The Scriptures’ Greek Nuance
It is a plain fact of history that the Old Testament did not pass from Judaism to the Church in its original Hebrew. To understand the transmission of biblical authority, it is important to give this thesis its proper weight. From the perspective of history, there was no unmediated transition from the Hebrew Old Testament to the Greek New Testament. It simply did not happen that way. There exists not a single manuscript of the Hebrew Bible copied by a Christian hand. The Old Testament handed on by the Jews to the Christian Church was a Greek body of literature, chiefly (but not exclusively) the Septuagint.
This Greek translation came from the world’s largest community of Jews in the third century before Christ, the synagogue at Alexandria in Egypt. The title of this translation, “Septuagint” (LXX), from the Latin word for “seventy,” is based on the legend that seventy(-two) Alexandrian scholars, commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247), translated the Bible from Hebrew to Greek. Current opinion holds that the whole process took a bit longer, perhaps a whole century, and it seems more probable that the translation was authorized by the Alexandrian synagogue itself; it was produced to serve for the synagogue readings, much like the Aramaic paraphrases of the Bible used in the Holy Land (the Targums).
When the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament (and such quotations were almost always made from memory;speakers and writers did not normally look up passages on a big scroll), the quoted text is most often that of the Septuagint. That is to say, the Septuagint was the Old Testament version used by the apostles. It was the Old Testament text as the Church received it.
A Uniquely Greek Concept
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on bible from the online archives
32.2—March/April 2019
on Preserving Physical & Spiritual Nourishment by Nathanael Devlin
31.4—July/August 2018
on the Brevity & Theology of Her Recorded Words by Judith Anderson
32.3—May/June 2019
on the Implications of Changing the Pater Noster by John M. McCarthy
more from the online archives
19.4—May 2006
The Culture War Is Between Religious Believers on Both Sides by Howard P. Kainz
24.2—March/April 2011
Certain Death & the Last Lectures of Socrates & Jesus by Randall B. Smith
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
The Death of Conservatism & the Negative World by J. Douglas Johnson
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
