Subject: language Jesus speak |
Bible Note: Sigh, we are talking about two different dispersions. You are referring to the dispersion after the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 AD and I'm referring to the dispersion following the Babylonian conquest. Ptolemy was not only one of Alexander's generals he also founded a dynasty in Egypt. Cleopatra was a Ptolemy. According to Aristeas Ptolemy Philadelphus (c. 250 BC) commissioned the initial translation of the Pentateuch by 72 scholars (6 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel). As told by Aristeas, the 72 scholars worked on individual translations for 72 days and when they compared the results, the were all identical, thus demonstrating God's guidance in the translation (and no I don't believe the legend, chuckle). Perhaps I should try to explain why I find your observation so interesting. If one accepts that Jesus was the Son of God, then he could have quoted from any scripture he chose. As you point out, it would have made an enormous amount of sense for him to use whatever the person he was speaking to was familiar with. 90 percent of the empire was illiterate, but the priestly classes in Jeruselem were not. I have never heard that the Pharisees used the Septuagint (although of course it is possible), so in speaking to a Pharisee which scripture would Jesus use? If the Pharisee was ignorant of Hebrew, he would have used Greek, but if the Pharisee was learned in Hebrew, he would have used Hebrew. Now comes the hard part. The Gospels were written in Greek. It is very unlikely that the evangelists spoke Hebrew. If one accepts that they used sources rather than the Holy Spirit guiding every stroke of the pen, their only source for the OT quotations and prophesies would have been the Septuagint. As an inheritance we get things like the confusion over the translation of the word "almah" in Isaiah 7:14. Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Undeniably correct because the Septuagint translates the word as "parthenos" which means specifically a virgin in Greek. The KJV also translates the word in Isaiah 7:14 as "virgin." However some folks, including some Jewish scholars, believe a more accurate translation would have been "young woman." This is the translation found in the NRSV for Isaiah 7:14. This introduces a discrepency between Matthew 1:23 and Isaiah 7:14. Imagine a young man or woman, studying the scriptures for the first time and running into this. Now this isn't a quote of something Jesus said but a reference to a prophesy fulfilled by the Virgin Birth, but the point is related. If Jesus always quoted the scripture that the person he was speaking to was familier with, then the source of the quotes could be either the Septuagint or the original Hebrew scriptures. I agree this is a nit, but I find it an interesting nit. |