Greek Septuagint

The Greek Septuagint, meaning “Seventy”, is a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Koine Greek. Not only is the Septuagint noteworthy because it was the first known attempt to translate the Holy Scriptures into another language, but it is also impressive because of the size of the translation project. Translation reportedly began in Egypt in the third century BCE and may have been finished by 150 BCE. This translation is known to give scholars insight into the meaning of certain obscure Hebrew words and passages.

Alexander the Great later conquered much of the ancient world around 330 BCE. Soon thereafter, common Greek (Koine) became an international language. Many Jews began to speak that language, leading to the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This translation, thought to have been done by 72 translators, became known as the Septuagint. It was the first translation of the Bible and one of the most important. The work of so many translators resulted in varied translation styles, from literal to rather free. Nevertheless, the Septuagint was viewed as God’s Word by Greek-speaking Jews and later by Christians.

About the middle of the third century BCE, the first five books of the Bible were translated from Hebrew into Greek. Translation of the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures was completed in the second century BCE. The resulting collection of Bible books came to be known as the Greek Septuagint. The Septuagint is the first known written translation of the entire Hebrew Scriptures.

When writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures, they usually did so from the Septuagint. These quotations, which at times vary somewhat from the exact Hebrew wording, are now part of the inspired Scriptures. Thus, the work of imperfect human translators became part of the inspired Word of God, a God who does not favor one culture or language over another (Acts 10:34).

Greek-speaking Jews in the time of Jesus and his apostles made extensive use of the Greek Septuagint. The early Christians were quick to make effective use of the Septuagint to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah. So effective were they that the Septuagint began to be viewed by some as a “Christian” translation. This led to its losing popularity among the Jews and resulted in several new translations being produced in Greek. One of those translations was produced by a Jewish proselyte named Aquila in the second century CE. When describing this translation, one Bible scholar refers to a “quite unexpected feature.” Represented by ancient Hebrew characters, the divine name of God, translated as Jehovah, appears throughout Aquila’s Greek translation.

Resources

 * Insight on the Scriptures (1988), Greek
 * Wikipedia, Septuagint