Editing Septuagint (section)

=== Textual analysis ===
[[File:Texts of the OT.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|alt=Diagram of relationships between manuscripts|The inter-relationship between significant ancient Old Testament manuscripts (some identified by their ''[[Scribal abbreviation|siglum]]''). LXX denotes the original Septuagint.]]
{{Further|Textual variants in the Hebrew Bible}}
Modern scholarship holds that the Septuagint was written from the 3rd through the 1st centuries BC, but nearly all attempts at dating specific books (except for the Pentateuch, early- to mid-3rd century&nbsp;BC) are tentative.<ref name=Dines2004 /> Later Jewish revisions and [[recension]]s of the Greek against the Hebrew are well-attested. The best-known are [[Aquila of Sinope|Aquila]] (128&nbsp;AD), [[Symmachus the Ebionite|Symmachus]], and Theodotion. These three, to varying degrees, are more-literal renderings of their contemporary Hebrew scriptures compared to the Old Greek (the original Septuagint). Modern scholars consider one (or more) of the three to be new Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible.

Although much of [[Origen]]'s ''[[Hexapla]]'' (a six-version critical edition of the Hebrew Bible) is lost, several compilations of fragments are available. Origen kept a column for the Old Greek (the Septuagint), which included readings from all the Greek versions in a [[critical apparatus]] with diacritical marks indicating to which version each line (Gr. στίχος) belonged. Perhaps the ''Hexapla'' was never copied in its entirety, but Origen's combined text was copied frequently (eventually without the editing marks) and the older uncombined text of the Septuagint was neglected. The combined text was the first major Christian recension of the Septuagint, often called the ''Hexaplar recension''. Two other major recensions were identified in the century following Origen by [[Jerome]], who attributed these to [[Lucian of Antioch|Lucian]] (the Lucianic, or Antiochene, recension) and [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]] (the Hesychian, or Alexandrian, recension).<ref name=Dines2004 />

==== Manuscripts ====
{{Main|Septuagint manuscripts}}
The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint include 2nd-century BC fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957) and 1st-century BC fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the [[Twelve Minor Prophets]] ([[Alfred Rahlfs]] nos. 802, 803, 805, 848, 942, and 943). Relatively-complete manuscripts of the Septuagint postdate the Hexaplar recension, and include the 4th-century AD [[Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209|Codex Vaticanus]] and the 5th-century [[Codex Alexandrinus]]. These are the oldest-surviving nearly-complete manuscripts of the Old Testament in any language; the oldest extant complete Hebrew texts date to about 600 years later, from the first half of the 10th century.<ref name=Würthwein1995 /> The 4th-century [[Codex Sinaiticus]] also partially survives, with many Old Testament texts.<ref name=Würthwein1995 />{{rp|73}}{{rp|198}} The Jewish (and, later, Christian) revisions and recensions are largely responsible for the divergence of the codices.<ref name=Dines2004 /> The [[Codex Marchalianus]] is another notable manuscript.

==== Differences from the Vulgate and the Masoretic Text ====
The text of the Septuagint is generally close to that of the Masoretes and Vulgate. Genesis 4:1–6<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|4:1–6|KJV}}</ref> is identical in the Septuagint, Vulgate and the Masoretic Text, and Genesis 4:8<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|4:8|KJV}}</ref> to the end of the chapter is the same. There is only one noticeable difference in that chapter, at 4:7:{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

{|cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10"
|-style="text-align:center;"
|'''Genesis 4:7, LXX and English Translation ([[New English Translation of the Septuagint|NETS]])'''||'''Genesis 4:7, Masoretic and English Translation from MT ([[Judaica Press]])'''||'''Genesis 4:7, Latin Vulgate and English Translation (Douay-Rheims)'''
|-
|οὐκ ἐὰν ὀρθῶς προσενέγκῃς, ὀρθῶς δὲ μὴ διέλῃς, ἥμαρτες; ἡσύχασον· πρὸς σὲ ἡ ἀποστροφὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ σὺ ἄρξεις αὐτοῦ.<br /><br />Have you not sinned if you have brought it righteously, but not righteously divided it? Be calm, to you shall be his submission, and you shall rule over him.||{{Script/Hebrew|הֲלוֹא אִם תֵּיטִיב שְׂאֵת וְאִם לֹא תֵיטִיב לַפֶּתַח חַטָּאת רֹבֵץ וְאֵלֶיךָ תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ וְאַתָּה תִּמְשָׁל בּוֹ:}}<br /><br />Is it not so that if you improve, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is lying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it.||{{lang|la|nonne si bene egeris, recipies : sin autem male, statim in foribus peccatum aderit? sed sub te erit appetitus ejus, et tu dominaberis illius.}}<br /><br />If thou do well, shalt thou not receive? but if ill, shall not sin forthwith be present at the door? but the lust thereof shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it.
|}

The differences between the Septuagint and the MT fall into four categories:<ref name="Jinbachian">See Jinbachian, ''Some Semantically Significant Differences Between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20040514084024/http://210.107.99.8/appendage/labhwp/Jinbachian.doc].</ref>
# ''Different Hebrew sources for the MT and the Septuagint''. Evidence of this can be found throughout the Old Testament. A subtle example may be found in Isaiah 36:11;<ref>{{bibleverse|Isaiah|36:11|KJV}}</ref> the meaning remains the same, but the choice of words evidences a different text. The MT reads ''"...al tedaber yehudit be-'ozne ha`am al ha-homa"'' [speak not the Judean language in the ears of (or—which can be heard by) the people on the wall]. The same verse in the Septuagint reads, according to the translation of Brenton: "and speak not to us in the Jewish tongue: and wherefore speakest thou in the ears of the men on the wall." The MT reads "people" where the Septuagint reads "men". This difference is very minor and does not affect the meaning of the verse.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} Scholars had used discrepancies such as this to claim that the Septuagint was a poor translation of the Hebrew original. This verse is found in Qumran (1QIsa''a''), however, where the Hebrew word ''"haanashim"'' (the men) is found in place of ''"haam"'' (the people). This discovery, and others like it, showed that even seemingly-minor differences of translation could be the result of variant Hebrew source texts.
# ''Differences in interpretation'' stemming from the same Hebrew text. An example is Genesis 4:7,<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|4:7|KJV}}</ref> shown above.
# ''Differences as a result of idiomatic translation issues'': A Hebrew idiom may not be easily translated into Greek, and some difference is imparted. In Psalm 47:10,<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalm|47:10|KJV}}</ref> the MT reads: "The shields of the earth belong to God"; the Septuagint reads, "To God are the mighty ones of the earth."
# ''Transmission changes in Hebrew or Greek'': Revision or recension changes and copying errors

==== Dead Sea Scrolls ====
The Biblical manuscripts found in [[Qumran]], commonly known as the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] (DSS), have prompted comparisons of the texts associated with the Hebrew Bible (including the Septuagint).<ref name=BAS>{{cite web |url=http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/searching-for-better-text.asp |title=Searching for the Better Text – Biblical Archaeology Society |publisher=Bib-arch.org |access-date=13 August 2012 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314095848/http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/searching-for-better-text.asp |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Emanuel Tov]], editor of the translated scrolls,<ref name=Elderen>[http://sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleID=356 Edwin Yamauchi, '''"Bastiaan Van Elderen, 1924– 2004"''', SBL Forum] Accessed 26 March 2011.</ref> identifies five broad variants of DSS texts:<ref name=Tov2001>Tov, E. 2001. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (2nd ed.) Assen/Maastricht: Van Gocum; Philadelphia: Fortress Press.</ref><ref name=Flint2002>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/978-9004493339/B9789004493339_s022.xml?language=en |last=Flint |first=Peter W. |year=2002 |chapter=The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls |title=The Stellenbosch AIBI-6 Conference. Proceedings of the Association Internationale Bible et Informatique "From Alpha to Byte" |publisher=Brill |editor-last=Cook |isbn=978-9004493339}}</ref>
# Proto-Masoretic: A stable text and numerous, distinct agreements with the Masoretic Text. About 60 per cent of the Biblical scrolls (including 1QIsa-b) are in this category.
# Pre-Septuagint: Manuscripts which have distinctive affinities with the Greek Bible. About five per cent of the Biblical scrolls, they include 4QDeut-q, 4QSam-a, 4QJer-b, and 4QJer-d. In addition to these manuscripts, several others share similarities with the Septuagint but do not fall into this category.
# The Qumran "Living Bible": Manuscripts which, according to Tov, were copied in accordance with the "Qumran practice": distinctive, long [[orthography]] and [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], frequent errors and corrections, and a free approach to the text. They make up about 20 per cent of the Biblical corpus, including the [[Isaiah Scroll]] (1QIsa-a).
# Pre-Samaritan: DSS manuscripts which reflect the textual form of the Samaritan Pentateuch, although the Samaritan Bible is later and contains information not found in these earlier scrolls, (such as God's holy mountain at Shechem, rather than Jerusalem). These manuscripts, characterized by orthographic corrections and harmonizations with parallel texts elsewhere in the Pentateuch, are about five per cent of the Biblical scrolls and include 4QpaleoExod-m.
# Non-aligned: No consistent alignment with any of the other four text types. About 10 per cent of the Biblical scrolls, they include 4QDeut-b, 4QDeut-c, 4QDeut-h, 4QIsa-c, and 4QDan-a.<ref name=Tov2001 /><ref name=Shiffman>Laurence Shiffman, ''Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls'', p. 172</ref>{{efn|These percentages are disputed. Other scholars credit the Proto-Masoretic texts with 40 per cent, and posit larger contributions from Qumran-style and non-aligned texts. ''The Canon Debate'', McDonald and Sanders editors (2002), chapter 6: "Questions of Canon through the Dead Sea Scrolls" by James C. VanderKam, p. 94, citing private communication with [[Emanuel Tov]] on biblical manuscripts: Qumran scribe type c. 25 per cent, proto-Masoretic Text c. 40 per cent, pre-Samaritan texts c.5 per cent, texts close to the Hebrew model for the Septuagint c. 5 per cent and nonaligned c. 25 per cent.}}

The textual sources present a variety of readings; Bastiaan Van Elderen compares three variations of Deuteronomy 32:43, the [[Song of Moses]]:<ref name=Elderen />{{Failed verification|date=April 2019}}

{|cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1"
|-style="text-align:center;"
|'''Deuteronomy 32.43, Masoretic'''||'''Deuteronomy 32.43, Qumran'''||'''Deuteronomy 32.43, Septuagint'''
|-
|
:<span style="color:#f00;">''' '''</span>
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''.'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''.'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''1 Shout for joy, O nations, with his people'''</span>
:<span style="color:#fff;">'''-------'''</span>
:<span style="color:#0a0;">'''2 For he will avenge the blood of his servants'''</span>
:<span style="color:#039;">'''3 And will render vengeance to his adversaries'''</span>
:<span style="color:#fff;">'''-------'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f60;">'''4 And will purge his land, his people.'''</span>
||
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''1 Shout for joy, O heavens, with him'''</span>
:<span style="color:#603;">'''2 And worship him, all you divine ones'''</span>
:<span style="color:#fff;">'''-------'''</span>
:<span style="color:#fff;">'''-------'''</span>
:<span style="color:#0a0;">'''3 For he will avenge the blood of his sons'''</span>
:<span style="color:#039;">'''4 And he will render vengeance to his adversaries'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f0f;">'''5 And he will recompense the ones hating him'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f60;">'''6 And he purges the land of his people.'''</span>
||
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''1 Shout for joy, O heavens, with him'''</span>
:<span style="color:#603;">'''2 And let all the sons of God worship him'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f00;">'''3 Shout for joy, O nations, with his people'''</span>
:<span style="color:#666;">'''4 And let all the angels of God be strong in him'''</span>
:<span style="color:#0a0;">'''5 Because he avenges the blood of his sons'''</span>
:<span style="color:#039;">'''6 And he will avenge and recompense justice to his enemies'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f0f;">'''7 And he will recompense the ones hating'''</span>
:<span style="color:#f60;">'''8 And the Lord will cleanse the land of his people.'''</span>
|}