Subject: Any LXX Isaiah Before NT Literature? |
Bible Note: First of all, thanks a lot for the welcoming and also the answer. There are notes I would like to make if you don't mind, because I am making a deep research about it. I have already looked that up in lots of Bible references online and specially in paper. But some doubts popped up in my mind. You said: "So, we know the Septuagint is quoted by Matthew because he quoted it." This sounds to me like: "I am right because I am right." I wouldn't call it any argument. We've got to define what we have in mind by "LXX". I've got no doubt that some portions of OT (the torah) were translated into greek BCE as we have archeological evidence of it, but, as a matter of fact, it wasn't a complete official Greek OT translation and actually it had so many versions, with so many mistakes made by the hand of so many translators that we don't even know who they were or how the text were like. As stated before, we have no LXX Isaiah manuscript BC to support this claim that Matthew based his quotations from LXX aside from the similarities between his Gospel and LATER CHRISTIANS VERSIONS of Bible in greek... he could be quoting a greek version in existence in his days, although we don't have a piece of arqueological evidence of a greek isaiah text pre-matthean, or could be making himself a translation of a hebrew source. The testimony of Church Fathers that there was a complete OT in Greek in first century CE is based on nothing more than this, their own testimony, no archeological evidence... even more when we see how much this hypotetical complete OT LXX laid the foundation to christian beliefs. Jehowah Witnesses engendered a particular and peculiar version of the Bible that supports of their crazy beliefs and I think something like it occured in the second century based on NT greek that had lots of OT quotations in Greek and later they created a complete OT in Greek NOW officially called LXX. If there was a complete Jewish translation of OT into Greek, Flavius Josepho wouldn't have said (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 10, Chap. 10 (AJ 10.218)) "But let no one blame me for writing down every thing of this nature, as I find it in our ancient books; for as to that matter, I have plainly assured those that think me defective in any such point, or complain of my management, and have told them in the beginning of this history, that I intended to do no more than translate the Hebrew books into the Greek language, and promised them to explain those facts, without adding any thing to them of my own, or taking any thing away from there." Why would he spend so much time and effort if there already was a complete greek OT version? In first century very few people could read, let alone write, let alone read and write in a second language. Did Jesus speak in greek? When he quoted OT he mentioned the Hebrew division of the Bible and not the Greek one. (Luk. 24:44) Just because matthean phraseology matches later christians versions of greek OT does not mean that he based himself upon such version while refering to OT related to prophecies. |