Download SEPTUAGINT (Latin septuaginta, “seventy”) The most ancient and

SEPTUAGINT (Latin septuaginta, “seventy”) The most ancient and important translation of the
Old Testament into Greek. It was produced between the third and first centuries B.C. Biblical
scholars refer to the Septuagint as the LXX, which is the Roman numeral for seventy, for the
seventy translators who allegedly worked on the text.
I. CONTENTS: The Septuagint is mainly a collection of biblical texts. All the books of the Hebrew
Bible are represented (Genesis through Malachi); the deuterocanonical books accepted as
biblical by Catholic and Orthodox Christians are represented (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach,
Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, along with additions to Esther and Daniel); and a few books
accepted as canonical only by Eastern Orthodox churches also appear in important ancient
codices (1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees; also 4 Maccabees, which is included as an appendix in some
Orthodox Bibles).
II. ORIGIN: The origin of the Septuagint is a
difficult historical question. Jewish and Christian
tradition, relying on a work from the second century B.C. called the Letter of Aristeas, held that
King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt requested a copy of the Jewish Bible to be placed in his
famous library at Alexandria (circa 250 B.C.). Unable to read Hebrew, the king brought seventytwo scholars from Palestine to Alexandria to make a translation of the Hebrew Torah on an
offshore island called Pharos. After the work was completed, the Alexandrians are said to have
accepted it with great enthusiasm. Related traditions retain the basic shape of this story
(Josephus), although some add miraculous elements (e.g., Philo says the scholars worked
independently of one another, yet all came out with the exact same translation), while others
correct matters of detail (e.g., the Babylonian Talmud says the work was done by seventy
translators rather than seventy-two).
Many scholars reject the historicity of this tradition, though others accept the core of the
story as credible. Alternative theories trace the need for a Greek translation, not to a curious
king in Ptolemaic Egypt, but to the Jewish community itself. That is, throughout the Hellenistic
and Roman periods, there were countless Jewish settlements in the Greek-speaking
Mediterranean, and with the knowledge of classical Hebrew in progressive decline, the need
must have been felt for a vernacular edition of the Jewish Bible to be used for preaching and
teaching in Diaspora synagogues. This is certainly true, and it was probably a factor in calling
forth a translation of the OT into Greek, although it does not discount the ancient tradition as
such. By all accounts, uncertainties remain, and scholars are likely to debate the question of
origin for some time to come.
III. RECEPTION: Evidence suggests that the Greek Septuagint was warmly received and revered by
many Jewish communities of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. Still, it is unclear whether the
translation had much appreciable influence in Palestine, and, in any case, we know that some
Jews found fault with it. In fact, dissatisfaction with the Septuagint in certain quarters led to
new translations of the Hebrew texts by Jewish scholars such as Aquila and Theodotian in the
second century A.D. These new efforts probably arose out of tensions between Jews and
Christians over the Messianic interpretation of passages as rendered in the Septuagint.
Likewise, the text of the Hebrew Bible itself had become standardized about this time, so fresh
translations of the OT were needed that more closely represented the biblical texts accepted
as authoritative by rabbinic Judaism.
Early Christianity embraced the Septuagint as its OT. No doubt this was a practical decision,
since only the churches in Palestine could have made any real use of the Hebrew OT. Beyond
this, esteem for the Septuagint in the Jewish Diaspora made it quite natural for the apostles to
rely on this translation when expounding the Scriptures out in the mission field. That Christian
apostles and preachers used the Septuagint is a matter of record: the clear majority of OT
quotations that appear in the New Testament are taken directly from the Septuagint. Far
fewer citations represent the NT author’s translation of the Hebrew text.
The influence of the Septuagint remained strong in the early Christian centuries. It was
routinely cited in the Church Fathers and early Councils. Many patristic theologians even held
that the Septuagint had been translated under the influence of the Spirit and had therefore
surpassed the Hebrew Bible as the authoritative edition of the OT for Christians (e.g., Saint
Augustine, City of God 18.43). In any case, only a few ancient scholars such as Origen and Saint
Jerome were equipped to handle the Hebrew texts directly. Eastern Orthodox churches
maintain both the divine inspiration and canonical authority of the Septuagint to this day.
IV. CONTEMPORARY SIGNIFICANCE: Modern scholarship continues to study and value the Septuagint
for a number of reasons.
1. The Septuagint may preserve—in places, at least—a more original form of the OT than what
is found in the standard Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text or MT). This is so, not only because
the Greek translation was done in pre-Christian times, much earlier than the date of most
extant Hebrew manuscripts, but also because biblical texts discovered among the Dead Sea
Scrolls occasionally agree with the wording of the Septuagint and not with the MT. The
Septuagint is thus an important witness in reconstructing the text of the OT, although its
usefulness varies from book to book, and scholars continue to debate its precise significance
for textual criticism.
2. To the extent that every translation involves some degree of interpretation, the Septuagint
provides insight into Jewish understandings of the Bible in the first centuries B.C. At times it
reveals the distinctive perspectives of Hellenistic Judaism vis-à-vis Palestinian Judaism.
3. Study of the Septuagint is likewise an integral part of NT scholarship. Its use by the
Evangelists and apostles requires investigation in order to understand their interpretive
insights and techniques. Just as important, the theological vocabulary of the NT is heavily
indebted to the language of the Septuagint. Most notable are instances where Greek terms,
known and used since classical times, take on new and different shades of meaning derived
from the Hebrew terms they translate. For these and other reasons the Septuagint remains a
monument of great historical and theological importance into modern times.1
1
Hahn, S. (Ed.). (2009). In Catholic Bible Dictionary (pp. 824–827). New York; London;
Toronto; Sydney; Auckland: Doubleday.