Subject: Any LXX Isaiah Before NT Literature? |
Bible Note: Hi, dudjr... I apologize for my circumlocution. My fingers often operate out of synchronization with my mind. No doubt the following will be susceptible to the same malady. As far as I know there is manuscript evidence of the Septuagint as early as the first century; which manuscripts would therefore have been contemporary with the best estimate as to the date that Matthew authored his gospel. There are widespread references to the Septuagint extant well before that time. I would encourage you to spend some time solidifying what is known of this Greek translation, building on those facts from which to draw further conclusions. I cannot speak to Josephus' intentions -- Oy! I can barely speak to my own! I do seem to recall that the earliest surviving manuscript of his stuff (in Latin, by the way, not Greek) is around the sixth century -- the earliest Greek version is at least four hundred years later. I urge caution to making extra-biblical sources bear less weight than what you are seeking from the Scriptures. I usually remind people to take Josephus with a grain of salt -- Kosher salt, of course. I would put greater faith in the church fathers and their internally consistent testimony, than I would the Talmud. However, they are extra-biblical too. Finally, it sounds like -- and I might be in error here -- that you might have some kind of vested interest in the conclusions to which you hope to arrive. Ideas about an original Hebrew version of Matthew or some kind of Q manuscript abound, particularly in liberal circles of the last century and a half. That, in itself, doesn't make these ideas specious, but they certainly do form a shaky presuppositional foundation. We all have to be careful to let the truth inform our presuppositions, rather than to let our presuppositions inform what believe to be true. I hope that this will be helpful in keeping you from tilting at windmills.* In Him, Doc * My phraseology relative to windmills is English, not seventeenth century Spanish. Nonetheless, I am confident that Miguel de Cervantes back in 1605 was referring to my use of the idiom, rather than vice versa. :-D |