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Has the meaning of Isaiah 59:20-21 been changed?
Roman 11:26: And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob.
Isaiah 59:20-21: “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.
The answer, I think, is no.
Paul quotes almost exclusively from the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament. In the Septuagint, Isaiah 59:20 reads
ἥξει ἐκ Σιὼν ὁ ῥυόμενος καὶ ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ἰακώβ
The Greek text of Romans 11:26 (NA28) is identical:
ἥξει ἐκ Σιων ὁ ῥυόμενος καὶ ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ιακωβ
Regrettably, it happens too often that a Bible passage turns out hard to understand on account of the fact that many Hebrew prepositions – originally univocal terms – were reduced, over the centuries, to single letter. Isa 59:20 is just a typical case of this kind.
All the trouble is focused on the term לציון, that is made up of two parts: ‘Zion’ [ציון], preceded by the hyper-synthetic preposition L- [ל].
Now, if you search for the meaning of - ל in the Hebrew lexicons more probably you will be astonished. Why? Well, the Davidson lexicon lists twelve different meanings linked with L- [ל]. Gesenius assigned fourteen meanings to it, at least. John Parkhurst has a list with 22 different meanings of it. Koehler&Baumgartner: 26 meanings. And – sincerely - I have had enough to count all the different meanings listed by Schöckel…
In these cases, how we can unravel the dilemma? Since this is not a linguistic site, I will answer simply, through textual criticism. In this specific case, we have to consider the witnessing of the context (in particular, the mention Paul made in Romans of this passage), and of the ancient translations.
In the Septuagint (LXX) the verse is: “καὶ ἥξει ἕνεκεν Σιων ὁ ῥυόμενος καὶ ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ιακωβ.”, that translated by Brenton is: “And the deliverer shall come for Sion's sake, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob”.
As you note, here ἕνεκεν is a pivotal term. It means ‘on account of’, ‘for’ (I don’t know where ‘User 33515’ has found his reading of ‘Septuagint…). So, for the Jewish translators of the Septuagint (if they translated by a similar Hebrew text that we have to disposition), the L- [ל] had the meaning of ‘on account of (Zion)’, and not – merely – ‘to (Zion)”.
Someone may think that the Paul’s paraphrase of this Isaiah passage – using the preposition εκ – contradicts this conclusion. But, also in this case, wait a moment. One of the various meanings of the Greek preposition εκ is – again – ‘on account of, ‘for’ (you may examine, for some examples, this usage of εκ by Sophokles, Plato, and Plutarch. If you have need a more detailed references from this works I am able to list them).
So, the sense of Isa 59:20 is the one and the same of Rom 11:26. There’s no change of meaning.
Also, a number of Bible translation reached the same conclusion (bold is mine).
“Und ein Erlöser wird kommen für [‘for the sake of’] Zion und für die, welche in Jakob von der Übertretung umkehren, spricht Jahwe”. (Elberfelder Bibel)
“E un redentore verrà per [‘for’] Sion e per quelli di Giacobbe che si convertiranno dalla loro rivolta, dice l'Eterno.” (Riveduta-Luzzi)
“E verrà per [‘for’] Sion un redentore […]” (Bonaventura Mariani)
“[…] for Zion will come a redeemer” (NJB)
“[…] come redentore verrà per [‘for’] Sion” (La Civiltà Cattolica-Piemme; in a similar manner also the TOB)
“Ma per [‘for’] Sion viene quale redentore […]” (Concordata).
Very interestingly, this manner to translate - both in Hebrew and Greek - enhances the loyalty and the care of the Creator towards men, since He is ready to deliver peoples from their errors.
I hope these information will be useful to you.
It's not a contradiction - although it may appear in English to be quite different. There are a couple of issues happening here which can throw off the English translations.
The Isaiah passage you cited above in English is most likely translated from the Hebrew Masoretic Text although sometimes the translation committees will choose the Septuagint variant (for whatever reason).
In the Romans passage - as mentioned by user33535 above - Paul is quoting the Septuagint. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures from the 200's BCE.
Taking the Old Testament Hebrew into Greek - or any language for that matter - is not always as straight forward as we would like. Sometimes the Greek Septuagint has minor variations from the Hebrew due to translation issues.
Here, Paul quotes almost word for word from the Greek Septuagint so there would be no contradiction. The Septuagint was the accepted Old Testament to the Greek-speaking Jews living in the Diaspora.
The Hebrew word פֶּשַׁע is translated "transgression" or "sins."
When translated to the Greek Septuagint they chose ἀσέβεια (asebeia) which is shown here as:
want of reverence towards God, impiety, ungodliness
The Hebrew uses the normal word for "repent" וּלְשָׁבֵ֥י - the Greek Septuagint and Paul both use the word ἀποστρέφω - which is translated as either
to turn away; to remove anything from anyone
Which is where your translation gets "remove."
The contradiction may appear when you have to pull each of these passages into English. How you determine the translation of a passage will cause it to appear contradictory or not. Also, it may appear as if the author had been changing the text if you compare directly a passage from the OT quoted in the NT.
As far as "come to" or "come from" - The Hebrew is "come to" לְצִיּוֹן֙. On Studylight.org the Septuagint uses the word (heko) instead of (ek) - "out of" that Paul uses. See the screenshot below:
This refers to the daughter of Zion who is the incarnate soul of Jesus Christ and she is the return of the female christ aka Pistis Sophia. She is the only begotten daughter of God and she will save the world for she is the holy grail.
The ark of the covenant will come to her and she will sit on the mercy seat and she will usher in Jesus Christ as she is the gatekeeper in between heaven and earth and she will bring the New Jerusalem and fulfill all the prophecies of the Holy Bible. She is the hidden or secret mystery of the Bible. She has been prophesied about for just as long as Jesus was thousands of years ahead of time and she is the daughter of Abraham.
Luke 13 is her story and she would like to say that everyone focuses on the Old Testament when they really should be focusing on the New Testament. But in time you will see the end of time and the final close of the Holy Bible to be written a book of remembrance according to Malachi and a new book with the new song that has a beginning with no end for time will be no more. Matt 21:5 John 12:15 Romans 9:33 Romans 11:26 Revelations 14:1
She has more faith in this entire world combined and she was there with God before he created the earth. She was there when the deeps of the oceans were being created. Get ready for the kingdom is at hand. She is the bride not the church, only one Jesus, only one Zion.
