The Impact of the First Bible Translations on Christianity

This article explores the roots of the modern impulse of Bible translators to get the Bible right in translation and its connection to the Jewish revisions of the Greek Septuagint. It examines the contributions of Jewish scholars like Theodotion, Aquila, and Symmachus to the field of Biblical translation and their commitment to accurate and faithful translation.

Is the Greek of the Septuagint the Same as the Greek of the New Testament?

The Septuagint (LXX) is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures and was made for the Jewish community, not Christians. The vocabulary is Greek and the syntax Hebrew. There is a Semitic influence in the vocabulary of the LXX. The New Testament is not a translation and is written for Christians who have the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Third, The Greek of the NT is 180 years to 310 years removed from the Greek of the Septuagint.

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 656: A Greek Fragment of a Septuagint Manuscript

Parts of four leaves from this Greek Septuagint codex that contain portions of six chapters of Genesis. This codex is very important because of its being dating to the late second or early third century C.E. However, aside from dating early, these chapters are absent in the Codex Vaticanus and they are defective in the Codex Sinaiticus. The article is easy to understand and the footnotes are in-depth adding even more information.

ORIGEN’S HEXAPLA: A Sixfold Text in Parallel Columns of the Old Testament

At the end of the second century, there were (at least) four competing Greek versions of the OT. Origen, one of the most important theologians in the Eastern church, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and was active in the middle of the third century CE. Aware of differences between the Greek and Hebrew texts, he set out to bring order and understanding to the confusing array of competing textual witnesses and to produce an edition that would account for those variations.

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