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Originally Posted by Jamie McDaniel
Some of the footnotes say Septuagint, others abbreviate it as GK for Greek version or LKK.
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Jamie,
The only correction's I would make is its the LXX not the LKK and who it was written for.
But here is a link to an online version, for my fellow New Testament Greek Speakers;
Septuagint.
The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek is often credited to Ptolemy, and the word "Septuagint" is the word for seventy in Latin and the "urban legend" about the text as it took 70 scholars to translate it.
The Septuagint was written for the Hellenized Jews scattered though out the Roman world. Hellenized refers to the impact the Roman Empire had of conquering another nation, leaving it intact but imposing their language and culture on its people. Israel was an exception that many people who lived in the area were taught Hebrew because most of the teaching was done in the Synagogue. But the widely spoken language was Aramaic, a close relative to Hebrew. So the Jews living in Israel maintained much of their language and culture, this is seen in how many of the "common" people, like the disciples with the possible exception of Matthew, did not know Greek which is reflected in their later writings.
But the Jews living outside Israel had become Hellenized and with the lack Synagogues in many of the other cities teaching Hebrew to the next generation became less and less prevalent. So over time there was an entire segment of Jews who knew little or knew nothing of the Hebrew language. This is where it became important for the Septuagint to be translated. Ptolemy was a Hellenized Jew in the city of Alexandria, in present day Egypt. Seeing the eroding of the Jewish faith among the Hellenized Jews he decided to translate the scriptures into a language they could understand.
Paired with what Jamie said the different translations are really important as they do give an idea of how the original audience took these passages to mean which should, but often doesn’t, guide us in how we look at the passages. Another good bible version is the
Amplified Bible parallel Bibles are good but for the Amplified Bible is "in text" so when you read a passage and there is variance in word meaning it gives it to you right there and you can read each verse with the different word.
But to answer Zephyr's question.
The word homosexual is a recent word, but the concept of homosexuality is a very ancient one. There are words in Hebrew and Greek that do refer to homosexuality as we would perceive it now but none of them appear in the scriptures. We do see homosexual acts addressed in the scriptures, as in temple/shrine prostitution and yes even the roman orgies, but the words commonly used for one male and one male relationship do not appear, sorry ladies the term only exists in the masculine as far as I have researched and trust me my Thesis is on this.
This raises a question for me; why gender inclusiveness of God. I can see value in removing a stumbling block for someone who may take issue with the Patriarchy. But when it comes down to it God is reveled to us in the masculine, so I take issues with how some churches change the texts to remove any "male terms." I guess one thing that bothered me is I was guest speaking at an MCC church and I said "kingdom” and I had a group of people get all upset that I was imposing male superiority... well in the Greek the word is "basileia" which literally means kingdom with no other possible meaning, in the context, I also pointed out and kingdoms are ruled by Queens ... no puns intended
I guess I am blinded by having my nose in the book and I cannot see value in changing a word from any of its possible meanings. But I will say there is a failure to fully understand the nature of God in our English translations, namely this is though the names God is given and many do show feminine characteristics that do not fall within masculine terms normally used.
Well, I leave with I just don’t get it.
-Venari