Septuagint

2007-05-31T04:27:58Z

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The '''Septuagint''' ([[Latin]] ''Interpretatio Septuaginta'', [[Greek]] ''Hermeneutica kata ton hebdomekonton'', literally "Interpretation According to the Seventy", abbr. LXX) is the first translation of the [[Old Testament]] of the [[Bible]] into any foreign language--and specifically the classical Greek that was spoken shortly after the death of [[Alexander the Great]].<ref>The [http://www.septuagint.net/ Septuagint] on the Web.</ref>

== History ==
Upon the death of Alexander ([[332 BC]]), one of his generals, named Ptolemy Lagus, took over Egypt as King [[Ptolemy I Soter]] (literally, "Ptolemy the Savior"). This king built, among other things, the [[Great Library of Alexandria]], which he intended to be a major research center throughout the [[Mediterranean]] region.

He continued the generally tolerant policy toward the [[Judaism|Jews]] that Alexander had observed since the priests at [[Jerusalem]] had surrendered to him. His successor [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] (r. 285-246 BC) continued that policy. In his effort to make the Great Library the best center of learning in the known world, Ptolemy Philadelphus sought to translate the Old Testament from [[Hebrew]] into Greek.<ref>[http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0840412.html Ptolemy II] at Infoplease.com</ref> Sadly, his staff found Hebrew to be a difficult language to understand, and were not sure of the meanings of several turns of phrase found in the Hebrew text. So Ptolemy appointed a team of seventy scholars, each fluent in Hebrew and in Greek, and assigned to them the task of translating the Hebrew text.<ref>[[Will Durant|Durant, Will]], ''The Story of Civilization, Volume 2: The Life of Greece''. ISBN 1567310133</ref>

The result is a work produced largely by scholarly consensus and was the primary translation in Palestine at the time of Jesus. The [[Gospels]], [[Paul]], [[James]], [[Peter]], [[Jude]], and the author of the [[Hebrews (book)|Epistle to the Hebrews]] quoted from the Septuagint often in their respective writings.

The Septuagint contains the thirty-nine [[Biblical canon|canonical]] books of the Old Testament, but also contains the books called the [[Apocrypha]], which are considered non-inspired, and hence non-canonical, by most [[Protestant]] denominations. The Apocrypha are considered canonical by the [[Roman Catholic Church]], and are included in Catholic Bibles.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint Septuagint] by [[Wikipedia]]</ref>

== Objections to the Septuagint ==
Any translation is automatically suspect, if only because of differences in grammar and idiom between the source and target languages. However, the later Jews, especially after the failure of the [[Simon bar Kochva]] rebellion, determined never to accept anything that had a non-Jewish influence. Therefore, since midway through the second century AD, Jews have used Hebrew texts. The [[Masoretic Text]], which was put together around 900 A.D., is based upon these earlier Hebrew translations and is the text that is used today both for those who read Hebrew, and for translating to other languages.

[[James Ussher]], who made himself an expert on [[Semitic]] languages, concluded that the Septuagint contained errors of translation, and even errors of fact, that he considered critical and fatal to his purpose of determining a unified chronology of the world. For that reason, he rejected the Septuagint in favor of the Masoretic Text.

In 1947, ancient copies of Hebrew texts in scroll form turned up at [[Qumran]]. These "[[Dead Sea Scrolls]]" were written over various times, but dated back to the time of Jesus and before. This was a monumental find as it pushed back the time of the earliest known Hebrew text by almost 1000 years and was still a few hundred years earlier than the earliest surviving Greek text. The scrolls vindicate the accuracy of both the Septuagint and the Masoretic text which were surprisingly accurate for the large amount of time that had passed. In those cases where there were differences, the Septuagint was more accurate overall. Septuagint and Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts together vindicate the prophecies of [[Jesus Christ]], because they render any conspiracy to write "prophecies after the fact" temporally impossible.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Bible]]

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Septuagint