Lexicon

(English Index)

(Original Index)

 

 



Septuagint



Septuagint (or simply "LXX") is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek version of the Old Testament, translated in stages between the 3rd to 1st century BC in Alexandria.

It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The name means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy-two Jewish scholars (seventy being the nearest round number) translated the Pentateuch (or Torah) from Hebrew into Greek for one of the Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285-246 BC. As the work of translation progressed gradually, new books were added to the collection. The Pentateuch always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon.

The Septuagint was held with great respect in ancient times; Philo and Josephus ascribed divine inspiration to its authors.

In the New Testament, many verses are quoted from the Greek Septuagint version. Sometimes, the New Testament writers are criticised for not quoting from the Masoretic Hebrew Tanakh as we have today. The critics forgets that in Jesus' time there were several different Hebrew texts of most books, and that the Septuagint itself was translated into Greek by Jews some two centuries before Jesus from an obviously different Hebrew text which they presumably considered authoritative.