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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 excellent question, and one that in different forms has been pondered by interpreters of John's gospel for centuries. My own way of capturing what is at stake here ...
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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 tradition of supplying the Tetragram (Y-H-W-H), HaShem, the name of God, in special characters from the Dead Sea Scrolls. One of the clearest places to see this is ...
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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. Williams, I Am He: The Interpretation of ʾAnî Hûʾ in Jewish and Early Christian Literature (WUNT II/113; Mohr Siebeck, 2000). There is plenty of other relevant ...
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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 examination of the variants in the texts that we have.
A further complication with the Septuagint, however, is that, although we think of it as a single work, ...
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It is commonly believed that Job's original 10 children are in Heaven.
The texts do say that Job received a "twice as much", and that he had "more":
Job 42:10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for
his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than ...
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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 such by e.g. Jeremy Hughes in his Secrets of the Times (Sheffield, 1990). Information about this codex is difficult to come by, but there is a description of the ...
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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 events.
And Shechem, the son of Hamor:
v. 2:
וַיַּרְא אֹתָהּ (“and he saw her”)
וַיִּקַּח אֹתָהּ (“and he took her”)
וַיִּשְׁכַּב אֹתָהּ (“and he lay with her,...
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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'at and at the so-called "Cave of Horrors" in Nahal Hever, which both date to the First Century; and, thirdly, the Targum Jonathan, which dates to the Second to ...
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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 Aligned Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek text was created as part of the CATSS (Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Study) project under the direction of Emmanuel Tov ...
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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 answer is "No" -- (1) in the first instance, because chi is representing (possibly, more in a moment) a consonantal sound, not a "vowel". Aleph and Ayin are ...
10
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 text but the center of the storm revolves around a single word: elem or alma.
The story begins with Ahaz, King of Judah, and the coalition formed between the ...
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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 have a nearly complete Greek OT. Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus also provide valuable witness. These codices have been dated to the 4th Century CE.
Unfortunately,...
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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.1
(Vers. 23.) Hoc nunc os ex ossibus meis, et caro de carne mea: hæc vocabitur mulier, quoniam ex viro sumpta est. (Now this is bone of my bones and flesh of ...
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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) appears translated in 2 Ki 6:23 as "prepared." In other words, both verbs have the exact same triliteral root, but have different meanings. The LXX translators ...
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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 אוֹת as it is used in Tanach can generally be translated as "sign" or "omen." But as signs in the bible often come from G-d, אוֹת can also convey the meaning "...
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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 brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.” (ESV)
is most likely a quote of an LXX version of Deuteronomy 32:43
...
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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 various books thus exhibit vastly different styles and approaches to the task. LXX-Proverbs is well known for being among the most "free" in making the Hebrew ...
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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 classical Hebrew and koine Greek. I suspect this is not what OP has in mind, but it is the "right" answer.
So, trying again:
What tools are the necessary ...
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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 the translator, this conclusion depends on several assumptions:
The phrase "τῆς μιᾶς σαββάτων" is original to the Old Greek translation of the Psalms ("LXX")....
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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 translation arose.
In his paper, "Ostriches into Sirens: Towards an Understanding of a Septuagint Crux" (Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. LV, No. 1, ...
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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 word "elohim," which means "god" as well as "divine beings." The notion that other divine beings exist is found elsewhere in the Bible (see v.1 n). In later ...
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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 translations
and list them as follows:
In Chapter ten "TEMPERING WITH THE TENSES" deals exclusively with John 8:58 analyzes grammar and syntax of this ...
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The explanation is not contradictory. First we see how Paul expands the meaning of Habakkuk 2:4 in the relevant verse here in Romans -
Romans 1:17 (GNT)
δικαιοσύνη γὰρ θεοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ ἀποκαλύπτεται ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν, καθὼς γέγραπται, Ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται.
The key in this verse is that we live "from faith to faith" (ἐκ πίστεως εἰς πίστιν). ...
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Not ambiguous, but inclusive in meaning
Ambiguity implies two or more possible meanings that are unclear as to which it is, or more broadly simply being unclear. I do not believe that is the situation here at all.
Examining the statements
Let's start with the basically undisputed OT reference Paul is using in Romans.
Habakkuk 2:4
The (very literal) ...
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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 Isaiah 40:13, the translator has chosen the Greek nous ("mind") rather than the more common pneuma ("spirit").
Despite the default translations rûaḥ ↔ ...
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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 דּוֹד in Song of Songs. The lack of the letter ו in this and all other cases in the book (1:4, 4:10, 7:13) renders all of them ambiguous between "love" and "...
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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
παράνομος : Ps 86[85]:14; 119[118]:85
ὑπερήφανος : Ps 119[118]:21, 51, 69, 78, 122
θρασύς : Prov 21:24
ἄνομος : Isa 13:11
On three occasions, however, there is ...
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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 information that may help your or others in your research.
Greek Myths and Christian Mystery by Hugo Rahner provides some significant insight. Beginning on page 357, he ...
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