Septuagint vs Hebrew Bible: Language, Books, and Textual Differences

Why LXX does not mean one translation event

The name is connected with the tradition of seventy, or seventy-two, translators, hence the abbreviation LXX. The NETS introduction explains that this story concerns the five books of Moses. Other books were translated in later centuries and in other places. It is therefore misleading to picture a committee translating an entire modern Christian Old Testament in a single sitting. [2]

The Greek collection is also not uniform in origin. Some works, including Wisdom and several Maccabean books, were composed in Greek rather than translated from Hebrew. Scholars may use Old Greek for the earliest Greek rendering of a particular book, distinguishing it from later revisions. These distinctions explain why the question 'Which Septuagint text?' can matter as much as the general label on an edition. [2]

Hebrew manuscripts and the Masoretic tradition

The Masoretic Text is a particular Hebrew textual tradition, not the moment when Hebrew scripture first came into existence. The Israel Antiquities Authority describes Qumran manuscripts that closely resemble it alongside others with differing spellings or wording. Those older witnesses help distinguish the history of a text from the date of a later surviving copy or its standardization. [3]

Contents and additions

Differences between collections can involve whole books or passages within shared books. Dorival identifies Greek supplements in Daniel and Esther as examples of the latter. His discussion also rejects the simple picture of one larger Alexandrian canon opposed to one Jerusalem canon. Books later called deuterocanonical in Christian usage have Jewish origins; their preservation by Christians does not make their original composition Christian. [4]

For comparison, separate three questions: which writings an edition includes, how those writings are arranged, and what a particular passage says. A contents difference cannot be resolved merely by checking a translation of a verse. Likewise, finding an addition within a shared book is different from finding an extra complete book in the table of contents. [4]

An example from Jeremiah

The NABRE note published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains that Jeremiah's oracles against foreign nations stand in chapters 46–51 in the Hebrew arrangement, but follow 25:13 in the Greek text. This is a difference in the position of a substantial block, not merely a choice between two English synonyms. It also shows why chapter references may need attention when comparing editions across textual traditions. [5]

What Codex Sinaiticus shows

The fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus is a major surviving witness to Greek scripture. Its Old Testament material includes writings outside the Hebrew Bible, such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, and Sirach. The project's account also emphasizes the manuscript's corrections from different periods. A codex can preserve evidence of reading and revision as well as a copied text. [6]

Sinaiticus also contains New Testament writings, along with Barnabas and Hermas. That describes this manuscript's contents; it does not make the New Testament part of the Septuagint. Its combination of writings belongs to a period of considerable but incomplete agreement about Christian authoritative books. A single surviving volume is thus valuable evidence for one stage of textual and canonical history, rather than proof that every Greek Bible always contained exactly the same books. [6]