In this comprehensive paperback resource that Crossway kindly gave me to review, authors Gregory R. Lanier, PhD, and William A. Ross, PhD, address The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters. Although the title sounds straightforward enough, this Greek translation of scripture follows a meandering path.
Until the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586, Hebrew scriptures were well-attended by priestly scribes. Once the Temple was destroyed, however, a central depository no longer existed. Then,
“As the biblical text was copied in disparate areas over the following centuries with much less coordination or oversight by the Jerusalem priesthood, textual variations both large and small inevitably started to enter the picture. Although the reconstruction of the temple around 516 BC reinvigorated priestly scribal activity, some measure of textual diversification of the Hebrew Bible had already begun. The results of this process are visible in the biblical manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in the 1940s but include scrolls dating as early as the third century BC.” In addition, “ancient copies differed from each other to varying degrees.”
Therefore, “…it is an oversimplification to say that the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible in a straightforward way, since the translators were not working with a standardized text (or with the same text we use today).” Also, the name “Septuagint,” which commonly refers to the seventy or so Greek translators, is somewhat of a misnomer. i.e., That likely did take place, but other attempts to bring the Bible into the Greek language also occurred.
Does this mean we should ignore the Greek, as some have done? Not at all! For one thing, the Septuagint can be useful for informative and devotional purposes. And “…because of the dynamics in translation, students of the Greek Old Testament can gain insight into Jewish interpretive principles, theology, and messianism by studying the Greek translations, particularly where they deviate from the known Hebrew.”
In
a way then, The Septuagint is like having the four perspectives of the Gospel writers, or,
perhaps more aptly, like the many fine translations into English we now have,
each of which contributes greatly to our overall understanding of God and His
Word.
©2022,
Mary Sayler, poet-writer, pray-er, and lifelong student of the Bible
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