Swimming in this same pool of activity were the writings known as Apocrypha. The precise sequence, location, and timing are unknown, but most, if not all, were completed by the time of the early church. Five overlapping developments are worth mentioning.įirst, more books of the traditional OT were translated from Hebrew into Greek, starting perhaps with Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the minor prophets. The Greek Pentateuch may have been first in the pool, but over the next centuries more swimmers entered, the water itself began changing, lane markers started crisscrossing, and so on. Strictly speaking, then, Septuagint or LXX refers only to this initial endeavor. The embellished account of this translation (in the Letter of Aristeas, from the second or third century BC) states there were 72 translators, which, over the course of time, became 70 - the Latin of which is septuaginta or LXX. In the mid-third century BC, a group of Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt (likely Alexandria) undertook translating the Torah (or Pentateuch, Genesis–Deuteronomy) from Hebrew into Greek, not only to give their own people access to Scripture in their daily language for use in worship but also (possibly) to provide a copy of their law code to the Ptolemaic rulers. Jews inside and outside Palestine followed suit to varying degrees, and competency in Hebrew began to wane. 323 BC), much of the Mediterranean world adopted Greek as the functional language. After the conquest of Alexander the Great (d. Most Christians know that their personal copy of the OT is a translation from the ancient Hebrew text, aimed at conveying God’s word to people unfamiliar with Hebrew. The details are complex, but some key ideas can be sketched. It is better to think of the word Septuagint as a pointer to the process by which the Hebrew Scriptures circulated in the Greek language among Jews and Christians in antiquity. But since we are looking back to a time before printing presses, publishers, computers, and online booksellers, little of this impression is accurate. The term itself, when paired with the ( the Septuagint, or the LXX), and combined with the fact that you can purchase a copy, might give the false impression that “the Septuagint” is a singular book, produced by a single committee, and published in a single place at a single time. What Exactly Is the Septuagint?īefore discussing its relevance, we have to clarify what is meant by Septuagint. The aim of this article is to bring it out of the shadows of footnotes and into the light, focusing on clarifying what it is and why it matters to everyday Christians. It sounds esoteric, especially with its difficult-to-say title - which scholars do not pronounce uniformly anyhow - and fancy nickname. Septuagint studies has enjoyed a bit of an academic renaissance in recent decades, but many pastors and laypersons still know little about it. Often ignored or misunderstood, it is one of the more important words in your Bible’s footnotes. It is called the Septuagint, or LXX for short: in a nutshell, the Greek form of the Old Testament (OT). In fact, you will bump into it roughly 96 times in the CSB’s footnotes for Genesis–Deuteronomy. But if you cut against the grain and use the CSB, you will see it make a cameo as early as Genesis 2:2. If you are using the NET, you will spot it even earlier in a translators’ note at Genesis 3:15. If your personal Bible is the ESV or NIV, you first come across it in a footnote at Genesis 4:8. Familiarity with the Septuagint, then, offers a fresh window into the study of the Scriptures, for pastors and engaged laypeople as well as for scholars.įor our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors and Christian leaders, we asked Greg Lanier, Associate Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, to offer an introduction to the Septuagint. Their familiarity with the Greek Old Testament also exerts a behind-the-scenes influence on broader New Testament themes. Sometimes, their use of the Septuagint comes across through translations of key words other times, they quote directly from the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew. The apostles both read and referenced these Greek translations often, especially as they wrote to Greek-speaking churches throughout the Greek-speaking world. ABSTRACT: What many call “the Septuagint” today was a collection of varied Greek translations of the Hebrew Old Testament that circulated among Jews and Christians in antiquity.
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