The Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible


The Septuagint is a Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, which was produced in Alexandria, Egypt around 200 B.C. However, it was not a translation of the Old Testament as we now know it (the Masoretic text). Why? The Septuagint was translated about 1,000 years before the Masoretic Hebrew text was established!

The differences between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Old Testament are many. Some of them are minor, others major. One of the major differences is that the book of Jeremiah is about 7/8 as long in the Septuagint as in the Masoretic Hebrew text. Minor differences include changes in wording and the forms of names. Quite a few moderate differences arise from the perspective of the Greek-speaking translators, who lived in Alexandria several centuries after the exile, and the Hebrew writers, most of whom lived before or during the exile, or just after it. I will explore some of these differences in subsequent posts. It will be a fascinating journey!

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