The Septuagint

     
Did Jesus and the apostles quote from the Septuagint?

Why would He? Why would He ignore the very Word (Logos, the Hebrew text) that He inspired and quote the Septuagint as the authority? (2Tim.3:16) When Jesus said "search the scriptures, was He meaning the Septuagint (a translation) or the Mosaic text? The Word that He inspired! The Septuagint is ONLY a translation of the God-breathed / inspired Hebrew Old Testament text. Our modern Bibles today are translations of the Greek New Testament. The Greek Text is the inspired, God-breathed Words. The translations do not correct or alter the inspired Greek or Hebrew, they only place them into the English of our time. You never change (Deut.12:32, Prov.30:5, Rev.22:18) what the New Testament and Old Testament writers wrote under the infallible inspiration of God. (2Tim.3:16-17, 2Peter.1:20-21) These are "God-breathed Words!" 

The "Septuagint" does not hold the same status as the Mosaic text, which was "given by the inspiration of God." (2Tim.3:16) It is only a translation! Peter declared that the scriptures were written "not by the will of man" but by "holy men of God... as they were moved (inspired) by the Holy Ghost." (2Peter.1:20-21)

         

1.  The inspiration of the Spirit of God gave the pattern for copying God's Word
     This pattern has never changed and will never be denied by those who are lead by the
     inspiration of the Holy Ghost. (Rom.15:4, 1Cor.10:11, 2Tim.2:13, Matt.5:17-19) Simply 
     because the Holy Spirit inspired the patterns in the first place! 
     a.  The pattern was given to the tribe of Levi 
          Moses wrote this law, "and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark 
          of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them,    
          saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of  
          tabernacles, When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he  
          shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people  
          together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they 
          may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the  
          words of this law:" (Deut 31:9-12; 17:18; 24:8; 31:9-11, 2Chron.15:3; 34:15, Mal.2:7)
     b.  The pattern continues into the New Testament
          Today the Church (the born again believer) is the "holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual    
          sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ...a royal priesthood, an holy nation."
          (1 Peter 2:5-9, Rev.1:6; 5:10)            
          (1)  Christ our High Priest. (Heb.3:1)
          (2)  We are the Priesthood (1Peter.2:5-9) with the same responsibilities with the 
                 Word of God. 
          (3)  The stranger5 (the unbeliever / unsaved - Eph.2:1-196) that cometh nigh 
                 shall be put to death." (Num 1:51-52)
     c.  The legend of the Septuagint is a violation of this God-inspired pattern
          According to Legend, here were "72 translators, 6 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, who  
          worked in separate cells, translating the whole, and in the end all  their versions were  
          identical."  (Encyclopedia Britannica) 
             (1)  Six from each tribe
                 This is a violation! Only the tribe of Levi were given this responsibility. The "stranger"
                 (the  unsaved, unredeemed, heathen) would be put to death for violating God's pattern  
                 (Num.1:47-54, Eph.2:1-19) Why would God bless and anoint these 72 translators, 
                 and their violation of His pattern in the very Word they were translating? These 72 
                 translators "polluted" the Holy Word of God. (Neh.7:63-65; 8:2) (The Hebrew Text) 

                 Note: Why then would God anoint His Church to exalt the "Septuagint" to be "equal to 
                 the Hebrew Old Testament text?

          (2)  The "origin is involved in much obscurity. 
                 It derives its name from the popular notion that seventy-two translators were employed 
                 on it by the direction of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and that it was accomplished  
                 in seventy-two days, for the use of the Jews residing in that country. There is no historical  
                 warrant for this notion. It is, however, an established fact that this version was made at  
                 Alexandria; that it was begun about 280 B.C., and finished about  200 or 150 B.C.; that it  
                 was the work of a number of translators who differed greatly both in their knowledge of  
                 Hebrew and of Greek; and that from the earliest times it has borne the name of "The  
                 Septuagint", i.e., The Seventy. (From Easton's Bible Dictionary)

What then was the Bible of the 1st.Century Church?
    
The Old Testament Hebrew scriptures had been established, and there was the Septuagint (a translation of the Hebrew into Greek.) However, there was no New Testament because it
had not been written yet.

1.  The Bible of the New Testament began as letters (epistles) to the Churches
     There were only manuscripts (letters, epistles) to the Churches. Many of them were not written  
      until 55 - 70 A.D?  Revelation was the last one. (90 A.D?) God was in the process of   
      establishing His New Testament. (Covenant) There was no committee, no editorial board, no  
      gathering of all the Theologians, or Scholars that would decide what would be the New  
      Testament. It would be the Providence (divine guidance guiding human destiny) and Sovereignty  
      (supreme, unlimited absolute independent) power of God through the "Priesthood" of the  
      believer. (Deut 31:9-12; 17:18; 24:8; 31:9-11, 2Chron.15:3; 34:15, Mal.2:7)
     a.  Faithful and trustworthy scribes
          Many trustworthy copies of the original New Testament 
          Manuscripts were produced by faithful scribes. (Hand  
          written because there was no printing press until 
          1450 A.D.)3
     b.  By true believers
          These copies / manuscripts (made by these faithful    
          and trustworthy scribes) were read and recopied 
          by the true believers down through the centuries. This is  
          where the manuscripts came from. The Priesthood, the  
          people who have been given charge of God's Word.

          Note: "The untrustworthy...(copies)...were not so  
          generally read or so frequently recopied...and 
          consigned to oblivion."3 This was the providence of    
          God!  (Jer.1:12)

          Today the same will eventually happen with all the modern translations that have given 
          preeminence to the corrupt Greek Text of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. God will Sovereignly and 
          Providentially preserve His Word and Sinaiticus and Vaticanus will fall by the way side.

2.  They had the traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text 
     This was the infallible Word of God which Jesus confirmed when He "came unto His own"  
     (John.1:11, Gal.3:16, Rom.15:8) The New Testament had not been written yet.
     a.  The Torah and the traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text 
          The "term Torah is also used to designate the entire Hebrew Bible. Since for some Jews the  
          laws and customs passed down through oral traditions are part and parcel of God's revelation 
          to Moses and constitute the “oral Torah."  The Torah is also understood to include both the   
          Oral Law and the Written Law. Rabbinic commentaries on and interpretations of both Oral 
          and Written Law have been viewed by some as extensions of sacred oral tradition, 
          thus broadening still further the meaning of Torah to designate the entire body of Jewish  
          laws, customs, and ceremonies. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
       b.  The oral law is inspired by man
          It has been added into the Hebrew text by man. Jesus said they have "made the  
          commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." (Matt 15:6-7, Col.2:8)
     c.  The Church today is doing the same
          There are many "Oral Laws" in our Church structure today of "philosophy and vain 
          deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." 
          (Col 2:8)

          Note: The inspired Word of God (the traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew text is designed  
          to bring us to Christ. Man's oral laws, philosphies and traditions are "not after Christ."      
          (Col.2:7-8, Matt.15:6-7) Don't base your doctrine (and especially your end-time  
          doctrine) on the Torah and Jewish tradition.
  .           
2.  The Septuagint was there but not the offical Bible of the 1st.Century Church
     The "Apostles did not quote from the Septuagint invariably and thus encourage to notion 
     that the Greek translation was equal to the Hebrew Old Testament in authority. Instead, they  
     walked  the middle way between these two extremes. Sometimes they cited the Septuagint  
     verbatim, even when it departed from the Hebrew in non-essential ways, and sometimes they  
     made their own translation directly from the Hebrew or used their knowledge of Hebrew to  
     improve the rendering of the Septuagint"2
     a.  Remember the apostles were writing  by the "inspiration of God" (2Tim.3:16) which  
          makes their writing infallible when they "made their own translation directly from the   
          Hebrew."2
     b.  Remember the Septuagint is only a translation and is not equal to the Hebrew Old      
          Testament in authority. The writing of the apostles is the infallible Word of God.

    

Origen, Jerome and the Septuagint

In the 3rd century AD  Origen attempted to clear up translation errors that had crept into the text of the Septuagint by copyists'. These varied widely from copy to copy. Other scholars also consulted the Hebrew text in order to make the  Septuagint text more accurate. But it was the Septuagint, not the original Hebrew, that was the main basis for the Old Latin, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and part of the Arabic translations of the Old Testament. It has never ceased to be the standard version of the Old Testament in the Greek church, and from it (the Septuagint)  Jerome began his translation of the Vulgate Old Testament. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

1.  Septuagint, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Apocrypha
     a.  The "text of the Septuagint is contained in a few early, but not necessarily reliable,    
          manuscripts." (Encyclopedia Britannica)
     b.  The best known of these are the Codex Vaticanus (B) and the Codex Sinaiticus (S), both  
          dating from the 4th century AD, and the Codex Alexandrinus (A) from the 5th century.
     c.  There are also numerous earlier papyrus fragments and many later manuscripts.
     d.  The first printed copy of the Septuagint was in the Complutensian Polyglot (1514–22).        
                     (Encyclopedia Britannica)
    
2.  Who was Origen? (202-325 AD.) 
     a.  Origen was the "most important theologian and biblical scholar of the early Greek church." 
     b.  Origen and Clement, were "two of the most  prominent fathers...chief representatives 
          of the School of Alexandria, the great melting pot of Greek philosophy and Judaism." 
     c.  Because of his reputation, Origen was much in demand as a preacher.
     d.  Origen was a early (foremost) Christian Theologian, a celebrated Christian writer, 
          teacher and Theologian of antiquity.8  
     e.  However, Origen was a Platonist. He believed that Jesus was "subordinate to the 
          father in power and dignity."9  He taught that Jesus was created, not eternal.10    
          Origen believed that if Satan fell by will, even he can repent. Encyclopedia Britannica, "Origen"   
      
         Note: Origen's denial of the Deity, disqualifies him as the Priests before the Lord 
         because he would "pollute" the "Holy Word of God." (Neh.7:63-65)  Therefore, how could 
         God be inspiring Origen when he is in violation of His pattern? (2Tim.2:13)

      f.  Iinfluenced by a semi-Gnostic writing, Origen believed that Hell cannot be an absolute 
          since God cannot abandon any creature.  
     g.  After his death, opposition steadily mounted, respectful in the Greek Christian
          Methodius of Olympus' criticism of his spiritualizing doctrine of the Resurrection
     h.  A wealthy Christian named Ambrose, whom Origen converted from the teachings of the
          heretical Valentinus and to whom he (Origen) dedicated many of his works, provided him 
          with shorthand writers. This resulted in a "stream of treatises and commentaries that began 
          to pour from Origen's pen."11 and altered manuscripts in accordance with his belief's.

           Note: This was easily done because there was no printing press yet. There was no mass  
           produced Bibles. The copying was up to the honesty of the scribe!

Conclusion

The Septuagint should not be held up as an "equal" to the traditional (Masoretic) Hebrew Text of the Old Testament. Think on this principle. "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Eph 5:11-12) "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor 6:14-15) Why has History revealed the "Septuagint" to be placed together with Origen, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Jerome and the Apocrypha?  These are the corrupt manuscripts that were reject by Erasmus. They are responsible (the foundation) for all the doubtful footnotes concerning Christ's Deity and His bodily Resurrection in our modern translations today. (Review: Phase.1) 




    To be continued