In | The Septuagint and the Masoretic Text

Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Old Testament manuscripts in Hebrew language came from around ad 1000. The most common Old Testament text from the period leading up to the 10^th century is called the Masoretic Text (or MT), the version considered authoritative for Jews today. Now we have many Bible manuscripts from both Hebrew and Greek sources, demonstrating a long and stable transmission. Most English translations take advantage of all of these various manuscripts to get the most accurate rendering of the ancient texts. 

There are some notable differences between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text. One is the subtle variations that text critics look for to understand unusual words or even missing phrases. With all the available manuscripts, the text critic is looking for an original source underlying and explaining any differences. It may surprise you that of all the quotes and allusions to the Old Testament in the New Testament, at least 50% are closer to the Septuagint (LXX) than the Masoretic Text. The differences are minor, but this data provides an indication of how widespread the LXX was for Jews in the first century and that it was authoritative.

In all of these examples the New Testament authors’ wording parallels that of the Greek Septuagint rather than the Hebrew Masoretic Text. Of course, the vast majority of New Testament quotes show no difference because the LXX and the MT almost always represent the same rendering. Often the Septuagint difference is necessitated by more choices in the Greek language. Like all translations, it has an interpretive element to it. But sometimes it represents the original Hebrew better. We must keep in mind that the differences between the LXX and the MT are differences between copies we have from later periods. What we believe is inspired is the original Hebrew text. 

A second difference between the Septuagint and the TaNaKh is the inclusion in the Septuagint of extra books that were written later, during the Second Temple period. For this subject, we’ll dive Behind the Text.