22
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What did Jesus likely say in John 8:58?
See also the follow-up Q&A to this one on the Greek antecedents of the absolute use of ἐγὼ εἰμί in the New Testament which advances and nuances the discussion below.
The Question
This is an ...
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Is יהוה ever transliterated in the Septuagint?
While @Simply-a-Christian has provided a fine answer to this question, there are a couple more wrinkles that can be added for the sake of completeness.
1. The "PIPI" Representation
We know of a ...
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13
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Is ἐγώ εἰμι testified in extra-biblical Greek as an expression for saying "I am he"?
This is a good question -- or rather, set of questions. I begin by reiterating a comment from the Q&A linked by OP: to engage with this set of issues fully, one really needs to consult Catrin H. ...
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13
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Why does the Greek Septuagint of Genesis 34:3 refer to Dinah as a virgin?
Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, born by Leah, was a virgin. She went out to see the daughters of the land. In Gen. 34:2–3, the narrator then uses a series of vav-consecutives to describe a sequence of ...
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Is there an "official" Septuagint; that is, one that is univesally recognized as such?
Like other ancient books, we only have copies (of copies of copies) of the Septuagint. So, at a basic level, no, there is no official Septuagint. Scholars attempt to reconstruct a text based on an ...
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What does the superscript "-N" mean when added to the abbreviation LXX?
LXX with superscripted N refers to Codex Venetus; the use of the minus sign probably indicates that this witness does not have the reading referred to (for more, see Addendum, below). It is cited as ...
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12
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How many days until Nineveh will be overthrown?
The Idea in Brief
Before the appearance of the Masoretic Text in the Tenth Century, at least three early witnesses attest to the forty day period in Jonah: the Dead Sea Scrolls at both Wadi Murabba'...
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11
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Critical Edition of Septuagint in Hebrew
Yes, there is at least one Hebrew rendition of the LXX that is aimed at reconstructing its vorlage (i.e. the text from which it was translated, in this case unpointed Biblical Hebrew). The Parallel ...
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11
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Does the postfixed χ in Jewish Greek transliterations simply denote the aleph, i.e. vs. other vowels?
For OP's question:
Is the chi (χ) used to indicate the kind of a vowel in the original Hebrew (namley the aleph א), a transliteration as it is from Hebrew in already Hebraic Greek?
The short ...
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11
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Why did St. Jerome use "virago" in Gen. 2:23?
In the Hebrew text, there is a play on words, as “man” is אִישׁ (ish), and “woman” is אִשָּׁה (isha). Jerome explains why he chose to use virago rather than the common word to refer to a woman, mulier....
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10
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How is the Septuagint interpretation of Psalms 40:6 reconciled with the Hebrew text?
The Idea in Brief
The Hebrew verb to pierce (כָּרָה = H3738) in Psalm 40:6 is the same triliteral root for the Hebrew verb to prepare (כָּרָה = H3739). For example, this second verb (כָּרָה = H3739) ...
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10
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Does Isaiah 7:14 refer to a virgin?
The Sign of Immanuel in Isaiah 7:14 is the single most debated text in scripture. Dozens—literally dozens—of PhD dissertations have been written on it. There are three main questions inherent in the ...
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Is it corruption of the LXX for adding Deut 32:43 or of the Masoretic for lacking it as quoted in Hebrews 1:6?
As the OP correctly notes, Hebrews 1:6:
ὅταν δὲ πάλιν εἰσαγάγῃ τὸν πρωτότοκον εἰς τὴν οἰκουμένην, λέγει Καὶ προσκυνησάτωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι θεοῦ. (Westcott and Hort)
And again, when he ...
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10
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What are the oldest copies we have of LXX
As alluded to in the question, the primary (mostly) complete witnesses to the text of the Septuagint are codices bound up with the Christian New Testament. Pride of place goes to Vaticanus in which we ...
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9
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Linking NT Greek to Hebrew through the LXX
The question:
What tools are the necessary tools to determine what NT Greek words correspond to the Hebrew words that were translated into the LXX?
My first answer would be a working knowledge of ...
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9
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Does Isaiah 7:14 refer to a virgin?
The answer to whether עַלְמָה means "young maiden" or "virgin" may lie in the answer to a second question. The meaning of the word אוֹת has a tremendous impact on how we read Isaiah 7:14. The word ...
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How did “Sirens” arise in the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 13:21?
Subsequent to the publication of Greek Myths and Christian Mystery, referenced by another answer, Manolis Papoutsakis made an ingenious hypothesis that may finally solve the mystery as to how the odd ...
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8
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What did Jesus likely say in John 8:58?
Professor of Religious Studies , Jason David BeDuhn of Northern Arizona University in his book "TRUTH IN TRANSLATION Accuracy and Bias of the New Testament" compares ten major English ...
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8
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Proverbs: differences between the LXX and the MT
The books of the Septuagint (= LXX, here not the Septuagint "proper", which is limited to the Pentateuch, but the whole of the Jewish scriptures in Greek) were produced by different translators; the ...
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The religious identity of those who translated Psalms 24:1 into the LXX
Although my initial reaction to this question was (not unlike the response in another answer here) that obviously this day-of-the-week superscription (DWS) reflects the Jewish liturgical background of ...
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8
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In Psalm 82:1 who are in the "congregation" and who are the "gods"?
Background
In their commentary Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler have this to say about Psalm 82:
A vision of a heavenly court where God condemns those who judge unfairly. The psalm plays on the ...
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8
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How can we trust the Hebrew Bible to be accurate when the oldest MSS go back only to about the tenth century C.E.?
39+ different answers
The Old Testament is not a single book, but a collection of 39 books (or 46, depending on who you ask).
Some of these books are well-attested in Hebrew before the 10th century, ...
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7
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Are nous and pneuma synonymous?
No, they are not synonymous.
In way of background, we note that the Hebrew rûaḥ is commonly rendered by the Greek pneuma, both commonly rendered by the English spirit. The OP is wondering why, in ...
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7
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Why does the LXX translate דֹּדֶ֖יךָ as μαστοί in Song of Songs 1:2?
The consonantal text, דדיך, can be read דַּדַּיִך, from דַּד "nipple" (Ezekiel 23:3,8,21). This was the reading used in translating דדיך as μαστοί σου.
The meaning "beloved" is consistently spelled ...
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How do sins become strangers in Greek Psalm 18 (19)?
It appears that the LXX translator (rather than the NETS translator) "saw" a different text here. Typically זד gets translated (as you would expect), with something reflecting "insolent" or nasty:1
...
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6
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How did “Sirens” arise in the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 13:21?
This is a fantastic question, but one that appears to have no clear answer at this time. I've done some digging around and though I could not find an exact answer, I found some illuminating ...
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Were NT authors aware of differences between MT and LXX
The Masoretic Text (MT) did not come into existence until some 700 years after the New Testament was written. As such, there is no possible way the New Testament writers could have anticipated ...
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Is Romans 3:10 a quote from the Septuagint?
For Psalms 14 & 53 as a whole, mostly "yes"
A few opening thoughts:
Yes, it does seem like he is using or borrowing from the Septuagint in particular.
Yes, it seems to be a kind of quote/...
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