Septuagint

Septuagint
Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · source
Name	Septuagint
Caption	Earliest extant manuscript: Codex Vaticanus (4th century)
Title orig	Ελληνική Μετάφρασις
Author	multiple Jewish translators
Language	Koine Greek
Subject	Torah, Prophets, Writings
Genre	Biblical translation
Pub date	c. 3rd–1st centuries BCE

Septuagint

The Septuagint is an ancient Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible produced in the Hellenistic period in Alexandria and other centers. It became authoritative for many Hellenistic Judaism communities and later shaped the biblical text used by Early Christianity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and influential Christian theologians such as Origen and Athanasius of Alexandria. The work influenced theological debates addressed at councils like the Council of Nicaea and was preserved in major manuscripts curated by institutions such as the Vatican Library and the British Library.

History and Origin

Tradition attributes the core translation to seventy-two Jewish elders in Alexandria under the patronage of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, linking the work to the Library of Alexandria. Modern historical reconstructions rely on sources like Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and fragments cited by Clement of Alexandria and Pseudo-Philo. The translation reflects the cultural contacts among Ptolemaic Egypt, Hellenistic Judaism, and diasporic communities in Antioch, Rome, and Jerusalem. Debates about dating involve comparisons with texts from Qumran and citations in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus.

Textual Composition and Contents

The corpus comprises translations of the Torah (Pentateuch), the Prophets, and the Writings, plus additional books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and 1 Maccabees. Variants appear between the canonical Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek tradition, especially in books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. The Septuagint preserves textual forms sometimes closer to the Hebrew Bible witnesses at Masada and the Cairo Geniza than to the later Masoretic tradition, and it includes expansions and contractions exemplified in 3 Maccabees and the longer recension of Esther.

Language, Translation Technique, and Versions

The translators worked in Koine Greek and used varying techniques from literal renderings observed in the Paleo-Hebrew influenced Pentateuchal editions to dynamic equivalence in poetic books like Psalms. Distinct recensions include the Aquila of Sinope revision, the Theodotion version, and the Symmachus recension, which competed with earlier forms in Christian and Jewish circles. The translation shows linguistic features related to Greek Septuagintal vocabulary and loanword calques reflecting contact with Aramaic language and Biblical Hebrew. Later Latin translations, notably the Vulgate, relied on Greek witnesses alongside Hebrew texts.

Manuscripts and Textual Tradition

Major codices transmitting the Greek Bible include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus, preserved in repositories such as the British Museum collections and the Vatican Library. Papyri discoveries in Oxyrhynchus and fragments from Qumran provide earlier attestations that inform textual criticism undertaken by scholars like Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort. The textual tradition divides into cryptic families reconstructed by editors including Hermann von Soden and later by projects associated with the Institute for New Testament Textual Research and the Society of Biblical Literature.

Influence and Reception

The Greek text shaped Early Christianity through its use in the New Testament authors, patristic writers such as John Chrysostom and Origen, and liturgical traditions in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Coptic Church. Jewish reception shifted in the late Second Temple and rabbinic periods, especially after the Bar Kokhba revolt and during rabbinic consolidation in Tiberias, where the Masoretes promoted the Masoretic Text. Christian councils and medieval scholars such as Thomas Aquinas engaged the Greek text in theological exegesis, while the Protestant Reformation prompted renewed attention from translators like William Tyndale and editors in Renaissance humanist circles.

Modern Scholarship and Critical Editions

Contemporary projects produce critical editions and apparatuses, including the Göttingen Septuagint edition and editions influenced by scholars like Paul E. Kahle and Sidney Jellicoe. Methodologies combine comparative philology, papyrology, and digital humanities led by institutions such as The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the Center for the Study of Christianity and Judaism. Research addresses issues raised by scholars like Emil Schürer, Emanuel Tov, and Frank Moore Cross, focusing on textual plurality, transmission history, and the Septuagint's role in reconstructing Second Temple Judaism and early Christian scriptural usage.

Category:Ancient translations Category:Koine Greek texts