Here is something that may interest a tiny group of our readers, Strong's Number Coded Septuagint. What is a Septuagint? It is a Greek translation of the OT Hebrew which was created somewhere around 230 BC. By that time many in the Diaspora (the scattered nation of Israel) had lost their use of Hebrew and this was created for their benefit.

The tradition says that the translation was done in 70 days by 70 elders, hence Septuagint meaning 'Seventy'. It is often just given the Roman numeral for 70 which is LXX. So LXX= The Septuagint. W

Why would I want a Greek translation of the Hebrew OT? Well this is the version that many early Christians used and many OT quotations when found in the NT are from the LXX rather than from the Hebrew text.

So why would I want one?!? Because many words in New Tesament Greek began their theological history in the LXX. This means that sometimes the first use of a Greek Bible word is not in the NT but in the OT and by finding earlier uses of the word in the OT I can begin to build a trully Biblical definition of the word. Remember Bible words don't have definitions, they have histories.

OK, so where do I find this marvel?
At the Apostolic Bible website.

Why Apostolic? Because the owners of this website believe that the Septuagint was the original OT of the Christians and especially the Apostles, so they think it is more authoratitive that the Masoretic (Hebrew) text?

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His/Yours
Ron B

God deals with hand-crafted masterpieces not mass-produced replicas.

Biblebase Second Thoughts Blog

Hi

This is a useful resource; but there has always been one question in my mind: when the NT writers quote the LXX and it differs from our OT translation ( which would be from the Hebrew I assume) what are we to make of it, is one of the two wrong or is there a better way to think of it?

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Steve ( Leicester)

Hi Ron,

thanks for this, I was just looking for this tonight. I found that E-sword had the module, but in the proverbial sense of the word, its all greek to me. Not very helpful if you are no fundy.

This looks like a good bet, I have already started downloading.

Thanks again
Zeke

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For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. 2 Chronicles 16:9

Quote:
This is an important question and one which the "Apostolic Bible" folks seem to have answered by saying the Septuagint (LXX) is the definitive OT text as it was used by the Apostles and the early church.

Most thinking conservative evangelicals regard the Hebrew text known as the Masoretic as the most authoratitive text. This is the text behind the KJV and most translations since although the RSV leaned heavily on the LXX especially in Ezra-Nehemiah.

So what do we make of the Apostles quoting from the LXX? My view is that in these instances we have the Spirit's endorsement of the LXX 'in those instances' but not a general endorsement of the LXX as being preferable to the Masoretic text. In simple answer to your 'either/or' I would say receive 'both' 'in those instances'.

Speaking in Athens Paul quoted from two Greek poets but his quotations do not endorse the rest of the poets' writings. Jude quotes from the book of Enoch but his quoting does not endorse the rest of that fictitious nonsense. Similarly, the quotes from the LXX do not endorse that text over the Masoretic.

The LXX was widely used in the 1st century and there is evidence that it was used for public reading in the synagogues in the days of Christ.

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His/Yours
Ron B

God deals with hand-crafted masterpieces not mass-produced replicas.

Biblebase Second Thoughts Blog

Thank you for pointing this out. The most excellent feature is that its Greek concordance combines the LXX and GNT!!! I hadn't seen that elsewhere.

Have you found the Apostolic Bible lexicon to be sufficient?
I was also hoping to find the BDAG of the Septuagint. This (Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint) is apparently not it, but looks to be the closet thing available.

I couldn't find a preview but there is a book called "Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint" by Bernard A. Taylor. I really don't know much about it.

Amazon Link
The price is closer to BDAG.

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