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Why are there LXX quotes in the Aramaic NT?
#1
There aren't.

As you know, the LXX was translated by 72 Jews in Alexandria from a Hebrew source. The logic is quite simple: If the LXX has a Hebrew source as it's background text, then there MUST have been a Hebrew text which, at one point in time, read that way.

Many times the Peshitta NT seems to be quoting from the MSS, sometimes it seems like the LXX, other times you would swear it's from the POT or an Aramaic Targum like Onkelos (there are examples of this).....sometimes it appears to be quoting something which is not currently in existence (there are examples of this as well.) In other words, there is no one single OT source that the NT quotes from.

The fact of the matter is, the Peshitta NT is not quoting directly from any of these sources....it's quoting from the text that these sources are quoting from.

Think of it this way:

(1) Several versions of Text (A) exist, each with slight variant readings.
(2) Text (B) is a translation of Text (A)
(3) Text (C) quotes Text (A)
(4) Over the centuries, Text (A) becomes Text (A-standardized). All the original variant manuscripts of Text (A) are eventually lost due to the standardization efforts of scribes. Only Text (A-standardized) remains in the original language.

Now, when someone 2,000 years later examines Text (C) and says AHA! LOOK! Text (C) is quoting Text (B), because there are no copies of Text (A-standardized) that read this way!

But that begs the question. Text (A) is lost.....and Text (C), while it appears to be quoting Text (B), is in reality quoting Text(A)....of which Text (B) is a faithful witness.

It only appears that Text (C) is quoting Text (B). Text (C) is, in reality, quoting (A).

Legend:
Text (A) - Pre-Masoretic Hebrew originals with variant readings. (Dead Sea Scrolls are surviving example)
Text (B) - LXX
Text (C) - NT (any language)
Text (A-standardized) - MSS Hebrew

The Masoretes, of course, were responsible for transforming (A) into (A-standardized).
+Shamasha Paul bar-Shimun de'Beth-Younan
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Why are there LXX quotes in the Aramaic NT? - by Paul Younan - 04-27-2004, 06:03 PM

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