02-02-2021, 07:20 AM
Hi everyone,
I have been pondering this for a while. Why would Jesus and the Apostles mainly quote from the Greek Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew family of Old Testament scriptures. The MT Hebrew or Aramaic? Tanakh?
For example in Luke 4:18 from the Interlinear NT it says;
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and because of this he has anointed me to declare hope to the poor and he has sent me to heal the broken hearted and to preach to the captives release and to the blind sight and to free those (who are) oppressed with forgiveness and to preach the year acceptable of the LORD"...
The quote was from Isaiah 61:1-2 and when we compare this to the LXX with the MT- Hebrew scriptures we get as follows;
Another example is in Matthew 1:23 (from the Interlinear NT)
...behold a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call His name Ammanuel...
The NT quote above is referred back to Isaiah 7:13-16
The MT - Hebrew Scriptures of the Tanakh. It reads:
Therefore, the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign; behold, the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel.
The Septuagint reads (LXX (Lancelot C. L. Brenton English translation of the LXX):
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.
My questions are these. The Aramaic interlinear NT is very near the Septuagint reading. Has the Aramaic Tanakh been translated "from" the Greek Septuagint?? or is there another "Aramaic" family of Old Testament (Tanakh) scriptures that produced the NT quote in the Interlinear. And, if anybody knows what does the Dead Sea scrolls have for these texts from Isaiah? as these are apparently complete, but very much older.
I maybe completely off in my understanding. For me, as a western Gentile with no knowledge of Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew I see that the Jewish authorities outside of the early church did NOT like the prophecies that proved Jesus as the Messiah and therefore changed their Hebrew MT text?
I do find though, it's quite interesting that the Aramaic NT interlinear compares very favourably with the LXX
Thanks, David
I have been pondering this for a while. Why would Jesus and the Apostles mainly quote from the Greek Septuagint rather than from the Hebrew family of Old Testament scriptures. The MT Hebrew or Aramaic? Tanakh?
For example in Luke 4:18 from the Interlinear NT it says;
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and because of this he has anointed me to declare hope to the poor and he has sent me to heal the broken hearted and to preach to the captives release and to the blind sight and to free those (who are) oppressed with forgiveness and to preach the year acceptable of the LORD"...
The quote was from Isaiah 61:1-2 and when we compare this to the LXX with the MT- Hebrew scriptures we get as follows;
Quote:LXX (Lancelot C. L. Brenton English translation of the LXX):
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to declare the acceptable year of the Lord"
Quote:The KJV uses the MT family of old testament text: Luke 4:18 reads;
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD"
The quote from Luke 4:18 agrees more with the LXX than the Hebrew-MT text. The clause, "recovering of sight to the blind" in Luke 4:18 matches the clause, "recovery of sight to the blind" in Isaiah 61:1 of the LXX. And the Aramaic Interlinear NT of "to the blind sight".
The scripture "scroll" containing the text above was handed to Jesus. A venerated scroll that was
held in the Capernaum synagogue, represented the Tanakh of the day? It appears that the scripture was referenced more to the LXX rather than the MT Hebrew family of scriptures? The MT- Hebrew text does not explicitly mention the "blind" at all.
Another example is in Matthew 1:23 (from the Interlinear NT)
...behold a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call His name Ammanuel...
The NT quote above is referred back to Isaiah 7:13-16
The MT - Hebrew Scriptures of the Tanakh. It reads:
Therefore, the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign; behold, the young woman is with child, and she shall bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel.
The Septuagint reads (LXX (Lancelot C. L. Brenton English translation of the LXX):
Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.
My questions are these. The Aramaic interlinear NT is very near the Septuagint reading. Has the Aramaic Tanakh been translated "from" the Greek Septuagint?? or is there another "Aramaic" family of Old Testament (Tanakh) scriptures that produced the NT quote in the Interlinear. And, if anybody knows what does the Dead Sea scrolls have for these texts from Isaiah? as these are apparently complete, but very much older.
I maybe completely off in my understanding. For me, as a western Gentile with no knowledge of Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew I see that the Jewish authorities outside of the early church did NOT like the prophecies that proved Jesus as the Messiah and therefore changed their Hebrew MT text?
I do find though, it's quite interesting that the Aramaic NT interlinear compares very favourably with the LXX
Thanks, David