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Originally Posted by Venari
This is from the Septuagint...
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Venari introduced the Septuagint, which is another good item for our thread on
Knowledge of the Bible. Many readers of the Bible are already aware of the fact that the books that make up the Old Testament were originally written in Hebrew and that the books of the New Testament were written in Greek. Not everyone in Israel read Hebrew at the time of Jesus. Greek was the dominant language. So the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek. This Greek translation is referred to as the Septuagint.
So what's the importance of this? Well, as we all know, one's view of the Bible is all about interpretation. If I could only give a fundamentalist one gift, I think I would give him or her a parallel Bible.
The Complete Parallel Bible
Why? Because seeing alternate translations side by side reminds us of the limits of human language in our quest for truth.
Anyway, the Septuagint was one of the very first translations of the Old Testament. Jesus would have been familiar with it. And our English translations today often list footnotes that reference the Septuagint. Some of the footnotes say Septuagint, others abbreviate it as GK for Greek version or LKK.
Here's an example:
The verse in question reads "He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work." Footnote B shows that the Septuagint (and another Hebrew manuscript) has "young men" instead of cattle. That footnote is for 1 Samuel 8:16 in case anyone was wondering. I didn't pick it for any particular reason.
(Sidenote: Those following this thread, did you notice how LORD is in all caps in the verse above the footnote?)
So differences like this are very interesting, but what I find most interesting about the Septuagint is that it contained the Apocrypha, which is what I want to touch on next in this thread on
Knowledge of the Bible.
Disclaimer: Like many of you, I'm a student of the Bible, not a Bible Scholar. I'm merely introducing these topics so that everyone can be more familiar with them. There are complete books on each of these topics. If anyone has corrections, additional information, or more insight, please post.