"Recently the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament has come in for a great deal of criticism, one writer calling it a fraud, forgery, and "utterly corrupt." But is this true? When was the Septuagint translated? And for whom? What is the TRUTH? Did Christ and the apostles quote from the Septuagint? Was it commonly used in Jewish synagogues throughout the Greek speaking world? Why then did they cease to use it? Was there a CONSPIRACY to edit and amend the ORIGINAL BIBLE? The truth behind this story is a shocking, incredible Bombshell which will shake the world of Judaism and Christianity! There is much more to this story than we have ever known!"
"In a recent research paper, submitted to the Worldwide Church of God, and distributed to many of its ministers, it was claimed that the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament -- the Greek LXX as it has been called -- is "totally corrupt and unreliable!" Claiming that the "only evidence" that a "Septuagint translation was ever made" was a document called the "letter of Aristeas," the author asserts nonchalantly that:
"THERE IS NO OTHER EVIDENCE OF ANY KIND THAT SUCH AN LXX TRANSLATION WAS EVER MADE!" (emphasis his, p.44).
Is this claim true? Or is it a patent falsehood? I would normally not spend any time with refuting this kind of writing subterfuge. However, it has impressed many ministers and several others, to my dismay and consternation. For the truth is, the author of this paper very obviously is extremely prejudiced and biased and does not hesitate to make outlandish claims and reach incredible conclusions, based on the flimsiest evidence and most superficial research!
Claims the author, there is only "ONE and one only" Greek manuscript of the Old Testament written before the time of Christ. He asserts, "it is a minute scrap dated at 150 B.C." -- the Rylands Papyrus #458 which contains only the 23-28 chapters of the book of Deuteronomy. He goes on, "That is hardly convincing evidence that the whole Pentateuch had been translated 130 years earlier."
THE BOOKS OF THE OLDER TESTAMENT (GENESIS THROUGH MALACHI) WERE CALLED "THE LAW" BY THE JEWISH PEOPLE
The division into Torah (Law=T), Nu'viim (Prophets=N) and Ke'tuviim (Writings=K), (referred to by the acronymn "TaNaK") happened between the 6th-10th Centuries A.D.!
Before then, the Hebrew Scriptures were called "The Law".
"...by the mode in which the Jews often applied the name of Law to the whole of their Sacred Writings." "The Septuagint with Apocrypha", Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton, Hendrickson, i.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Yeshua, in John 10:34 refers to the Psalms as "the Law", which were much later classified as the Ke'tuviim, and Paul quotes a Prophecy of Isaiah as "the Law" in I Corinthians 14:21, which are the Nu'viim; proving conclusively that the whole of the Older Testament Hebrew Scriptures were called "the Law".
"The author then claims that the early church theologian Origen, out of a motive of vanity and desire for fame, apparently, sought to have official church recognition for his work, and produced a 6-column harmony of the available Greek texts of his time, called the Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and LXX (Septuagint). But the author declares that "in reality this presents nothing more than ORIGEN'S OWN ATTEMPT AT PRODUCING A GREEK VERSION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR WHICH HE WANTED OFFICIAL CHURCH REC0GNITION!" (emphasis his). Besides the books of the Old Testament canon, the Septuagint includes other ancient Jewish books called the "Apocrypha," such as the first and second books of Maccabees. The author claims that even these books were supposed to have been translated by the 72 scholars sent to Egypt, along with the entire Septuagint. He asserts that no Hebrew high priest would ever have sent these apocryphal books to be translated into Greek, and boasts:
"The fraud that is the LXX should be clear for all to see" (p.48).
(Note: this is a false statement as seen from the )
The author accuses Origen of having deliberately and knowingly taking the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and inserting them into his Septuagint version as found in his Hexapla. He charges:
"When Origen, in the process of putting together his version of the LXX, came to an O.T. passage that he knew is quoted in the N.T., he simply wrote the Greek text from the New Testament into the Greek LXX. In plain English, he made the Greek version of the O.T. quote the Greek of the N.T. verbatim . . . to give greater credibility to his work. That way it would look as if the New Testament writers were quoting from his LXX text . . ." (p.51).
This ludicrous statement implies clearly that Origen was a crook -- a deceitful manipulator, full of vain intrigue, who falsified his copy of the LXX by deliberately changing all Old Testament portions quoted in the Greek New Testament to conform to the New Testament! Our critic points out that in Hebrews 1:10 we read, "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth," which he says, is quoted from Psalm 102:25: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth." But, says the author, Origen added the word "Lord" to his Septuagint version, making it identical to the quotation from the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. This, the author claims, proves that Origen simply "COPIED the text from Hebrews 1:10-12 back into his version of the LXX," and concludes:
"THE FORGERY STANDS EXPOSED!" (p.52).
These are very strong allegations. These are terrible accusations. But are they true? The apostle Paul warns us, "PROVE ALL THINGS; hold fast that which is GOOD" (I Thess.5:21). In Hebrews 1:6, we read: "And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He said, And let all the angels of God worship him." The author claims this was not intended to be a quotation from the Old Testament, but just a claim made by Paul. The author then claims that Origen deliberately put this phrase into Deut.32:43 to make it appear that Paul quoted the phrase from the Septuagint. Interestingly, the phrase is nowhere found in the Masoretic text of the Old Testament! The author then claims this is a fraud. He says:
"THERE IS NO WAY ANY TRANSLATORS IN 280 B.C. COULD HAVE GOTTEN THAT PHRASE FROM THE HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS AVAILABLE TO THEM! "ONCE AGAIN ORIGEN'S FORGERY STANDS EXPOSED!" (p.55, his emphasis).
Unfortunately for our critic, his ignorance is showing. The truth is, modern biblical scholars now know there were a number of variant texts of the Hebrew Scriptures in the time before Christ, and one of these other variations was the primary source material for the Septuagint version itself -- a version in some respects distinctly different from the Masoretic text which is the commonly accepted version of the Old Testament (and which appears in most Bibles today, to the exclusion of the Septuagint readings! ed. note), which was itself finalized during the time of the Masoretes, about 500 years after the time of Christ. In summary, then, our researcher concludes,
"The only LXX we have today stands exposed as a corrupt forgery!"
Unfortunately, a number of people seem to take his assertions at face value. To do so, however, is to believe a fairy tale or fable is the truth! Let's take, now, and honest look at the Septuagint, and its origin -- from unbiased and scholarly sources, who don't have an ax to grind, but who are simply seeking the truth.
The Facts, Just the Facts
Werner Keller in his book The Bible As History: Second Revised Edition, gives us an interesting insight into the origin of the Greek Scriptures. He has no ax to grind. He isn't writing "contra" anything, but simply showing how archaeology and science delve 4,000 years into the past to document the Bible as history. He writes:
"Two unusually far-sighted rulers, Ptolemy I and his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus, developed their capital city of Alexandria into a nursery of Hellenistic culture and learning . . . and made it a radiant center of attraction for emigrants from Judah among others. In this crucible they steeped themselves in the beauty of the Greek language . . . It was the international language of learning and of commerce, the language of tens of thousands of Israelites who knew no other home.
"The rising generation no longer knew Hebrew as their mother tongue. They could no longer follow the sacred text in the services of the synagogue. Thus it came about that the Jews in Egypt decided to translate the Hebrew scriptures. About 250 B.C. the Torah was translated into Greek, a fact of immeasurable import for Western civilization.
"The translation of the Bible into the Greek tongue was for the Jews in Egypt such an incredible step forward that legend took hold of it. The story is told in an apocryphal letter of Aristeas of Alexandria.
"Philadelphus, the second of the Ptolemaic dynasty, took great pride in the fact that he possessed a collection of the finest books in the world. One day the librarian said to the monarch that he had brought together in his 995 books the best literature of all nations. But, he added, the greatest books of all, the [Law], was not included among them. Therefore Ptolemy II Philadelphus sent envoys to the high Priest to ask for a copy of these books. At the same time he asked for men to be sent who could translate them into Greek. The High Priest granted his request and sent together with the copy of the Torah 72 learned and wise scribes. Great celebrations were organized in honour of the visitors from Jerusalem, at whose wisdom and knowledge the king and his courtiers were greatly astonished. After the festivities they betook themselves to the extremely difficult task which had been assigned to them . . ." (p.312).
Max I. Dimont, in his book Jews, God and History, also discusses the Septuagint. He shows that it was not a forgery or a fraud perpetrated by Origen upon the world 230 years after Christ! Dimont states:
"There is an interesting legend telling how the Greek translation of the Old Testament came to be called the Septuagint. About 250 B.C., word of a famous and beautifully written book possessed by the Jews had reached the ear of the Ptolemaic King Philadelphus. He suggested that seventy Jewish scholars translate the work into Greek. According to this pious legend, each of the seventy scholars worked independently, yet all seventy translations, when completed, were identical, word for word, thus proving God's guiding hand. And so the work became known as the book of the 'Seventy,' or Septuagint in Greek" (p.114).
Modern scholars tend to discount this legend, as preserved in a "Letter of Aristeas." Nevertheless, whether the letter itself is part fact, part legend, is not the real issue. All scholars agree that [at least] the first five books of Moses were translated in Alexandria, Egypt, during the time of the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus! Furthermore, all the ANCIENT sources agree that the essentials of the "letter of Aristeas" are true -- including the Jewish High Priest Aristobulus who lived in Alexandria less than a century later, the Jewish historian Josephus of the first century A.D., and the Jewish philosopher and moralist Philo, who lived in Alexandria during the time of Peter and the Apostles.
The Witness of Philo of Alexandria
Philo, in his account of the history of the Septuagint, relates the following:
"Some persons, thinking it a scandalous thing that these laws [the Law] should only be known among one half portion of the human race, namely, among the barbarians, and that the Greek nations should be wholly and entirely ignorant of them, turned their attention to their translation.
"And since this undertaking was an important one, tending to the general advantage, not only of private persons, but also of rulers, of whom the number was not great, it was entrusted to kings, and to the most illustrious of all kings. Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, was the third in succession after Alexander, the monarch who subdued Egypt; and he was, in virtues which can be displayed in government, the most excellent sovereign, not only of all those of his time, but of all that ever lived; so that even now, after the lapse of so many generations, his fame is still celebrated . . . .
"He, then, being a sovereign of this character, and having conceived a great admiration for and love of the legislation of Moses, conceived the idea of having our laws translated into the Greek language; and immediately he sent ambassadors to the high-priest and king of Judea, for they were the same person. And having explained his wishes, and having requested him to pick him out a number of men, of perfect fitness for the task, who should translate the law, the high-priest, as was natural, being greatly pleased, and thinking that the king had only felt the inclination to undertake a work of such character from having been influenced by the providence of God, considered, and with great care selected the most respectable of the Hebrews whom he had about him, who in addition to their knowledge of their national scriptures, had also been well instructed in Grecian literature, and cheerfully sent them.
"And when they arrived at the king's court they were hospitably received by the king; and while they feasted, they in return feasted their entertainer with witty and virtuous conversation; for he made experiment of the wisdom of each individual among them, putting them to a succession of new and extraordinary questions; and they, since the time did not allow of their being prolix in their answers, replied with great propriety and fidelity as if they were delivering apothegms which they had already prepared" (The Works of Philo, p.494).
Philo relates:
"they, like men inspired, prophesied, not one saying one thing and another another, but every one of them employed the self-same nouns and verbs, as if some unseen prompter had suggested all their language to them."
This feat was so extraordinary and remarkable, and of such importance, Philo relates, that it was then commemorated by an annual festival!
"On which account, even to this very day, there is EVERY YEAR a solemn assembly held and a festival celebrated in the island of Pharos, to which not only the Jews but a great number of persons of other nations sail across, reverencing the place in which the first light of interpretation shone forth, and thanking God for that ancient piece of beneficence which was always young and fresh" (ibid.).
This fact alone clearly attests to the creation of this extraordinary document of translation during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and further proves it was at the island of Pharos, just like the letter of Aristeas, and writings of Josephus declare. This festival was still being held in the days of Philo, who:
"lived from about 20 B.C. to about 50 A.D.. He is one of the most important Jewish authors of the Second Temple Period of Judaism and was a contemporary of both Jesus and Paul" (ibid.), "Foreword," xi, by David Scholer.
Commenting on the origin of the Septuagint, H.B. Swete in Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, writes:
"Philo, on the other hand, represents an Alexandrian tradition which was perhaps originally independent of the letter [of Aristeas], and is certainly not entirely consistent with it. He states that the completion of the work of the LXX was celebrated at Alexandria down to his own time by a yearly festival at the Pharos . . . A popular anniversary of this kind can scarcely have grown out of a literary work so artificial . . . as the letter of Aristeas" p.13).
The Witness of Aristobulus, the High Priest, Says The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible about the origin of the Septuagint:
"1. The Septuagint. The Old Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures and the earliest COMPLETE (emphasis, ed.) translation of them. It was called the Septuagint, commonly designated by LXX, after the 70 translators reputed to have been employed on the [Law] in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 285-246 B.C. The number 70 may be an approximation for 72, or it may have developed traditionally . . . Originally the name was applied to the translation of the [Law], but eventually to the whole Greek O.T. ARISTOBULUS, a Jewish high priest who lived in ALEXANDRIA DURING THE REIGN OF PTOLEMY PHILOMETOR 181/180-145 B.C., and who is mentioned in II Maccabees 1:10b, is quoted by Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius as stating that while portions relating to Hebrew history had been translated into Greek previously, THE ENTIRE LAW WAS TRANSLATED from the Hebrew IN THE REIGN OF PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS under the direction of Demetrius Phalereus" (p.971).
Before we go on, notice that this man, Aristobulus, himself was a high-ranking JEWISH HIGH PRIEST and obviously a well-informed, intelligent man, and he lived in Alexandria, Egypt for awhile, and that he lived between 60-100 years after the translation was reputed to have taken place. This is important to consider. He very likely had access to knowledge and information we do not have, today. His testimony ought to be considered conclusive on this point. He testifies that indeed the [Law] was translated from Hebrew to Greek during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. There was no doubt in his mind, and he lived there -- and only one or two generations removed from the actual event itself!
This would be like the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, today, testifying on a major matter of law or legal precedent concerning the Supreme Court itself in Washington, D.C., which occurred just 60 to 100 years before his time -- a subject with which a person in his august position should be very familiar! The testimony of Aristobulus, therefore, ought to be very persuasive that the Septuagint is not a forgery or a fraud, and that the essential points of the Aristeas letter are correct!
This authority continues:
"The same tradition, but considerably embellished, is contained in a letter purporting to have been written by Aristeas to Philocrates. This letter is generally regarded by modern scholars as spurious THE SAME STORY AS THAT TOLD BY ARISTEAS IS REPEATED WITH SLIGHT VARIATIONS BY JOSEPHUS, who may have had access to the letter" (p.971).
Notice! Now we have two ancient authorities who confirm the essential story of the translation of the [Law] into Greek during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses he every word be established," God says. The fact that Josephus' account differs slightly -- has "variations" -- from the letter of Aristeas is proof that he did not just copy the letter or get his information from the letter itself, entirely, but had other sources at his disposal. These slight "variations" add further weight to the evidence that the story is true, in its important aspects.
Concerning Aristobulus' account of the origin of the Septuagint, H. B. Swete asserts:
"The fragment of Aristobulus carries us much further back than the witness of Philo and Josephus. It was addressed to a Ptolemy who was a descendant of Philadelphus, and who is identified both by Eusebius and by Clement with Philometor. Whether Aristobulus derived his information from Aristeas is uncertain, but his words, if we admit their genuineness, ESTABLISH THE FACT THAT THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE STORY WERE BELIEVED BY THE LITERARY JEWS OF ALEXANDRIA, and even at the Court, MORE THAN A CENTURY AND A HALF BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA and within a century of the date assigned by Aristeas to the translation of the Law" (Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, p.13).
H. B. Swete, who has studied these matters extensively, believes that the "letter of Aristeas" itself is "to a large extent legendary." But, he says, in its defense --
"On the other hand, though the story as 'Aristeas' tells it is doubtless a romance, it must not be hastily inferred that it has no historical basis. That the writer was a Jew who lived in Egypt under the Ptolemies seems to be demonstrated by the knowledge he displays of life at the Alexandrian Court. There is also reason to suppose that he wrote within fifty years of the death of Philadelphus, and HIS PRINCIPAL FACTS ARE ENDORSED, as we have seen, BY A WRITER OF THE NEXT GENERATION. It is difficult to believe that a document, which within a century of the events relates the history of a literary undertaking in which the Court and the scholars of Alexandria were concerned, can be altogether destitute of truth" (p.16).
Here is more on the LETTER OF ARISTEAS
The Witness of Josephus, Jewish, First Century Historian:
Josephus, the Jewish historian of the first century, gives us additional insight into the origin of the Septuagint (LXX). His version tends to confirm at least the essentials of the so-called "legend" as given in the "Letter of Aristeas." Josephus, who lived in the generation following Christ, and who fought in the Jewish-Roman war of 70 A.D., wrote in his Antiquities of the Jews this straightforward account:
". . .Philadelphus then took the kingdom of Egypt, and held it forty years within one. He procured the Law to be interpreted, and set free those that were come from Jerusalem into Egypt, and were in slavery there, who were a hundred and twenty thousand. The occasion was this: -- Demetrius Pharerius, who was library-keeper to the king, was now endeavoring, if it were possible, to gather together all the books that were in the habitable earth, and buying whatsoever was anywhere valuable, or agreeable to the king's inclination, (who was very earnestly set upon collecting of books;) to which inclination of his, Demetrius was zealously subservient. And when once Ptolemy asked him how many ten thousands of books he had collected, he replied, that he had already about twenty times ten thousand; but that in a little time, he should have fifty times ten thousand. But he said he had been informed that there were MANY BOOKS OF LAWS among the Jews worthy of inquiring after, and worthy of the king's library, but which, being written in characters and in a dialect of their own, will cause no small pains in getting them translated into the Greek tongue . . . So the king thought that Demetrius was very zealous to procure him abundance of books, and that he suggested what was exceeding proper for him to do; and therefore he wrote to the Jewish high priest that he should act accordingly" (Antiquities, Book XII, 1, p.246).
[NOTE: The fact that it is recorded above that there were "many Books of Laws" in this passage from Josephus lets us know that there were more than just the Five Books of Moses being spoken about by Demetrius to King Philadelphus.]
Josephus gives a very in-depth presentation of the details of this event. He tells how Aristeus, one of the king's most intimate friends, resolved to petition the king to set all the captive Jews in his kingdom free. Knowing of the desire to get the Jewish Books of the Law, for the king, he [Aristeus] made the following speech to the king:
"It is not fit for us, O king, to overlook things hastily, or to deceive ourselves, but to lay the truth open: for since we have determined not only to get the Laws of the Jews transcribed, but interpreted also, for thy satisfaction, by what means can we do this, while so many of the Jews are now slaves in thy kingdom? Do thou then what will be agreeable to thy magnanimity, and to thy good-nature: free them from the miserable condition they are in, because that God, who supporteth thy kingdom, was the author of their Laws, as I have learned by particular inquiry; for both these people and we also worship the same God, the framer of all things" (XII, 2).
The entire account, preserved in Josephus, rings true. The king was appealed to and his counselors backed up the request, and the slaves who had been captured by his father or himself were released. Josephus quotes the king's decree. The king then sent fifty talents of gold to the Jewish High Priest, and a huge quantity of precious stones, and appointed one hundred talents in money to be used for Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem, accompanied by a letter to the High Priest Eleazar, stating, in part:
"I have determined to procure an interpretation of your Law, and to have it translated out of Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited in my library. Thou wilt therefore do well to choose out and send to me men of a good character, who are now elders in age, and six in number out of every Tribe. These, by their age, must be skillful in the Laws, and of abilities to make an accurate interpretation of them; and when this shall be finished, I shall think that I have done a work glorious to myself . . ."
Eleazar the High Priest sent back a reply as follows:
"When we received thy epistle, we greatly rejoiced at thy intentions; and when the multitude were gathered together, we read it to them, and thereby made them sensible of the piety thou hast towards God. . . . Know then that we will gratify thee in what is for thy advantage, though we do what we used not to do before. . . We have also chosen six elders out of every Tribe, which we have sent, and the Law with them . . ."
The details that Josephus brings to the whole account, together with the witnesses of Philo, Aristobulus, and Biblical scholarship, all prove conclusively that the translation of the [Law] during the time of Ptolemy Philadelpus was not a mere legend, but that the essential contents of the "letter of Aristeas" are based on actual fact. Josephus gives rich incredible detail as to the gifts sent, the return to Egypt, the celebrations, and the journey to the island where the work of translation of the [Law] was to be undertaken. Josephus records:
"When he had brought them thither, he entreated them (now they had all things about them which they wanted for the interpretation of their Law), that they would suffer nothing to interrupt them in their work. Accordingly, they made an ACCURATE INTERPRETATION , with great zeal and great pains; and they continued to do until the ninth hour of the day; after which time they relaxed and took care of their body, while their food was provided for them in great plenty . . . . Now when the Law was transcribed, and the labour of interpretation was over, which came to its conclusion in seventy-two days, Demetrius gathered all the Jews together to the place where the laws were translated, and where the interpreters were, and read them over. The multitude did also approve of those elders that were the interpreters of the Law" (Antiquities, Bk XII, 13-14).
Now, our critic claims that Josephus fantasized his whole account, and lied, presumably, and that there was no authentic Jewish translation of the Old Testament, or the [Law], but that there were only small "private" attempts to do so, and that Origen in 230 A.D. created the Septuagint (LXX) for his own nefarious purposes to gain favor and fame in the Catholic Church. One is forced to wonder -- why would somebody invent a "letter to Aristeas" purporting to show the reasons for the ORIGIN of the Septuagint -- the Greek translation of the [Law] -- in about 250 B.C. if there were no such translation in existence whose origin demanded to be explained?
One also wonders how both Josephus, a Priest and General of the Jewish army in the rebellion of 70 A.D., could have been "taken in" by such a "fraud" -- how Philo, a very learned Jewish wise man of Alexandria, Egypt, could have fallen for the "concocted plot," and how Aristobulus -- High Priest of the Jews just 60 years or so after the "fait accompli" was supposed to have occurred, could have been so completely "deceived"!
Or, is it our "critic" who has deceived himself?"