Septuagint History Volume 2

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. The History section of the Septuagint contained the books that told the history of the Israelite and Judahites from Joshua's conquest of Canaan circa 1500 BC, until the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, in 140 BC. Septuagint: History, Volume 2, is composed of modern, non-theological translations of the books of Paralipomena, Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees, which spanned roughly 950 BC to the creation of the Hasmonean kingdom of Judea in 140 BC. The books cover several eras of Judahite history, beginning with the fragmentary stories found in Paralipomena, books likely originating in Edom. The stories in Paralipomena cover the same eras as those found in the books of the Kingdoms, however, occasionally contradict the books of the Kingdoms, and are therefore viewed as an auxiliary version of Judahite history by biblical scholars. The two surviving versions of the books of Tobit are set during the Neo-Assyrian era, which also appears to have been the origin of the book of Judith. Both Judith and the Codex Vaticanus’ version of Tobit have been edited into anachronistic nonsense, however, the Sinaiticus version of Tobit still survives, which appears to be consistent with the history of the era, indicating the books likely did originate in the Neo-Assyrian and/or Median empires. Tobit specifically claims the first part of the book was written in Assyria, while the later sections had to have been written in Media, as the author reported moving there. The books of Ezra cover the era from the Persian conquest of Babylon, until 351 BC, less than 20 years before Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire. While the historical events in Jerusalem are not clearly understood during the Persian era, the sequence of events described in the books of Ezra do fit into the major events of Persian history well, however, have not generally been understood until the last two centuries, when archaeology in Iran produced a coherent view of Persian history. Historically, understanding the events in the books of Ezra, as well as Esther, which is set during the Persian Empire, was complicated by Rabbinical history, which redacted most of Persian history from the Judean records, as well as the fact that so many Persian kings held the same name. There were 5 kings named Artaxerxes, 3 named Darius, and 2 named Xerxes, and the dating of major events in the books of Ezra, used regal years without specifying which Artaxerxes, Xerxes, or Darius’s reign the year relates too. Three of the book of the Maccabees were added to the Septuagint in the 1ˢᵗ or late 2ⁿᵈ century BC, while a forth was added in the 1ˢᵗ century AD. Many other books of the Maccabees also exist, in Aramaic, Arabic, Ge‘ez, and Yiddish. The books recount events that supposedly lead up to the Maccabean revolt in Judea, between 165 and 140 BC. Other than the first book, they have never been considered historically valid by rabbis or historians, and few Christian scholars have viewed them as a true record of events from the era. The fourth book labelled Maccabees in the Septuagint, is a philosophical reinterpretation of the events found throughout the Septuagint, from a 1ˢᵗ century Jewish perspective.

This comprehensive yet user-friendly primer to the Septuagint (LXX) acquaints readers with the Greek versions of the Old Testament. It is accessible to students, assuming no prior knowledge about the Septuagint, yet is also informative for seasoned scholars. The authors, both prominent Septuagint scholars, explore the history of the LXX, the various versions of it available, and its importance for biblical studies. This new edition has been substantially revised, expanded, and updated to reflect major advances in Septuagint studies. Appendixes offer helpful reference resources for further study.

In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. The History section of the Septuagint contained the books that told the history of the Israelite and Judahites from Joshua's conquest of Canaan circa 1500 BC, until the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, in 140 BC. Septuagint: History, Volume 1, is composed of modern, non-theological translations of the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and the four books of the Kingdoms, which spanned 1504 BC to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Most of the era is not well documented in the historic records of Canaan, however, some limited correlations are found in the Amarna Letters, which are cuneiform correspondences between the Egyptian government and various officials in Canaan and Mesopotamia. By the final book, 4th Kingdoms, the historic records of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians confirm the general history recorded in the book, although the theological interpretation is unique to the Judahites of the era. The Septuagint's translation differs significantly from the later Masoretic version of the books, as it uses a different dating for the events, such as Joshua's invasion of Canaan just before 1500 BC, as opposed to the 1200s or 1300s BC, depending on interpretations of the Masoretic texts and the Talmud. The Septuagint's dating correlates significantly with the dating of major Egyptian events according to Egyptologists. It is unclear if the Septuagint's dating was altered by the translators in Alexandria to correlate with Egyptian history, however, that seems unlikely as the Greek historians 2200 years ago do not seem to have had any records of the era of Akhenaten, when Aten became the dominant god of Egypt, yet, the prophetess Deborah sang a song to Aten during the same era, in the book of Judges. As the Septuagint was based on the once common Aramaic version of the books, and not the priestly Judahite version, it is likely that the dating in the Septuagint is a more accurate reflection of the histories, as both Judahite version of the books appear to have been edited by astrologers at some point, which is generally acknowledged by historians to have ruined any historical value to the texts. The consensus is that the astrological edits must have happened fairly late, likely in the Hasmonean Dynasty, which also produced the first official 'Hebrew' translation of the older Judahite version of the texts. One of the complaints the Romans had regarding the Judeans of the Hasmonean dynasty is that they were astrology to confuse the weak minded, which supports the concept that they made the astrological edits when they created the 'Hebrew' language translations. This altered timeline continued into the Talmud, and is known as "Rabbinical History," however, it not taken seriously by historians.

"Examines the origins, language, textual history, and reception of the Greek Old Testament"--

"The Hebrew Bible has played an important part in the development of Western culture. Its central ideas - such as monotheism, the demythologization of nature, or the linearity of time - needed to be taken out of the national and linguistic milieu in which they had developed, however, if they were to become comprehensible in the Graeco-Roman culture. They also needed to be rendered palatable to a mentality that had experienced the scientific, rationalist revolution prepared by the Greeks. As the oldest Greek translation of the Jewish Bible, composed during the third and second centuries B.C.E., the Septuagint represents the first important step in this process of acculturation. Over the past twenty years, the Septuagint has come out of the shadows of its Hebrew source. Historians of Judaism, linguists, and biblical scholars have come to view it as a significant document in its own right. As the discoveries in Qumran have shown, the Hebrew source text of the Septuagint was not identical to the traditional text received by the synagogue. The Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint is a large-scale collective and interdisciplinary project aimed at providing a new research tool: a multi-volume dictionary with around 600 comprehensive articles for each important word or word group of the Septuagint, thereby filling an important gap in the fields of ancient philology and religious studies."--

For hundreds of years, disputes on the origin of the Septuagint, a biblical text that was translated from Hebrew into Greek in the third century BCE, and the number of its translators have been ongoing. In Multiple Authorship of the Septuagint Pentateuch, Hayeon Kim provides a clear solution to the unsolved questions, using an objective and consistent set of translation-technique criteria, and traditional and computerized tools of analysis. According to the author, the translation of the Septuagint Pentateuch has two facets: homogeneity and heterogeneity. The common socio-religious milieu of the translators is apparent in the similar translation techniques, however, the individual characters of the five translators are also evident in their distinct translation styles.