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62 Is Judaism the Religion of Moses?

Tradition has it that Ptolemy II wanted to have a translation of the Jewish Scriptures made
for his library. In the course of time, certain Jewish scholars were invited by Ptolemy II to accom-
plish the task. Thus, the Septuagint Version was born.

Needless to say, this translation abounds in Hellenistic interpretations. This Version was re-
jected by later Jews as totally unacceptable because of its variations from the original, inspired and
authoritative Palestinian Hebrew Text and because of its inclination to “improve" the text in order
to please or displease as the case may be, its Gentile reading audience.

The translators of this Version thought nothing of adding to the text or of taking away from
it whole verses and even whole chapters! No wonder the later Jews renounced this product of Egypt
which was translated during the time of the religious anarchy.

Christ and Apostles Did NOT Use Septuagint

It has often been assumed that the Septuagint Version, instead of the original Hebrew Text,
was the Old Testament of the early Christian Church. This is decidedly not the case.

It can be shown quite plainly that Christ did not set the example of using the Septuagint Ver-
sion. It was His custom to quote from the original Hebrew scrolls (Luke 4:16, 17). Also, Christ re-
ferred to the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible as THE SCRIPTURE (Luke 24:44, 45) -- the
Septuagint Version DID NOT contain these three divisional designations (International Standard
Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I, p. 555). Christ NEVER referred to the Septuagint Version as the offi-
cial Scripture to follow.

Some scholars have endeavored to maintain that the apostles used the Septuagint Version
AS THEIR Old Testament, and that their Old Testament quotations in the New Testament were
from the Septuagint. However, we are informed by Collett (The Scripture of Truth, pp. 142, 143),
that of 263 direct quotations from the Old Testament, only 88 are verbal quotations that agree with
the Septuagint. Does this prove the apostles used this Version? The answer should be obvious -- it
does NOT! And, out of 263 quotations, it is only rational to believe that 88 could have coinciden-
tally agreed with the Septuagint Version. Both the translators of the Septuagint and the apostles
used the Hebrew original from which they translated these quotations into Greek, and it is conceiv-
able that once in a while the translations would agree. Instead of proving the apostles used the Sep-
tuagint as their Old Testament, this evidence proves just the opposite.

And, it is important to note that the Jews of Palestine, because of the variations in the Septu-
agint from the original Hebrew text, regarded the day the Septuagint was translated as a great ca-
lamity equal to the worship of the golden calf (Sopherim, i, 7).

For an extensive discussion on these variations, see Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological,
and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IX, pp. 533-554.

(To be continued in next issue)

The Berean Voice July-August 2002