Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday
May 30, 2019
Pastor Rick Kabrick
A large community of these people settled near the ancient city of Alexandria in Egypt.
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth to within 100 miles at Alexandria.
So, Greek replaced their language. So, they needed an accurate translation of their sacred documents into Greek.
Around 250 B.C. 72, most scholars say they were rabbis, from the 12 tribes, 6 from each, translated these sacred ancient texts into Greek.
The task of finding translators was difficult. Those chosen had to know Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic.
72 elders - six from each of the twelve tribes - were selected for the work of translation. The name Septuagint, is from the Latin word for seventy. Often referred to as the LXX.
https://www.google.com/maps/search/ancient+egypt+map+of+alexandria/@31.2000096,29.876305,14.5z
The Masoretic text is said to have much of its development from a council held by the Orthodox Jews in maybe 200 AD or so. It was named the Council of Jamnia.
It is said to have been the occasion when the Jewish authorities decided to exclude believers in Jesus as the Messiah from the Jewish faith.
“For the same Spirit who was in the prophets when they spoke these things was also in the seventy men when they translated them, so that assuredly they could also say something else, just as if the prophet himself had said both, because it would be the same Spirit who said both.”
The Septuagint is also the version that the NT writers used most often when quoting from the OT. According to scholars, the Septuagint is cited 340 times.
Another Hebrew Bible exists today. It is used by Jews everywhere. It is called the Masoretic text. It began to be compiled around 700 A.D.
The LORD Jesus Christ had not arrived for HIS earthly Ministry yet. 1000 years later when the Masorites assembled the MT, they had to deal with the historical fact that the Messiah had been here.
The Masoretes admitted that they received corrupted texts to begin with. So no matter how careful you are to duplicate you still don’t fix the error.
The MT is written with a different alphabet than the original.
The Masoretes added vowel points which did not exist in the original.
The MT excluded several books from the OT scriptures.
The MT includes changes to prophecy and doctrine.
An example:
The difference between
SLAP
and
SLIP
SLP
STEP
STOP
STP
“But I am far from putting reliance in your teachers, who refuse to admit that the interpretation made by the seventy elders who were with Ptolemy [king] of the Egyptians is a correct one; and they attempt to frame another. And I wish you to observe, that they have altogether taken away many Scriptures from the [Septuagint] translations effected by those seventy elders who were with Ptolemy, and by which this very man who was crucified is proved to have been set forth expressly as God, and man, and as being crucified, and as dying” (~150 A.D., Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Chapter LXXI)
The Septuagint predates the Masoretic text by almost a thousand years.
The Septuagint is based upon Hebrew texts that are centuries older than the texts upon which the Masoretic version is based.
The great majority of times NT quotes from the OT is from the LXX.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_Bible_translations
What if there were all these old fragments and, in some cases, entire scrolls dating back centuries before Christ?
Would those manuscripts not be considered the authority in discrepancies between MT and the Septuagint for example?
Where there are discrepancies between the MT and the Septuagint exist, the DSS agrees with the Septuagint most of the time. The DSS often differ from the MT.
There was no controversy about the integrity of the Septuagint from around 250 B.C. until 135 A.D.
Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin of course as we know, rejected the messianic claims of our LORD Jesus Christ. This ended with Our LORD on the Cross.
LUK 3:2, In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
Power only succumbs to power and even then reluctantly.
They are the tie breaker if you will. And they have proven the Septuagint to be accurate way more often than the MT.
There are fragments from all of the books of the Hebrew Bible that we know except the Book of Esther. And all the Dead Sea Scrolls have not been thoroughly examined.
GOD’s perfect timing again of the DSS.
Had they been found in the 1600s
Had they been found today.
They were found at HIS timing.
we always see GOD’s hand in things, and we see always Satan trying to keep up.
Many of the Jews knew that the credibility of the Christian Gospels depended on the credibility of the Septuagint.
Aquila’s motive was revenge on the Christian community for not accepting him. Thus, he took his proposition to the rabbis, who were anxious to hear his plan to further widen the gap between Messianic Jew and Jew.
ISA 7:14, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Ask any Israeli how to say “Jesus” in Hebrew, and you’ll probably hear the response: Yeshu.