(05/26/2005)
THE SEPTUAGINT
The Septuagint is an ancient Greek translation of the Old
Testament. It is not inspired.
Tradition has it that the Septuagint (known also as the LXX because 70 scribes were involved in its production) was
written some 250 years before the Christian era. But this is not the case.
WAS THERE A PRE-CHRISTIAN SEPTUAGINT?
In his book Forever Settled (published by The Bible For Today: 900 Park Avenue, Collingswood. N.J. 08108 USA) Jack Moorman writes
| on page 13 | "Paul Kahle ( a famous O.T. scholar) who has done extensive work in the Septuagint does not believe that there was one original old Greek version and that consequently the manuscripts of the Septuagint (so-called) cannot be traced back to one archtype...
Peter Ruckman (in the Christian's handbook of Manuscript Evidence) has taken a similar position. His arguments can be summarized as follows:
|
PROBLEM TEXTS
In his masterful book Problem Texts (published by Pensecola
Bible Institute Press, P.O. Box 7135, Pensecola, Florida 32504. USA)
Peter S Ruckman Ph.D. writes of the Septuagint in Appendix Two,
| pages 407-409: | "I have a copy of the notorious Septuagint on my
desk (Zondervan Publishing Co.1970, from Samuel Baxter & Sons, London). In the Introduction, the party line of the Alexandrian Cult is laid out as neatly as a tiled floor. Our writer says 'THE FACT' may be regarded as 'CERTAIN' that the Greek Old Testament LXX had begun to be translated before 285BC. The evidence for this? Don't be silly; the Alexandrian Cult never deals with evidence. Every LXX manuscript cited in the Septuagint Concordance was written 200 years after the completion of the New Testament. They are as follows:" |
Ruckman then lists the 4 Greek manuscripts from which the Septaugint came. Brief details include:
Ruckman continues:
"Those interested in further damaging evidence will observe that every papyrus manuscript found with any part of the Old Testament in it was written after the resurrection, with the exception of one scrap containing less than six chapters of Deuteronomy on it.
The "Septuagint" papyri (we have listed all 23 of them with all that they contain and the dates they were written in The Christian's Handbook of Manuscript Evidence pp.48-51, published in 1970) were all written within 60 to 500 years after John finished writing the Book of Revelation."
"The mythological LXX or Septuagint is the most persistent spook to haunt orthodox Christianity since the myth that Christ was born in a cave. The theory is based on abstract speculation of the wildest sort without one piece of reliable documented evidence of ANY kind that there was ever on this earth one single copy of an OLD Testament in GREEK before the heading up of the school at Alexandria by Origen, one hundred years after the entire New Testament was complete, yet to this day there exists on every campus of every fundamental school in the United States the nebulous ghost of this non-existent spook."
If the reader is interested in further studying this issue of Bible Versions and how that the King James Version is the infallible Word of God, then you simply must buy Ruckman's book Problem Texts [THE "ERRORS" IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE]. Never in all my days have I read such hard-hitting facts in favour of the Authorized Version. But be warned, Ruckman's style is not for the faint-hearted, especially if they are afraid of the facts!
Q
Did Jesus and the apostles, including Paul, quote from the Septuagint?
A
There are absolutely no manuscripts pre-dating the third century A.D. to validate the claim that Jesus or Paul quoted a Greek Old Testament. Quotations by Jesus and Paul in new versions’ New Testaments may match readings in the so-called Septuagint because new versions are from the exact same corrupt fourth and fifth century A.D. manuscripts which underlie the document sold today and called the Septuagint. These manuscripts are Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus.
According to the colophon on the end of Sinaiticus, it came from Origen’s Hexapla. The others likely did also. Even church historians, Jerome, Hort, and our contemporary D.A. Carson, would agree that this is probably true. Origen wrote his Hexapla two hundred years after the life of Christ and Paul! NIV New Testament and Old Testament quotes may match occasionally because they were both penned by the same hand — a hand which recast both Old and New Testament to suit his Platonic and Gnostic leanings. New versions take the Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus manuscripts — which are in fact Origen’s Hexapla — and change the traditional Masoretic Old Testament text to match these. Alfred Martin, who was a past vice- president of Moody Bible Institute, called Origen “unsafe.” Origen’s Hexapla is a very unsafe source to use to change the historic Old Testament.
The preface of the Septuagint marketed today points out that the stories surrounding the B.C. (before Christ) creation of the Septuagint (LXX) and the existence of a Greek Old Testament are based on fables. All of the Septuagint manuscripts cited in its concordance were written after A.D. 200 and represent Origen’s Hexapla, in kind. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics elaborates, calling “the letter of the pseudo- Aristeas, a manifest forgery and the fragments of Aristobulus highly suspect.” It also points out many of the LXX’s Gnostic and Platonic readings.
The fable of the Septuagint arose from the counterfeit letter of pseudo- Aristeas. It said that seventy-two scholars were called, around 250 B.C., by Ptolemy, king of Egypt, to create a Greek Old Testament. This Egyptian ruler supposedly asked them a number of questions related to pagan philosophy and pagan theology. If they could answer these questions, they could be on the Septuagint “committee.” The fable further states that six Jews from each of the twelve tribes were involved. The word Septuagint means seventy, however, not seventytwo. (Excerpt — G.A. Riplinger)