Translation

Septuagint

The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, produced in stages during the 3rd-1st centuries BC by Hellenistic Jewish translators primarily in Alexandria. The Septuagint was the Bible of the apostolic church: NT authors quote the OT roughly 300 times, and the majority of those quotations follow the LXX wording, in some cases against the Masoretic Hebrew reading. Its significance spans textual criticism, Second Temple Jewish theology, the history of the canon, and the interpretation of NT Christological claims.

History

The Letter of Aristeas account

The best-known origin account is the Letter of Aristeas (2nd century BC, pseudepigraphical): Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 BC) commissioned 72 Jewish scholars (6 from each of the 12 tribes) to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. They completed the Pentateuch in 72 days working in isolation, producing identical translations, a legendary demonstration of divine oversight. The name "Septuagint" (septuaginta, Latin for "seventy") and the abbreviation LXX derive from this legend. Later versions of the story (Philo, Pseudo-Aristeas, Augustine) extend the miraculous isolation to all 72 translators working independently, all agreeing word for word.

The letter is pseudepigraphical and its account is legendary, but its core historical kernel is sound: the Pentateuch was translated into Greek in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II, probably for the use of the growing Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora, and possibly also for the royal library.

Actual development

Scholarly consensus: the Pentateuch was translated in Alexandria c. mid-3rd century BC. Other sections followed in stages, the Prophets likely in the 2nd century BC, the Writings in the 2nd-1st centuries BC, and the Deuterocanonical books at various points in the same period. Different books were translated by different hands with markedly different philosophies. The collection was not a single project but an organic accumulation; the title "Septuagint" was later extended by Christians to cover the entire Greek OT, including books with no Hebrew original.

Apostolic church use

The LXX became the Bible of Greek-speaking Judaism in the Second Temple period and then of the early Christian church. The NT writers quoted from it by default; in many cases their arguments depend on the LXX rendering rather than the Hebrew. Paul's letters, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Gospel of Matthew all show dense LXX dependence. The Deuterocanonical books (Sirach, Wisdom, Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Baruch, and the Greek Additions to Daniel and Esther) circulated as part of the Greek OT and were accepted as canonical by most of the early church, the basis for their retention in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons today.

Jewish rejection

By the 2nd century AD, rabbinic Judaism had largely abandoned the LXX. The Mishnah records a tradition that the day of the LXX's translation was as unfortunate for Israel as the day of the golden calf. Several factors drove this: the LXX's extensive use by Christians to argue messianic readings; the growing rabbinic project of standardizing a single authoritative Hebrew text; and theological discomfort with some Greek renderings. Three alternative Greek translations were produced for Greek-speaking Jews who wanted closer fidelity to the Hebrew being standardized by the rabbis: Aquila (c. 130 AD, hyper-literal), Symmachus (c. 200 AD, more literary), and Theodotion (c. 180 AD, a revision closer to the emerging proto-MT). Origen's Hexapla (c. 240 AD) placed all four Greek versions alongside the Hebrew in parallel columns.

Transmission and major manuscripts

The LXX survives in three great uncial codices from the 4th-5th centuries AD, each with its own textual character: Codex Vaticanus (B, c. 325-350 AD), the oldest and generally most valuable witness, missing portions of Genesis and Psalms; Codex Sinaiticus (S/א, c. 330-360 AD), complete NT plus most of the OT, used heavily in Rahlfs's edition; Codex Alexandrinus (A, c. 400-440 AD), complete OT in the LXX tradition with some Lucianic influence. Numerous papyri (especially from Egypt) preserve LXX texts from the 2nd century BC onward. The complexity of this manuscript tradition means no single codex is followed throughout; editors must reconstruct a critical text book by book.

Modern critical editions

Rahlfs Septuaginta (1935, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), single-volume critical edition still in wide use; based on Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus; revised Rahlfs-Hanhart edition 2006
Göttingen Septuagint (1931-present), multi-volume critical edition with full apparatus, published book by book; the scholarly standard for individual books; not yet complete
New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) (Oxford, 2007; Pietersma and Wright, eds.), English translation on the Göttingen/Rahlfs base, designed to reflect the Greek rather than align to a Hebrew parallel
Brenton's Septuagint (1851), public-domain English translation alongside the Greek, widely distributed; based on Alexandrinus; now outdated but still in wide popular circulation
La Bible d'Alexandrie (French, 1986-present), scholarly French translation with extensive commentary, book by book

Translators

The translators are unknown by name. The Pentateuch translators were Alexandrian Jews fluent in both Hebrew and Greek, probably trained in scribal-rhetorical traditions. Different books reflect markedly different translators: the Pentateuch is careful and relatively consistent; the Psalms are tighter than the Prophets; Isaiah is paraphrastic and interpretive; Job in the original LXX is substantially shorter than the Hebrew; Daniel survives in two distinct Greek versions (the "Old Greek" and Theodotion's revision, the latter supplanting the former in most Christian manuscripts by the 3rd century AD).

Textual basis

The Hebrew text the LXX translators worked from, the Vorlage, was in some cases different from the Masoretic Text (MT) that became the standard Hebrew Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed this: some DSS Hebrew manuscripts align with the LXX against the MT, demonstrating that both reflect genuine ancient Hebrew textual traditions rather than translation error. Key divergences:

Jeremiah: The LXX is approximately 13% shorter than the MT, with chapters in a different order. 4QJer(b) and 4QJer(d) from Qumran represent a shorter Hebrew Vorlage supporting the LXX; 4QJer(a) and 4QJer(c) support the longer MT. Both traditions are ancient.
1 Samuel: The LXX gives Goliath's height as approximately four cubits and a span (~6'9"); the MT gives six cubits and a span (~9'9"). 4QSam(a) from Qumran supports the shorter LXX reading, suggesting the MT may be inflated in transmission.
Deuteronomy 32:8: LXX reads "according to the number of the sons of God" (huiōn theou) where the MT has "sons of Israel" (bĕnê Yiśrāʾēl). 4QDeut(j) from Qumran supports the LXX reading. The divine-council reading is widely held by scholars to be original; Michael Heiser's work on the divine council draws heavily on this verse.
Genesis 5 and 11: The LXX patriarchal ages differ significantly from the MT, adding roughly 1,400 years to the pre-Abrahamic timeline. The Samaritan Pentateuch presents a third tradition. The chronological divergence has implications for OT-based dating schemes.
Psalms: Versification differs slightly (the LXX Psalm 22 is MT Psalm 23; the LXX includes a 151st Psalm absent from the Hebrew).

Translation philosophy

The Pentateuch is the most consistent and careful section of the LXX, a relatively formal rendering, closer in spirit to what we would now call formal equivalence, though not as hyper-literal as Aquila's later revision. The Psalms are reasonably faithful to the Hebrew, with some interpretive decisions in vocabulary and tense. The Prophets are more variable: Isaiah is the most paraphrastic section of the entire LXX, reading through a Hellenistic Jewish theological lens and introducing Greek philosophical categories into passages where the Hebrew is more restrained or ambiguous. Scholars note that the LXX Isaiah occasionally functions as a theological commentary rather than a strict translation.

Job in the original LXX is approximately 400 lines shorter than the Hebrew MT, large sections were simply omitted. Later manuscripts restore these sections from Theodotion's Greek, meaning most Bible software and printed LXX editions present a mixed text in Job. Proverbs rearranges material and freely expands some sections. Esther has substantial Greek Additions with no Hebrew counterpart, turning a relatively secular Hebrew book into one with explicit theological content and prayer. Daniel survives in two distinct Greek versions with divergent renderings in several chapters.

The practical implication: the LXX cannot be read as a uniform translation any more than it can be read as a single document. Each book requires its own assessment of translation method before the LXX's readings can be used for textual or theological argument.

Strengths

The apostolic Bible. The NT was written with the LXX as its OT. NT authors writing in Greek quoted Greek scripture by default, and the majority of their OT quotations follow the LXX wording, in some cases making arguments that only work in the Greek rendering, not the Hebrew. Understanding the LXX is prerequisite for understanding how the apostles read scripture; many NT passages are opaque without it.

Ancient textual witness. The LXX preserves Second Temple-era Hebrew variants that predate the Masoretic standardization. The earliest complete MT manuscripts (the Aleppo Codex, c. 925 AD; the Leningrad Codex, 1008/9 AD) are separated from the LXX Pentateuch by more than 1,200 years. The Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed that LXX divergences from the MT often reflect genuine ancient Hebrew Vorlagen rather than translation error, the LXX's textual witness is real.

Textual criticism. Used alongside the MT, DSS, Samaritan Pentateuch, Vulgate, and Targums, the LXX is one of five primary witnesses for reconstructing the pre-Masoretic history of the Hebrew text. In several cases the LXX preserves a reading that is textually superior to the MT. No serious OT textual criticism can proceed without LXX consultation.

Second Temple Jewish theology. The LXX reflects how educated Greek-speaking Jews in the 3rd-1st centuries BC understood their own scriptures, before the rabbinic standardization and before Christianity. It is an invaluable witness to Jewish theological interpretation of the period, indispensable for situating NT Christology within its Jewish context and for understanding Jewish-Greek theological synthesis.

Eastern Orthodox canonical base. The LXX is the canonical OT for Eastern Orthodoxy. Its Deuterocanonical books are the basis for the expanded Catholic and Orthodox canons. For ecumenical work and for understanding the full range of historic Christian scripture use, LXX knowledge is necessary.

Pre-Christian messianic witness. On several key passages, Isaiah 7:14 (parthenos), Psalm 22:16 ("they pierced"), Psalm 40:6 ("a body"), Deuteronomy 32:43 ("sons of God worship him"), the LXX reading supports the NT's messianic use. Because the LXX predates the Christian era by centuries, it constitutes a pre-Christian Jewish witness to the interpretive tradition the apostles inherited. The apologetic force is significant.

Weaknesses

Non-uniform quality and method. The LXX is not one translation but an organic collection made by many hands over several centuries. Translation method, quality, and fidelity to the Hebrew vary so substantially between books that using a single principle to evaluate the LXX as a whole is misleading. Treating it as a monolithic authoritative text obscures this real variation.

Greek-Hebrew translation loss. Greek and Hebrew operate on different grammatical and syntactic principles. Hebrew verbal aspect, the significance of root patterns, and Hebrew parallelism do not map neatly onto Greek tense, voice, and mood. Translating between these systems involves inevitable interpretive choices. Some theological-grammatical features of the Hebrew are recast or lost entirely, particularly in books where the translators appear to have been working from uncertain Hebrew or where they chose interpretive paraphrase over fidelity.

Paraphrastic sections. Isaiah, Job (as originally translated), and portions of Proverbs depart so substantially from the Hebrew that they function as interpretations rather than translations. These books cannot be used safely to establish the Hebrew Vorlage without book-by-book assessment; LXX divergences here may reflect translation choices rather than a different Hebrew text.

Complex manuscript tradition. The LXX does not survive in a single clean manuscript. Different recensions circulate: the Hexaplaric recension (Origen's corrections toward the MT), the Lucianic recension, the Catena text, and others. Some manuscripts contain Christianizing alterations. Establishing what the original LXX read in a given passage requires the same kind of textual criticism as the NT, and in some books the evidence is thinner.

Rabbinic rejection. Mainstream Jewish tradition from the 2nd century AD onward did not accept the LXX. The rabbinic project standardized a Hebrew text and produced new Greek translations to replace the LXX. This means LXX use is marked: for Jewish-Christian dialogue, citing the LXX against the MT is citing a text the other party does not accept as authoritative.

Deuterocanonical inclusion. The LXX includes books and substantial additions not in the Hebrew canon, a live dispute between Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox. Using the LXX as an authority in cross-tradition argument requires clarifying upfront which canon each party accepts.

Notable / problematic verses

Isaiah 7:14, LXX: parthenos ("virgin") for Hebrew almah ("young woman of marriageable age"). This 3rd-century BC Jewish translation predates the Christian era; its rendering of almah as "virgin" is the basis for Matthew 1:23's quotation and the Virgin Birth claim. Defenders of the Christian reading note that the LXX translators made this interpretive choice before Christianity existed, suggesting it was a recognized reading within pre-Christian Jewish exegesis.

Psalm 22:16 (LXX 21:17), LXX: "they pierced my hands and my feet." The MT at this point has kā'ărî ("like a lion"), differing from the LXX by one letter (kaaru, "they dug/pierced," from kārar or kûr). The LXX reading, supported by some DSS fragments (5/6HevPs), is used in messianic apologetics for Psalm 22 as a crucifixion prophecy.

Psalm 40:6 / Hebrews 10:5, LXX: "a body you have prepared for me" (sōma katērtisō moi). The Hebrew MT has "you have opened/dug ears for me" (oznayim kārîtā lî). The author of Hebrews quotes the LXX verbatim; the argument of Hebrews 10 depends on the LXX's "body" reading.

Deuteronomy 32:8-9, LXX: "according to the number of the sons of God" (divine council); MT: "according to the number of the sons of Israel." The LXX reading (supported by 4QDeut) has become central to Michael Heiser's divine-council theology and its apologetic use in explaining cosmic geography and the nations.

Deuteronomy 32:43, LXX includes "Let all the sons of God worship him", a line absent from the MT; cited in Hebrews 1:6 applied to Jesus. The line appears also at Qumran (4QDeut), supporting the LXX's antiquity here.

Genesis 4:8, LXX supplies "Let us go out to the field" (Cain's speech to Abel) where the MT is textually defective (the speech is absent). The Samaritan Pentateuch, Targums, and Syriac Peshitta agree with the LXX, confirming the MT is defective here rather than the LXX expansive.

1 Samuel 17:4, LXX/4QSam(a): Goliath at approximately four cubits and a span; MT: six cubits and a span. The shorter reading is arguably more original; the MT's height may have been inflated during transmission.

Daniel, The LXX's Old Greek translation of Daniel was largely replaced by Theodotion's Greek in Christian use by the 3rd century AD. The Greek Additions (Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men; Susanna; Bel and the Dragon) survive in Catholic and Orthodox canons but not in the Protestant or Hebrew canons.

Apologetic significance

Messianic prophecy predating Christianity. The most direct apologetic use of the LXX is this: where the NT quotes the OT in ways that seem to depend on a "Christian" reading of the text, the LXX demonstrates that the same reading existed in pre-Christian Jewish translation. Isaiah 7:14 with parthenos ("virgin"), Psalm 22:16 with "they pierced," Psalm 40:6 with "a body you have prepared for me," and Deuteronomy 32:43 with "Let all the sons of God worship him", these are not NT inventions or Christian alterations of the OT. They are 3rd-2nd century BC Jewish translations. The question the apologist can ask is: why did pre-Christian Jewish translators in Alexandria render these passages this way?

Pre-Christian Jewish hermeneutic. The LXX represents a documented tradition of how Greek-speaking Jews in the Second Temple period read and interpreted their scriptures. Where the NT and the LXX agree against the MT, the Christian reading has pre-Christian Jewish precedent, it is not an innovation imported onto the Hebrew text but a reading attested in the translation tradition the apostles inherited. This is a significant rebuttal to the objection that Christians distorted the Jewish scripture to fabricate their claims.

Textual criticism vindicating the LXX. The standard objection to LXX-based apologetics is that the LXX is simply a bad translation, that its divergences from the MT reflect translators who didn't fully understand the Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scrolls invalidated this objection in multiple specific cases. Where the LXX diverges from the MT and a corresponding DSS Hebrew manuscript also diverges from the MT in the same direction (Deuteronomy 32, Jeremiah, 1 Samuel 17, Genesis 4:8), the LXX is vindicated as a faithful translation of a genuine Hebrew Vorlage. It was the MT that changed, or that preserves a secondary reading, not the LXX that mistranslated.

Divine council theology. Michael Heiser's scholarship on Deuteronomy 32:8 ("sons of God" in LXX, confirmed by 4QDeut), Psalm 82, and related passages draws extensively on the LXX. The LXX and DSS together demonstrate that divine-council language was present in earlier Hebrew manuscripts and was actively read by pre-Christian Jews, it was the later Masoretic tradition that standardized a narrower reading. For apologetics addressing the heavenly court, the identity of the "sons of God," and the cosmic dimension of NT Christology, the LXX-DSS combination is essential.

Understanding NT hermeneutics. Apostolic interpretation of the OT is conducted through the LXX lens. Arguments in Galatians 3, Romans 9-11, Hebrews, and Revelation are shot through with LXX citations and LXX-shaped reasoning. Understanding why the apostles read the OT the way they did, and why their readings are coherent rather than arbitrary, requires reading the LXX they were reading. This is a prerequisite for serious engagement with the NT's use of the OT in apologetic contexts.

Notable users and influence

The LXX was the OT of the Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora across the Mediterranean world before and during the NT period. Philo of Alexandria (c. 25 BC-50 AD) wrote extensive philosophical-exegetical works on the LXX Pentateuch in Greek; his work assumes the LXX is scripture. Josephus (c. 37-100 AD) used the LXX, including the Letter of Aristeas narrative, in his account of Jewish history for a Roman audience.

In the early church the LXX was simply the Bible, there was no question of which OT text to use because the Greek-speaking church had no other. Justin Martyr (c. 100-165 AD) appeals to the LXX in his dialogues with Jews and pagans. Irenaeus and Tertullian cite it extensively. Origen (c. 185-253 AD) produced the Hexapla as a scholarly tool to understand the LXX's relationship to the Hebrew and competing Greek versions, not to replace the LXX but to clarify it. Athanasius, the Cappadocians (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa), John Chrysostom, and Augustine all preached and wrote from the LXX. The LXX-shaped reading of the OT, its messianic interpretations, its divine-council texts, its Deuterocanonical books, is the common OT inheritance of the entire ancient church East and West.

Jerome (c. 347-420 AD) diverged from this consensus in producing the Vulgate, translating the OT primarily from the Hebrew rather than the LXX. Augustine objected sharply. The Latin West gradually adopted Jerome's Hebraica Veritas principle, which over centuries contributed to the Protestant Reformation's preference for the Hebrew canon. The Greek East retained the LXX.

Today the Eastern Orthodox Church uses the LXX as its canonical OT text for liturgy and theology. Modern OT textual criticism, including the Biblia Hebraica Quinta project (succeeding BHS) and the ongoing Göttingen Septuagint, treats the LXX as one of the primary sources for establishing the textual history of the Hebrew Bible.