Todd and Tyler continue their discussion about the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Important Septuagint passages that show up in the New Testament like “a virgin shall conceive” (Isaiah 7:14) and “recovering of sight to the blind” (Isaiah 61:1). Paul’s deep roots in the Septuagint text. The ways that scriptures can accrue meaning and significance, like Christological meaning. And the ways the Septuagint can give us insight into how Second Temple Jews understood the Hebrew Bible.
Todd and Tyler talk about the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The Hellenistic character of Diaspora Judaism and early Christianity. The importance of the Septuagint to our understanding of the development of the Hebrew Bible texts. The ways that the Septuagint was used by New Testament authors. And ways that Septuagint translators sometimes shifted the meaning of certain passages with their translation choices. We really just got started so we expect to pick up the topic again next week!
Notes:
Isaiah 6:10
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. (KJV)
LXX: “For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and and I should heal them.”
The Hebrew hashmen, “make fat”, is an imperative. The Greek epachunthe, “made fat”is not a command but is a third person past tense or aorist. It’s saying what did happen. The hebrew va-enav hasha, “shut their eyes”, is an imperative. The greek ekammusan, “they shut”, is again a third person past tense or aorist. Saying what did happen.
The LORD is a man of war the LORD is his name (KJV)
יְהוָ֖ה אִ֣ישׁ מִלְחָמָ֑ה יְהוָ֖ה שְׁמֹֽו׃
LXX: “The Lord bringing wars to nought, the Lord is his name.”
Κύριος συντρίβων πολέμους, Κύριος ὄνομα αὐτῷ.
In place of the Hebrew ish milchamah, “man of war”, the Greek uses suntribon polemous, “bringing wars to nought. From suntribo, συντρίβω, “shatter, crush, beat, win”. But it is polemos, πόλεμος, “war” itself that is the object of this defeat.
Psalm 9:20
Put them in fear, O LORD that the nations may know themselves to be but men Selah (KJV)
The Septuagint can give us some insights into the Hebrew language as well. The most notable example is the change in pronunciation of the Hebrew letter ayin, ע. Today the ayin is silent but in ancient times there were two forms, one of which had a kind of ‘g’ sound to it, called a ghayn, still present in Arabic. It since merged with ayin in most Semitic languages except for Arabic. Biblical Hebrew, as of the 3rd century BCE, apparently still distinguished the phonemes, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint. In Hebrew the word for Gamorrah is עֲמֹרָה (‘Ămōrā). In the Septuagint this is rendered as Γόμορρᾰ (Gómorrha). So we know that that form of ayin was used for that word.
Septuagint as and Inspired Translation
“We are right in believing that the translators of the Septuagint had received the spirit of prophecy; and so if, with its authority, they altered anything and used expressions in their translation different from those of the original, we should not doubt that these expressions also were divinely inspired.” (Augustine, City of God 15.23)
“Accordingly, when anyone claims, ‘Moses meant what I say,’ and another retorts, ‘No, rather what I find there,’ I think that I will be answering in a more religious spirit if I say, ‘Why not both, if both are true?’ And if there is a third possibility, and a fourth, and if someone else sees an entirely different meaning in these words, why should we not think that he was aware of all of them?” (Augustine, Confessions 12.31.42)
Todd and Tyler talk about Bible translations. Translation approaches ranging from word-for-word to thought-for-thought. How different translations handle idioms. The vast number of Bible translations. And the different preferences that people and groups have.
NIV: I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky
NRSV: I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven
KJV: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven
KJV mimics the pattern of the Hebrew use of the repeated verb: barek abarekha, harbah arbeh. The infinitive absolute immediately precedes a perfect of imperfect verbal form of the same root in order to emphasize the verbal meaning.
Todd and Tyler talk about Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Among other things. “Is Christ divided?” Diversity of spiritual gifts. Ecumenism. Modern equivalents to eating meat sacrificed to idols. Heretical lawlessness (antinomianism) that presumes to transcend morality. The nature of resurrected bodies.
Todd Decker 