I hope you will journey with me in rediscovering the beauty of God’s Word in the Septuagint (LXX). In 285 BC, the LXX was translated from paleo-Hebrew by 70 Jewish translators into Greek, the language of most of the civilized world at that time. Due to its pre-Christ and pre-fall of Jerusalem date, the LXX cannot be accused of being influenced by any underlying animosity toward Christ or Christianity or desire to elevate Judaism’s claim to God’s blessings or the promised land. Most Christians believe the Masoretic Text (MT), upon which our English Old Testament is based, is written in the original Hebrew, but it too is a translation from the ancient and by then dead paleo-Hebrew Phoenician pictograph script into the modern Hebrew block script derived from Aramaic. The Masoretes completed it between 600 t0 1000 AD, by which time the Jews had become hostile to the Christian message, which shows up in various omissions, changes, and obfuscations of verses and passages that clearly point to Christ in the LXX.
Jesus taught us that all scripture points to him (John 5:39). As a rule, the Septuagint more clearly points to Jesus than does the MT.
In the West, Christians have not questioned the MT since Jerome chose it as the basis for his Latin Vulgate Old Testament. The Eastern Orthodox Church, to their credit, never deviated from the Septuagint, preserving it for later generations to rediscover. Because of the power of tradition, it is quite difficult for many of us in the West to think of the LXX as being more trustworthy than the MT, but I have found that a side-by-side comparison indicates otherwise.
In this series of articles, I have undertaken to illustrate the similarities and differences between the MT and LXX by examining various passages. Below is another example. The Septuagint version I am using is the Lexham English Septuagint 2nd Edition. It is available in print or digitally through Logos Bible Software. Occasionally I reference Brenton’s translation, which is a good one, but the English is somewhat dated.
| Masoretic Text | Septuagint | Significance |
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25 “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 You also carried Sikkuth your king And Chiun, your idols, The star of your gods, Which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. Amos 5:25–27 (NKJV) |
25 Did you bring me offerings and sacrifices in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 And you took along the tent of Molech and the star of your god Kaiwan, the images of them that you made for yourselves. 27 So I will resettle you beyond Damascus,” says the Lord; the Almighty God is his name. Amos 5:25–27 (LES2) |
This passage from Amos is quoted by Stephen in his last sermon before being stoned to death by the Jews. It calls to mind Israel’s inveterate idolatry which goes all the way back to Abraham’s day and was on display during the wilderness wandering and throughout their history. Stephen used this particular passage from Amos to indict his listeners for their spiritual adultery and habitual resistance of the Holy Spirit, which continues to this day. Before introducing the NT quote, I will do a comparison between the MT and LXX. Then we will see how Stephen’s quote compares and contrasts. Verse 25 contains little or no differences. In verse 26, however, MT says Israel “carried Sikkuth your King,” but the LXX says, they “took along the tent of Molech.” Sikkuth referred to an obscure Babylonian god named Sakkut. The LXX replaces that name with the more familiar god Molech and says the Israelites even had a tent for it. The next idol mentioned in the MT is Chiun, with which the star is associated. Chiun was another name for the astral deity called Saturn, whose star was a hexagon. Today this star is on the Israeli flag and has been euphemistically renamed the star of David. The LXX calls this god Kaiwan, which is an alternate spelling, and it makes the direct link to the star. In the MT, verse 27 says that Israel, the northern kingdom, will be sent into captivity beyond Damascus, which referred to Assyria. The LXX says they will be resettled there. |
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25 “Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 You also carried Sikkuth your king And Chiun, your idols, The star of your gods, Which you made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. Amos 5:25–27 (NKJV) |
25 Did you bring me (prosphero) offerings (sphagion) and sacrifices (thusia) in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 And you took along (analambano) the tent (skene) of Molech and the star (astron) of your god Kaiwan, the images (tupos) of them that you made (poieo) for yourselves. 27 So I will resettle (metoikizo) you beyond (epekeina) Damascus,” says the Lord; the Almighty God is his name. Amos 5:25–27 (LES2) |
Below is Stephen’s quote from Acts. I underlined the part that is from Amos and inserted the Greek words in parenthesis in both the LXX and NT quote. 42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer (prosphero) Me slaughtered animals (sphagion) and sacrifices (thusia) during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You also took up (analambano) the tabernacle (skene) of Moloch, And the star (astron) of your god Remphan, Images (tupos) which you made (poieo) to worship (proskuneo); And I will carry you away (metoikizo) beyond (epekeina) Babylon.’ Acts 7:42–43 (NKJV) It is clear that the Greek of the LXX tracks with that of the NT quote. As in the LXX, Stephen identifies the first idol as Molech. The second idol he calls Remphan, which is an alternate name for Kaiwan or Saturn. In addition, Stephen, (Or should I say the Holy Spirit?) jumped forward to the second exile to Babylon because, unlike Amos, Stephen was talking to people from the southern kingdom of Judah who were indeed sent into exile there. One again we see evidence that the early church relied upon the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures because the Masoretic translation would not be completed for another 1000 years. The fact that the LXX is quoted in the New Testament confirms that it is the Word of God. |
Conclusion
If you want to know more about why Christians should prefer the Septuagint to the MT, click on this link. In another article, I share some of the things I have so far learned by making this comparison. As for me, I now prefer the LXX. It was Paul’s and the other apostles’ standard for Old Covenant truth, was used by synagogues in Jesus’s day, and is most often quoted in the New Testament. That makes it good enough for me.
