXX Pentateuch, as the equivalent for “ʾāhab”.