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Course 5 · Lesson 4.2

The Septuagint and where translators consult it

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 5 outline

Module 1: What the Languages Are and What This Course Can Do

  1. The languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
  2. What an introduction can and cannot do: no fluency, and why
  3. Biblical Hebrew in brief: history, script and sound
  4. Koine Greek in brief: history, script and sound

Module 2: Hebrew Fundamentals

  1. The Hebrew alphabet, reading right to left, and the vowel points
  2. Roots, nouns, gender, number and the construct chain
  3. Hebrew verbs: perfect, imperfect and the seven stems in outline
  4. A core Hebrew vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 3: Greek Fundamentals

  1. The Greek alphabet, accents and breathing marks
  2. Nouns, cases and the definite article
  3. Greek verbs: tense, aspect, voice and mood in outline
  4. A core Greek vocabulary and how to learn it

Module 4: The Texts: Masoretic, Septuagint and New Testament Manuscripts

  1. The Masoretic Text and the codices that preserve it
  2. The Septuagint and where translators consult it
  3. Greek New Testament manuscripts and printed editions
  4. How variants are recorded in footnotes and critical editions

Module 5: How Translations Are Made

  1. Formal and dynamic equivalence, and the middle positions
  2. Who translates: committees, churches and traditions of translation
  3. Hard cases: idioms, word play, gender and untranslatable words
  4. Reading a translation’s preface to learn its principles

Module 6: Tools for the Reader

  1. Interlinear Bibles: what they show and what they hide
  2. Lexicons and concordances: how to read an entry
  3. How to do a word study, step by step
  4. Common word study errors and how to avoid them

Module 7: Evaluating Translation Differences

  1. Locating the Hebrew or Greek words behind a verse
  2. Types of translation differences: text, grammar, word meaning and style
  3. A worked example from the Old Testament
  4. A worked example from the New Testament
  5. Knowing your limits, and when to ask a specialist

All courses

Program / Course 5: Biblical Languages / Lesson 4.2

What you will learn

  • Describe what the Septuagint is, how it arose and why it is called by that name.
  • Explain why the Septuagint matters for the New Testament and for the early church.
  • Name the main kinds of difference between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text.
  • Say how Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish communities regard it.

The big idea

The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, begun by Jews in Egypt in the third century before Christ. It was the Bible of Greek speaking Jews and of the earliest Christians, and the New Testament writers often quote it. It differs from the Masoretic Text in wording, in the order of some books and in the length of some, and it includes books that are not in the Hebrew Bible. Translators consult it to repair difficult Hebrew and to see an older reading. The Orthodox Church uses it as its Old Testament.

Key terms

Septuagint (LXX)
The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. The name comes from a Latin word for seventy, and is written with the Roman numeral LXX.
Letter of Aristeas
An ancient Jewish writing that tells how the Law was translated into Greek in Alexandria by seventy two elders. Historians treat its story with caution.
Deuterocanonical books
Books such as Tobit, Wisdom and Sirach, received as Scripture by Catholic and Orthodox Christians but not in the Hebrew Bible. Many Protestants call them the Apocrypha.
Vorlage
A German word for the source text from which a translation was made, here the Hebrew behind the Greek.
Hexapla
A great work of the scholar Origen in the third century, setting the Hebrew text and several Greek versions in parallel columns.
Recension
A revised form of a text.

Background

According to the Letter of Aristeas, the Greek ruler of Egypt had the Jewish Law translated for his library at Alexandria. The story says that seventy two elders did the work, and the number was later rounded to seventy, which gives the name. Historians doubt the details, but most accept that the five books of Moses were translated in Alexandria in the third century before Christ, and that the other books were translated over the next century or two by different hands.

The Greek translation became the Scripture of the Jewish communities that spoke Greek, and it passed to the Christian church. Many of the earliest complete Christian Bibles, such as Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus of the fourth century, are copies of the Greek Old Testament and the New Testament together. When people in the first centuries of the church spoke of the Scriptures, they commonly meant the Septuagint.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The Septuagint and the New Testament

New Testament authors often quote the Old Testament in forms that match the Greek of the Septuagint, even when it differs from the Hebrew. A well known case is Hebrews 10:5, which quotes Psalm 40 with the words a body hast thou prepared me, a reading that follows the Greek and differs from the Hebrew wording about ears. In Acts 15:16-18, James quotes Amos 9 in a form close to the Greek.

It does not follow that the writers always quoted from the Greek. Some quotations are closer to the Hebrew, and some are neither. The question of which text a writer used is studied verse by verse.

Step 2: How it differs from the Masoretic Text

The Septuagint often agrees closely with the Hebrew, but in some books it differs. The Greek Jeremiah is noticeably shorter than the Hebrew, and its chapters are arranged differently. The Greek Esther and Daniel contain additions, such as the Prayer of Azariah and the story of Susanna in Daniel, that are not in the Hebrew. The Greek Psalms are numbered differently, so that Psalm 23 in the English corresponds to Psalm 22 in the Greek. The order of the books also differs from the Hebrew Bible.

Some of these differences reflect the translators’ choices. Others reflect a Hebrew source that differed from the Masoretic Text. A fragment of Jeremiah found at Qumran supports the shorter Hebrew form behind the Greek, which shows that the Septuagint can preserve an old Hebrew reading. Scholars therefore deal with each case separately.

Step 3: The extra books

The Septuagint manuscripts include books not in the Hebrew Bible. Among them are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch and the books of Maccabees. Some were written in Greek, and others were translated from Hebrew or Aramaic. Catholic and Orthodox Christians receive these as Scripture, with differences in the exact list. Most Protestants do not treat them as Scripture but many regard them as useful for reading. Jewish tradition does not include them in the Bible.

Step 4: Later Greek versions and the Hexapla

In the second century after Christ, other Jewish scholars made fresh Greek versions that follow the Hebrew more closely. They are associated with the names Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. Origen compiled the Hexapla in the early third century, setting the Hebrew, a Greek transliteration of it and four Greek versions in columns, and marking where the Septuagint differed from the Hebrew. The work is now lost except for fragments, but it shaped the later transmission of the Greek text.

Step 5: When translators consult it

Modern translators consult the Septuagint when the Hebrew is difficult or seems damaged, when other evidence suggests that it preserves an older reading, and when they translate a book that survives only in Greek. They also consult it to see how early readers understood a word. The footnotes of many translations carry the notation Septuagint or Greek.

The classic example is Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew has almah, a young woman, and the Septuagint has parthenos, a word usually meaning virgin. Matthew 1:23 quotes the Greek form. Translators and traditions differ on how to render the Hebrew, and the Greek wording is part of the story. Module 7 of this course returns to the question as a case study.

  1. Is the Old Testament quotation in the New Testament closer to the Greek or to the Hebrew?
  2. Does my translation say it follows the Septuagint for any book or verse?
  3. Why does a psalm number in my Bible not match the number in a commentary?
  4. Which of the extra books does my Bible include?
  5. Is a difference between the Hebrew and the Greek a translator’s choice or a different Hebrew source?
  6. What does it say about the early church that it read Scripture largely in Greek?

Examples

A shorter Jeremiah

The Greek version of Jeremiah is much shorter than the Hebrew, by about an eighth by common estimates, and arranges the oracles against the nations differently. A Hebrew fragment from Qumran agrees with the shorter form. The case shows that a version can preserve an older text.

Psalm numbers

A reader of a Catholic or Orthodox book that uses Greek numbering will find the Lord is my shepherd at Psalm 22, not Psalm 23. The Greek combines the Hebrew psalms 9 and 10 into one. Many Catholic Bibles now give both numbers. Knowing this prevents confusion.

Hebrews 10

Hebrews 10:5 quotes Psalm 40 with the phrase a body hast thou prepared me. The Hebrew text of Psalm 40:6 speaks of ears being opened. The writer follows the Greek form. A reader sees that the New Testament writer worked in the Greek tradition.

Different perspectives

Orthodox

The Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint as the authoritative text of the Old Testament, since it was the Bible of the apostles and the early fathers, and the Church includes the books of the Greek canon. Orthodox scholars also use the Hebrew as a witness.

Catholic

The Catholic Church receives the deuterocanonical books and regards the Septuagint as an important ancient witness. Catholic translations normally follow the Hebrew for books that exist in Hebrew, and the Greek for books preserved only in Greek, with footnotes. The Latin Vulgate of Jerome translated the Hebrew for most books.

Protestant

Protestants translate the Old Testament from the Hebrew but consult the Septuagint and may place the extra books in a separate section or omit them. Some Protestants, following the Reformers, regard these books as useful but not a basis for doctrine, and others read them more widely.

Jewish

Greek speaking Jews honored the Septuagint. Later, as Christians took it up and used it in debate, many Jewish communities turned away from it and relied on the Hebrew and on new Greek versions. Jewish scholars today study it as a witness to ancient Judaism.

Scholarly

Scholars agree that the Septuagint is a collection of translations of varied quality and style. They debate how far it reflects a different Hebrew source, in which books, and how to weigh it against the Masoretic Text.

Why it matters

The Septuagint explains many quotations in the New Testament, many footnotes in modern Bibles and many differences between traditions. A reader who knows it exists, and what it does and does not prove, will not be surprised by a note that says the Greek reads differently.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Septuagint was made by seventy miraculously inspired translators.

Correction: The legend appears in the Letter of Aristeas and in later writers, some of whom added miracles. Historians treat the story as legendary in its details, though the translation itself is a fact.

Misunderstanding: The Septuagint is a single, uniform book.

Correction: It is a collection of translations made at different times by different people, with different styles and quality, transmitted in many manuscripts and revisions.

Misunderstanding: Where the Greek differs from the Hebrew, the Greek is always wrong.

Correction: Sometimes the Greek reflects a different Hebrew text, and sometimes it preserves an older one. Each difference must be judged on its evidence.

Misunderstanding: The New Testament always quotes the Septuagint.

Correction: It often does, but not always. Some quotations follow the Hebrew more closely.

Knowledge check

What is the Septuagint and where did it arise?

It is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, begun by Jews in Alexandria in the third century before Christ. The Torah was translated first, and the other books followed. The name refers to the legend of seventy or seventy two translators. It became the Bible of Greek speaking Jews and early Christians.

Give two kinds of difference between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text.

Examples are length, as in the shorter Greek Jeremiah, additions such as those in Greek Esther and Daniel, numbering of the psalms, order of books, and the inclusion of extra books. Some differences reflect the translators’ choices and others a different Hebrew source.

Why is the Septuagint important to the New Testament?

New Testament writers often quote the Old Testament in a form matching the Septuagint, as in Hebrews 10:5, and the early church read it as Scripture. Understanding a quotation sometimes requires comparing the Greek with the Hebrew. Not every quotation follows the Greek.

How do the Orthodox and Protestant traditions differ in their use of it?

The Orthodox Church treats the Septuagint as its authoritative Old Testament and includes the Greek books. Protestants translate the Old Testament from the Hebrew, consult the Septuagint where the Hebrew is difficult, and generally either set aside the extra books or print them separately.

Think it through

  1. What does it mean that the first Christians read their Old Testament in translation?
  2. How should a translator weigh a Greek reading against a Hebrew one?
  3. What difference does it make to your Bible reading to know that the Psalms are numbered differently in different traditions?
  4. How might a community explain its choice of one text without condemning another?

Independent assignment

A quotation compared

In your own notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Choose one Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, such as Hebrews 10:5 or Matthew 1:23. Find the Old Testament passage and copy it from an English translation of the Hebrew and, if you can, an English translation of the Septuagint. Place the New Testament wording beside them. Describe the likenesses and differences and say which text the New Testament writer seems to follow. State what you cannot determine without reading the languages. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study