Bible Question:
How can I say that Matthew, for example, is quoting something like "LXX" (e.g., in Matthew 1:23) if there is no manuscript in greek at that time proving its existence? Is it not possible that Matthew would be translating himself portions of the Hebrew Bible into greek? |
Bible Answer: Dear dudujr, Welcome to the forum! The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament, originally just the Torah, but later included the other books as well. We have no direct evidence that the Gospels were written in any other language than Greek. That doesn't mean that there were no Hebrew versions of New Testament books, but that there is no direct evidence of their existence. Consequently, any arguments to the contrary, are based on circumstancial evidence at best. Most of the rest of us will be happy to consider the possibility of a Hebrew version of Matthew when we have one at hand. So, we know the Septuagint is quoted by Matthew because he quoted it. It would be like if you and I wrote letters to one another including phrases like "in the course of human events" or "four score and twenty years ago" or "shuffling off this mortal coil". We would know that we were talking about Jefferson, Lincoln, or Shakespeare. We don't even need to know if we are actually looking at a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysberg Address, or Hamlet. We immediately recognize these quotes, because we have a common historical and cultural context. Matthew wrote his gospel for a Jewish audience. Jews were a highly literate culture, particularly well emersed in the Scriptures. In Him, Doc |