The Ancient Versions of the Old Testament
The Septuagint and Rival Versions: Targums, Samaritan Pentateuch
Lecture 11
Part I

Other Languages
•	the Samaritan Pentateuch is basically the Hebrew Text written in ______________ letters
•	The ______________ are translations, paraphrases, and expansions of the Hebrew text
•	The Greek versions are truly translations
•	we will look at its origin, its nature, and its significance
The Septuagint Version
•	our path for study:
•	1. The Need for a ______________ Version
•	2. The Story of the Translation
•	3. The ______________ of the LXX
•	4. The Acceptance of the LXX
1. The Need for a Greek Version
•	the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 BC by the Babylonians the event called the ______________ began in earnest
•	while a great many Jews returned to Israel when allowed under the ______________, many Jews remained outside Israel and in the Mediterranean lands
•	Shortly after Nebuchadnezzar’s armies invaded Jerusalem, many Jews fled to Egypt
The Jews in Egypt
•	a colony of Jews had always existed in Egypt and
•	a group came with the prophet ______________ around the time of the Babylonian Captivity
•	the Egyptian king settled many in the area known as ______________ and they built a temple here around 525 BC
Alexander the Great
•	invaded Egypt around 332 BC and founded Alexandria.
•	From the beginning a colony of Jews formed an important group in the city
•	the ______________ who gained control of Egypt after Alexander’s death, favored the Jews and eventually 2 of the 5 wards of the city were Jewish districts and it is estimated that almost a ______________ Jews lived in the area
Alexandria
•	was a ______________ speaking city and the Jews living here had to speak Greek for their business transactions
•	Soon the Jews replaced their Palestinian ______________ with Greek
•	but some of the Jews wanted to pass on their religious and spiritual heritages
The Hebrew Scriptures
•	were no longer understood by the Greek speaking Jews, it was necessary that they translate their ______________ into Greek
•	In a sense the same situation that gave rise to the ______________ targums demanded a Greek version of the biblical books
The Underrated Version
•	those who undertook this work probably didn’t understand the value of their work
•	the so-called ______________ version became the Bible of the Diaspora Jews and the Bible of the early church The the writers of the NT quote the ______________ they used the LXX as a general rule
•	It also became the base for translations into other languages and non-Jews could read it
 2. The Story of the Translation
•	Very little is known with certainty as to how the translation was first attempted
•	Some information can be gleaned from the ______________
•	(a pseudepigraphical book)
•	it purports to being written about the middle of the ______________ century BC, but probably is no older than 100 BC
The Letter of Aristeas
•	an official at the court of Ptolemy who ruled 285-246 BC wrote to his brother about ______________, the librarian who had aroused the interest of Phildelphius in the Jewish writings
•	a delegation was sent from the king to the High Priest in Jerusalem, who agreed to send 6 men from the ______________ tribes to translate the Hebrew scriptures
The story continues
•	these ______________ Jewish men were allowed to stay on the Island of ______________ and they finished the work on the Pentateuch in 72 days.
Other Additions to the Story
•	one addition says the 72 stayed in separate cells, working independent of one another, and in the end, found the ______________ translations were ______________ --- thus a sign of divine inspiration
•	this Greek version was then put into the great library at Alexandria after it had found approval from the Jewish community
The Name Septuagint
•	has at least two suggestions for its derivation
•	1. That the 72 translators used to produce it was rounded to ______________ for ease of remembering
•	2. 70 elders accompanied Moses up the mountain to receive the Law, it was appropriate that the number should be rounded off to 70. From here we get the use of the ______________ numerals “LXX” 
The Legendary Character
•	of the Aristeas letter is quite recognized.
•	But there is sufficient evidence to know that it was produced in Alexandria, and not by ______________ Jews.
•	The Hebrew text used may well have come from ______________It is also limited to the Pentateuch, what about the rest of the OT?
The Rest of the OT
•	seems to have been translated at various times and in various stages
•	the ______________ would naturally be the first translation 
•	the result is that the LXX is not the work of only one group or person
the Greek translations bear evidence that not all the Greek is of the same ______________By the time of Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
•	we can certain that all the OT was translated into Greek as he refers to the Law, the ______________ and the other books.
•	It may be that there were several Greek versions in circulation and the LXX was complete prior to the ______________ century BC and 
•	then emerged as the official text.
The Character of the LXX
•	It contains not only the books of the OT, but also the ______________ as well
•	these are mixed in with the canonical books and not set off like later ______________ Bibles
•	Our mss of the LXX do not all list the same number of apocryphal books
Passages Transposed in the LXX
•	the ______________ are hopelessly scrambled:
•	chapter 9 and 10 and 114 and 115 appear as one unit in the LXX
•	chapter 116 is split up
•	this throws the numbering of the ______________ into chaos and explains why quotations from the OT in the NT often have both the Hebrew and LXX chapter and verse references
The Translation
•	varies greatly from a close literal rendering of the Hebrew to some places that are very ______________ translations
•	Where the LXX differs from the Masoretic Text may be explained by a non-standardized text prior to the ______________.
•	The scrolls of Qumran seem to point to this direction
4. The Acceptance of the LXX
•	it can be assumed that the Alexandrian Jews would not have been too favorable in having their holy book translated into the tongue of ______________.
•	However once it was read they were favorably impressed and accepted it
•	they even added that no one should add, take away or alter it in any way without a ______________ coming upon that person
The Diaspora’s Acceptance
•	was apparently gradual and when the missionaries took the gospel to the Mediterranean world, they found a Bible that all could use and accept
•	Thus it was the Bible, not only of the ______________ speaking Jews, but also the ______________ church
•	Acts 15:16-18 shows James arguing that the Gentiles should be accepted on the basis of the LXX of Amos 9:11-12 “that the rest of men may seek the Lord”
Why did the Jews eventually reject the LXX
•	1. The early church ______________ it and the Jews lost interest in using it
•	2. The standardized Hebrew text of AD 100 emerged and they believed that the Greek translation ought to conform more to it than the LXX did
•	in the end the Jewish rejection of the LXX was so deep that some called the LXX the “work of ______________”
The Preservation of the LXX text
•	must largely be credited to the church
•	it is found in the great codices that originate from the ______________ and 5th centuries
•	(Vaticanus, ______________, and Alexandrinus)
•	In 1935 there was known to be 1,500 complete and fragmentary mss
Other Revisions and Rival Versions
•	1. Later Greek Versions
•	2. Origen’s ______________3. Other ______________.
Later Greek Versions
•	Once the LXX was rejected by the Jews, the ______________ speaking Jews needed another version
•	several attempts were made:
•	1. Aquila of Sinope in Pontus
•	2. ______________3. Symmachus
Aquila of Sinope in Pontus
•	a proselyte to Judaism and disciple of Rabbi ______________produced a slavishly literal translation into Greek about 130 AD
•	He tried to maintain the Hebrew word and syntax extremely close
•	he changed “______________” (virgin) in Isaiah 7:14 to “neanis” (young woman) attempting to weaken the virgin birth and this became the official version of Greek speaking Jews
2. Theodotian
•	at the end of the ______________ century AD another proselyte to Judaism produced a very free translation of Hebrew books into Greek
•	It was so popular that the church preferred this version of Daniel to the of the LXX
•	The Book of ______________ in his work is closer to the Hebrew and fills in gaps left by the LXX, which is one sixth shorter than the Hebrew text
3. Symmachus,
•	an ______________ Christian, prepared a Greek version of the OT for Jewish Christians
•	tried to produced an idiomatic and accurate translation.
•	It is Greek in style and represents a principle of translation that is the opposite of ______________ slavish work
Origen’s Hexapla
•	the Greek OT underwent several changes and corrections in its history
•	one major work was done by Origen around 240 BC
•	he made a massive volume of six columns and consisted of nearly 7000 pages and only fragments of it remain
•	it took him twenty years to complete this work
The  Six Columns of the Hexapla
•	1) the Hebrew Text
•	2) the Hebrew text written in ______________ letters
•	3) Aquila’s Greek translation
•	4) Symmachus’ Greek version
•	5) a revision of the ______________6) the Greek translation by Theodotion
•	the fifth column was recopied several times
The Results
•	no single complete copy exists for us
•	several fragments are available and
•	Jerome, in the 4th century AD, used ______________ Hexapla. 
•	The Hexapla was copied into ______________ before Origen’s work was lost in the Moslem conquests of the 7th century
Other Recensions of the LXX
•	1. ______________ of Caesarea supplied Constantine with 50 copies of the Bible when the persecution of Christians ended and these Bibles contained the firth column of Origen’s Hexapla, namely the LXX
•	2. Lucian of ______________, died a martyr in AD 311 undertook a revision of the LXX
•	3. Hesychius of Egypt
By the fourth Century
•	3 major editions were in use
•	1. Eusebius’ edition was used in ______________2. Lucian was used in Asia Minor
•	and
•	3. Hesychian recension was popular in ______________In centuries that followed these versions mingled and it is hard to know which readings were present in the original LXX
The Significance of the LXX
•	1. It helped to establish the goal of establishing the best text possible
•	2. It’s influence on the NT
•	3. It’s influence on the early church - the early theologians did not have to invent a Greek theological ______________…
•	Greek word (eirene - peace) meant “absence of strife” but when added to the Hebrew notion of (shalom - peace) it means ______________ and fulness of life.