Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 02-07-2013, 07:44 AM

When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law

Quote:

After the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Jews found themselves in a world dominated by Greek values, Greek thought, and Greek language; gradual accommodation to the surrounding culture was unavoidable. They adapted to these changing circumstances by rendering God's Hebrew Word into Greek, partly to make it useful for Hellenized Jews, and partly for prestige. At first only the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, was translated but eventually the remaining Jewish Scriptures were also rendered into Greek, giving Greek-speaking Jews an entire body of Scripture that would rival and, as some would claim, replace the Hebrew. As Christianity ushered in a new era, this new faith's followers would commandeer, preserve and transmit the Greek translation of what they now called the "Old" Testament. During the first few centuries after the apostolic age, Christian thinkers and preachers would turn to different versions of the Greek Septuagint to find messages of inspiration and conviction for their readers.

To be published in June - I can't find an Amazon link yet.

Chili · 02-07-2013, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law

Quote:

After the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Jews found themselves in a world dominated by Greek values, Greek thought, and Greek language; gradual accommodation to the surrounding culture was unavoidable. They adapted to these changing circumstances by rendering God's Hebrew Word into Greek, partly to make it useful for Hellenized Jews, and partly for prestige. At first only the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, was translated but eventually the remaining Jewish Scriptures were also rendered into Greek, giving Greek-speaking Jews an entire body of Scripture that would rival and, as some would claim, replace the Hebrew. As Christianity ushered in a new era, this new faith's followers would commandeer, preserve and transmit the Greek translation of what they now called the "Old" Testament. During the first few centuries after the apostolic age, Christian thinkers and preachers would turn to different versions of the Greek Septuagint to find messages of inspiration and conviction for their readers.

To be published in June - I can't find an Amazon link yet.

It sounds very interesting Toto, as Christianity ushered in, this new faith had preachers and thinkers going in all directions looking for the mind of Christ so they would have to look no further and be the Christian they proclaim.

Sheshbazzar · 02-08-2013, 09:33 PM

Hell bent on stuffing pagan Platonism into every possible chink and nook of text they could find.
Easy enough to do when the LXX's religious terms were harvested directly from the Greeks pagan religions and philosophies.

mountainman · 02-09-2013, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law

Quote:

After the conquests of Alexander the Great, the Jews found themselves in a world dominated by Greek values, Greek thought, and Greek language; gradual accommodation to the surrounding culture was unavoidable.

They adapted to these changing circumstances by rendering God's Hebrew Word into Greek, partly to make it useful for Hellenized Jews, and partly for prestige.

Isn't the story that they were ORDERED to perform this translation by the Egyptian King Ptolemy?

Quote:

Originally Posted by WIKI

The traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation for use by the many Alexandrian Jews who were not fluent in Hebrew but fluent in Koine Greek,[3] which was the lingua franca of Alexandria, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean[4] from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE until the development of Byzantine Greek around 600 CE.

King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher." God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.

MrMacSon · 02-09-2013, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mountainman

Isn't the story that they were ORDERED to perform this translation by the Egyptian King Ptolemy?

There were probably many different scenarios in many different places an different times"

'official' and unofficial modifications; 'official' and unofficial new stories, etc, etc.

It was the messianic age - lots of competing messiahs with their own "true" messages.

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02-08-2013, 09:33 PM	#3
Sheshbazzar Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: On the path of knowledge Posts: 8,889	Hell bent on stuffing pagan Platonism into every possible chink and nook of text they could find. Easy enough to do when the LXX's religious terms were harvested directly from the Greeks pagan religions and philosophies.

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