Greek in the Old Testament and 1 Peter: More Important Than You Think | Ed Glenny

In this episode of Exploring the Language of Scripture, Daniel Mikkelsen sits down with Ed Glenny, Professor of New Testament and Greek at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul, to explore the significance of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) and how Greek grammar in 1 Peter deepens our understanding of Scripture. 

Together, they discuss how the Septuagint shaped the early church, why Greek conditional clauses in 1 Peter reveal more than translations suggest, and what we can learn about biblical theology from the Greek Old Testament. From textual criticism to practical application, this episode highlights how knowledge of Greek enriches biblical interpretation. 

Whether you’re a student of the biblical languages, interested in the Greek Old Testament, or curious about how grammar affects exegesis, this conversation will provide deep insights into the text of Scripture. 

Don’t Miss the Next Episode:
Our next episode features a conversation with Daniel K. Eng, exploring eschatological approval in James and how it relates to our walk with Christ. 

Chapters: 
00:00 - Introduction
01:35 - Meet Ed Glenny: Scholar of the Greek Old Testament 
03:45 - A Personal Story: The Life-Changing Value of Biblical Languages 
09:17 - Memorising Greek: A Key to Deeper Scriptural Understanding 
10:59 - Seeing Scripture in Colour: A Greek Insight from 1 Peter 
16:37 - Understanding True Humility Through Greek Grammar 
20:15 - Greek Conditional Clauses and Their Theological Significance 
30:21 - Why the Septuagint Matters 
33:01 - How the Early Church Used the Septuagint 
35:18 - The Origin of the Name ‘Septuagint’ 
39:20 - What the Septuagint Teaches Us About Scripture 
42:33 - Septuagint Quotations in the New Testament 
51:20 - Theological Implications of the Septuagint for Christian Faith 
53:39 - Did Early Christians See the Septuagint as Their Bible? 
57:54 - How the Septuagint Can Enrich Our Bible Reading Today

Music Credits:
Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/aspire

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Podcast Keywords:
biblical languages, New Testament, Old Testament, Christ, bible study,  Relationship with God, learn biblical languages, Biblical Theology, Christianity, Covenants, New covenant, old covenant, language acquisition, Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew.

Transcript

0:01

Readers of the Septuagint always understood, at least Christian leaders in the apostolic era, let's at least say it that way, would have understood that the Septuagint is a translation of the heat. And we are using it because... no translation is an exact replica of what it translates... But more than that for us as Christians is that when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, Probably as many as 70 or 80 % of the quotations would be consistent with the Septuagint text. Now, let me go back and explain that... All conditional sentences are not the same in Greek. And sometimes if we understand what kind of a condition it is, it helps us think more correctly about the passage perhaps. And I like that in 1 Peter chapter 3... This is one thing that the Septuagint can do. What can we learn from the Septuagint that we don't know from the Hebrew Bible? Well, we learn about... Welcome back to another episode of Exploring the Language of Scripture, brought to you by NT Greek Tutoring, the place for personalised Greek learning in your spare time. I'm your host, Daniel Mikkelsen the founder of NT Greek Tutoring and a PhD candidate in the New Testament at the University of Edinburgh. And this podcast exists to make gems for biblical studies accessible to everyday Christians and show you how the biblical languages opens up Scripture. Our aim is to increase your love for God and His Word so that you become more joyful witness for Him and His mission. And today I'm joined by Edward Glenny or simply just Ed Glenny, who will share some of the insight from his studies of the Greek Old Testament. Ed is a professor of New Testament and Greek at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul in Minnesota. He has written many articles and several books on topics like canon formation, the Greek Old Testament, textual criticism, translation techniques, hermeneutics, and much more. And also, has written a commentary on 1 Peter, which is forthcoming with like with Lexham Press And I had the pleasure of meeting him while I was at Tyndale House doing my masters, my MPhil in Cambridge. And he was on research leave at Tyndale House in the spring of 2020. Unfortunately, it was caught a bit short for because of some lockdowns and stuff. But I do remember that we had some great moments together. And it is a great pressure to have you on the podcast and a great honor to have you here today. So welcome here Ed. Thank you, Daniel. It's my pleasure and privilege to be with you. look forward to just catching up a little bit here and being able to share kind of what's going on in our lives. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And yeah, it's great on anything else you want to add about yourself before we dive into the first question. No, I have when I enter into this, I have a couple of feelings. One is I'm very grateful for your topic and for what you are doing, the the emphasis of your podcast. But I also feel humbled and not as if I certainly you will find out as we talk, don't have all the answers to all the issues in the Bible, which will all spend our lives in eternity. being able to study and learn more about, but I'm thankful for this opportunity to discuss these issues. And I'm praying and hoping it might be an encouragement to some others as we talk. Yes, that's what we hope and pray for. Yes. So the first question, as always, we want to ask how you got into the biblical languages. OK, I've thought about this some thinking about our conversation today and I admit when I started studying languages, was a pastoral minor, I think, in my undergrad studies at a Bible college. And I didn't do well in Greek. I can remember studying with my teacher before the final exam and trying to prepare. And I think I made it through with a C minus or something like that. And then I went to seminary and a totally different attitude. mean, in college I was interested in sports and I was very busy working in a church on weekends and doing things. And when I got to seminary, really, I think realized the importance of the biblical languages. And I did well in Greek and Hebrew and took some Aramaic on my master's degree and really loved Hebrew. probably even more than Greek, but when I finished seminary, my wife and I were invited to teach at the same Bible college we had attended and they needed someone to teach Greek. And I jumped at the opportunity. thought, wow, that's a, that's a great opportunity for me. And I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning the language. If you can find someone to study with you or find someone that you can, even if you just for a few months, can teach what you are learning to them and learn with them. It's really a great way to learn. So that helped me a lot teaching for a few years at the college. And having done that, then I applied for a New Testament doctor's degree at a place called Dallas Theological Seminary and went there and really had some good teachers there who are who were very, very good at their Greek. I think of people like Buist Fanning, who has done a lot of work on aspect of the Greek, of the verb in the Greek language and so on. But all the professors were very good. And then when I finished there, I was teaching at a seminary here where I live now in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota is here. And I was just intrigued because I knew they had a classics program. My wife was not at all interested in me doing any more language studies or anything, but I, well, I went over and I, I audited a course after I'd finished my. ThD at Dallas seminary in New Testament. And it was on Homeric Greek. And the professor said, why don't you just audit it and take the tests. And if it goes well. then we can go back and give you credit for it if you feel you want to do that. And I did fine and enjoyed it and I ended up applying. so that was about 1987, I think in the fall. And finally, about 20 years later, to make a long story short, I finished my MA after about eight or 10 years. And then I finished a PhD in Greek there with a second language They allowed me to do Hebrew in the classics department. And that's what got me interested in the Septuagint because I had done my dissertation at Dallas on 1 Peter and I was interested in that. And then at the University of Minnesota, my advisor was really good in, is really good in Greek. Professor Dr. Selleu and with help from my advisor, you know, really a lot of help. Not, although they were not an expert in Septuagint, they really knew Greek well and helped me to anyhow finish my PhD there in Septuagint. And then that was eventually published by Brill in their Vedus Testamentum series on Amos. So yeah, I'm sorry, that's maybe a long story, but anyhow, language has been a long time thing for me and I really realized the value of it. I wanted to learn as much of the languages as I could. And so I even went the classics route with it after I finished my New Testament work to try and learn them languages as well as I could. Yeah, it's a great encouragement, I think, for for listeners as well that that is doesn't have to necessarily go well in the beginning. Yeah, it didn't. And it took me a long time. Like I say, I was teaching all the time. I was working on the PhD at Minnesota in Classics. And, you know, it just worked that I was able to take the classes, fit them into my class schedule and so on. And of course, there are all kinds of comprehensive exams, as you know, and Greek and Hebrew and other exams and so on involved also and then a dissertation but by the grace of God I'm so thankful I was able to finish it anyhow and and finish that degree yeah yeah and now teaching Greek and Hebrew as well yeah mostly Greek I teach I have taught some Hebrew but most of my most of my, we have some others who are much more proficient at Hebrew at our school than I am. And so they they take care of the Hebrew at our at our university. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. And and how have you experienced experienced experienced if I could pronounce it correctly. But how have you experienced knowing the biblical languages have opened up scripture for you? Yeah, I You know, I don't even anymore. mean, I think in English, but I, I, course, you know, have my devotions in you try to use Greek, especially for my devotions. Lately, my devotions have been trying to memorize books of the Bible in Greek, and I have been working on. First of all, 1 Peter, which I was doing the commentary on, and then Philippians, and now I'm starting and trying to work on James and trying to keep reviewing and memorizing in the Greek language in the biblical languages. I find it very helpful to try to think in Greek and to and to try to understand it better to do that. Some people have likened the knowing the biblical language as to the difference between watching television in black and white and color, you know, how it brings things to life. And it really does that. For me, it helps with the flow of the text to understand the flow of the text, because the connectors and so on are so colorful and helpful in connecting. was thinking also of word connections, you know, that you find in the text that you don't pick up. as often as you do in, in the English language. one that, one that I was thinking of, and maybe I can just take a moment and, and talk about it is, for example, in, in first Peter one, the introduction to the book, Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect. Sojourners. And it's interesting there. How do we understand the word elect and sojourners? They are in apposition to each other. They are both in the dative case in Greek, but elect is an adjective. you know, you could want, should that just be modifying sojourners? And should sojourners be the main idea of the recipients or should elect sojourners be the, should elect be the main recipient being addressed to the elect who are also sojourners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And I think even knowing the Greek helps a little bit. In my commentary, I have argued that the main description of the recipients is that they are elect, even though it's an adjective. It is the main way they are being described. then sojourners is describing the elect further. And a couple, a couple of reasons for that. One is because, well, first of all, the adjective elect is often used as a noun in the New Testament and I think even in First Peter at times. But it seems to form an inclusio around the whole book. It's a major idea because at the end of the book, he greets the fellow elect in Babylon. And it's not the same word. It's not the word elect, but it's συνεκλεκτός (suneklektos) elect along with. But the idea of election then forms an inclusio around the whole book describing the recipients, which I think in Peter's mind in 1 Peter is especially emphasizing their covenant status, that they are the elect people of God, because he seems, I think, to develop the book a lot depending upon their covenant relationship to God, which is the basis of a lot of his instruction, I believe. But it's also helpful because if you look at verse two, there are three prepositional phrases that modify the description of the recipients according to the foreknowledge of God by the sanctification of the spirit and for the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. And I think those modifiers go much better with elect also. than they do with sojourners. And so there are several reasons, but I mean, things like that to try and think through those kinds of issues and try to understand them to me would be very hard to do without a knowledge of the grammar of the Greek and what's going on with the Greek words and what words are used elsewhere in the book. And so it just seems to me, from my experience that the biblical language is just open up those passages and help you to be able to put them together and try to think through them. Yeah, it also connects very well with verse 3 when it talks about him, that the rebirth that they have been born again, they've now been joined into this salvation that they will receive. some point in the future when Jesus' returns. So they are heirs to the treasure, so to speak. They are elect for that. Yeah, for that. Yeah. Good. Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah. So I think that that makes very good sense in the context as well of the introduction to 1 Peter as well. The introduction again at the last description of them for obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. I think is a... I think it's meant to take us back to the sprinkling of the blood of the covenant in the Old Testament, that when the blood is sprinkled, for example, in Exodus, when Moses inaugurates the covenant there at Mount Sinai, and he sprinkles the people and so on, that again, I think that those, the language helps to, when you look at the words that are used and so on, and you can look at them in the original. to help to make those kind of connections also, it seems to me. So again, this covenant status of being the elect people of God seems to me to be one of his focuses. That as new covenant people of God opens up then what we get into in verse 3 and verse 4 and so on. That as a new covenant people of God, we have this spiritual rebirth. that is part of the new covenant experience now. Not covenant people of God as Israel was under the old covenant, but covenant of God using Israelite language to describe their new experience under the new covenant as I understand it. Yeah, that makes very good sense to me as well. Yeah, good. Do you have another example where you have seen that the original language have, in some ways, showed you something that you did not see in the translation. I have a couple that maybe we could look at. One is in 1 Peter chapter 5. As long as we're in 1 Peter, maybe we'll just use that. But 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 and 7. where Peter says, exhorting the congregation, kind of as he summarizes their relationship with each other, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. So the main command is humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. And then he says, verse 7, casting all your anxieties on him. It's no big insight, but that's a participle then. And that's not parallel with humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. But the participle there is circumstantial and it gives, I think, the means by which you humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, which to me really makes sense of this passage and makes it practical. In other words, humble yourselves. How do you do it? By casting your cares on him. That's what it means to be humble. So it's not just a command, but it actually gives the means by which you humble yourselves by casting all your anxieties on him. And then the motivation for it, of course, the cause because he cares for you. So for me, Understanding the main verb and the participle modifying it here, which has some sort of an adverbial relationship with the main verb, helps me to understand much better how I should... What's it mean to be humble? Does it mean that I walk around all the time, you know, with my head down and, you know, asking for, you know, forgiveness every time I say something or whatever? But... No, to be humble is to cast your anxieties on Him. And I love that passage because it helps us to understand that and helps me to understand better. Keep my perspective correctly on what it means to be humble. So to be humble is actually to depend upon God. That's what it means to be humble. realizing that we cannot save ourselves, that we need his help in everything we do in our lives, depends on his grace. Right. Moment by moment, just trusting in him. think that seems to be the point of what Peter has and the encouragement because he cares for you. He's not going to let you down. He's going to be there for you. And he's shown us that by giving us his son, sending his son to die for our sins, which isn't in this passage, but that's how Paul says it anyhow. Yeah. But that's also how the letter starts. Yeah. So he's summing up on his his connection that is. So it's connecting things back to where he started. Right. I mean, another one that I. we might just mention is in chapter three and just the conditional sentences in chapter three. You know, as you know, all conditional sentences are not the same in Greek. Sorry to interrupt the episode, but if you're enjoying the content, please consider subscribing and leaving a like. It really helps the algorithm and helps the podcast grow. Thank you for your support and now back to the episode. I mean, another one that I. we might just mention is in chapter three and just the conditional sentences in chapter three. You know, as you know, all conditional sentences are not the same in Greek. And sometimes if we we understand what kind of a condition it is, it helps us think more correctly about the passage, perhaps. And I like that in First Peter, chapter three... Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? And there's a condition there, who will do you harm if you are zealous for what is good? And the condition that's used there, I should just, I think I have the right one, is, you know, it's, well, we, I would call a third class conditional sentence. It means an open possibility. In other words, who will harm you if you would be zealous for good? that's, you know, something that very likely the recipients will do, hopefully. Peter is hoping that they will be zealous for good. And then he goes in verse 14 and he says, and here's another condition. chapter three, verse 14, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. But he uses a different conditional construction there with the optative verb that even if you if you should suffer for righteousness sake. And so this is this is possible. But it's not an open possibility like the previous one. It's it's a more of a remote possibility. If you would suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. Bless it. So Peter is not saying here, not teaching that all believers are going to suffer, not in not with that construction anyhow. But what he's saying is that, you know, Who's going to harm you if you do good? Generally speaking, if you do good, you will be blessed. But even if you would suffer, and it is possible, it is possible, it's maybe it's the way he writes it, I would say we would understand that that's probably not going to happen to everyone. But if you would suffer for righteousness sake and it makes it even more emphatic, you are still blessed. even if that happens to you, because you are, then he will of course explain that in the rest of the epistle. So, I mean, to me, a little bit of understanding of the conditional sentences, which we don't get in English at all, helps us understand a little bit more precisely, maybe what he is saying. I hope I've made that clear. Yeah. And it makes clear and, and it's contrast to the one in 1.6 which is a first class so that's and that is then affirmed so what happens with like first class which is also what we call a realis in another language which just means that this is true for the sake of the argument and Then the context will discern whether it is true and in this case that great it says that you are going to suffer... or you're going to if so the most translation will be say that you rejoice in, let me see if I can recall it from memory, is that if in this you rejoice, if you, if it may be, that's how it usually translated in many translations, may be, be, maybe be grieved by many trials, but the Greek is actually saying that that this is the case and then the ἵνα (hina) clause afterwards. in order that your true faith may be worth more than gold, may be proven, may be found, says, to praise, and honor when Jesus is revealed. So in that case, it's saying that these sufferings are there for purpose to basically make your faith even stronger in many ways. Yes. And that doesn't come across in translation. Yeah, he's assuming it to be true for the sake of his argument. In this one, it seems like if it is necessary and like you say, I think that's a really good point that we need to understand with Greek conditionals that when the If the if clause is fulfilled, then the the prothasis, the then clause will follow. That's if it does happen. But the certainty of the if clause is not always at the same level. How likely that would happen. Yeah, exactly. Because I think that many people misunderstand when Jesus is talking about his prayer, if it is your will. in the garden, he is saying that. That is also a first-class conditional clause. So it's also true for the sake of argument, but that in the context there it's disproved. It is not, he's not going to not go to the cross. Yes. So he will go to the cross. Yes. Because it is God's will that he's going to the cross. Yes. If it is, that's right. Good. It's a good explanation. I mean, those to me conditional sentences are a major way that the Greek opens up the New Testament to us, giving us a little more insight that we don't, you know, it doesn't always explain, it doesn't explain everything, but at least it helps us to understand the way that the author is looking at the condition as far as how certain he is presenting it to the recipients anyhow. So that's helpful. Yeah. And in Greek, it's very important to context to these sentences. Yes. And the verb determines which type of conditional sentence it is. Correct. Yeah. And we just can't convey that in English. It just doesn't happen. No, it's... So again, that would be, I mean, for a person to even be able to trying to learn to understand the New Testament. If they knew enough Greek, to start by learning your alphabet and learning vocabulary and learning nouns and then verbs. And once you start to learn the verbs, it would be not too much of a step to put that together and be able to discern those kinds of things. Yeah. It'd be very helpful. Exactly. So, yeah, and it is something that is exegetically meaningful as well. It really is. It's very, it's like, go ahead. Yeah. I remember that when I was, I've also done some research on the 1 Peter 1 and I think it's Elliot, Elliot, big, big commentary on it actually makes an exegetical mistake and a grammatical mistake is taking the example that you showed from chapter three and saying that is the same in the verse in chapter one. Okay. So, yeah. So it And that is where he, so he, because he doesn't like the theology of one chapter one, verse six and seven, he assumes the wrong grammar. Yes, and that's easy to do if you don't take the difference into consideration. Yeah. Good. so I think it's very important in both of those places, but, know, going back to chapter three, where if even, in fact, there's a kai there too, a la a chi, But if even you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, if it happens that it does, you know, and he's presenting as not a likely thing, but it's possible here for the sake of argument, you are blessed, even if so. And it gives me the impression that Peter is saying here, I'm not saying that you're all should walk out, you know, from church this morning and think you're going to suffer, but even if that would happen. If you're zealous for righteousness, that's the key thing. You're going to be blessed if it would. Yeah. Yeah. And if you suffer as Christians, as he continues. Yes. Yes. So then you are μακάριοι (makarioi) Then you are blessed. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think, I think that's kind of the perspective we should probably have. I mean, we're supposed to follow in Jesus steps, we're supposed to expect that we may suffer. And it's very likely we will through, you know, different times in our lives, but it's not the every day, every moment experience of believers. And we, you know, we probably shouldn't live as if we're always expecting to suffer everything that happens to us in the world. seems like he's saying. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But then he talks a lot about suffering, which We unfortunately won't have time to go into it. We also need to talk a little bit about the Septuagint. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. So because as you already mentioned, and as I mentioned in the introduction, you spent lots of time researching the Septuagint or the Old Greek Old Testament. Why is that also considering that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and not Greek? Well, I guess the main reason for us as believers is the fact that, I better back up just a little. There are several reasons why I think it is important to study the Septuagint. One is just for background on the Old Testament. It is the first complete translation of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, into another language. Targums had not yet been written down when the Septuagint was translated in the third century BC. And so it would be the first written translation of the Hebrew Bible. So it's very important. It's almost like a commentary on the Hebrew Bible that goes way back. if you are doing textual issues, studying textual criticism on the Hebrew Bible or what is the correct reading of the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint is a major source and a major part of that. In fact, most of our variants in the Hebrew Bible history and tradition come from differences with the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible. But more than that for us as Christians is that when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, probably as many as 70 or 80 % of the quotations would be consistent with the Septuagint text. Now, let me go back and explain that... because sometimes the Septuagint text is the same, would agree basically with the Hebrew. as far as the meaning. And so when I say 70 or 80 percent would agree with the Septuagint, probably 30 percent of those or so would also agree with the Hebrew. But there are there are perhaps as many as half of the quotations in the New Testament that would be uniquely agreeing with the Septuagint, suggesting to us that the Septuagint was the Bible of the early church and that Christians were reading it and the apostles were quoting it and were using it as they wrote their books. Why? Well, first of all, they're writing in Greek and it's in Greek. So, but secondly, it became as the gospel goes out to Gentiles and as Jews were dispersed living in other places where they learned the Greek language, which was the language of business and commerce and became the language of the after Alexander the Great of, you know, much of the Eastern world, especially. So for the church to spread the gospel, they would they would naturally find it useful to use the Greek translation. And so it was very important. not just in the history of the Hebrew Bible, but also in the early work of the church and the writing of our New Testament. So for those reasons, it's very important for Christians to, at least let me put it this way for scholars, who are, if you're going to study probably either Testament, It has a very important part in understanding the New Testament with all the Old Testament quotations from it. And there are other influences it has also. For example, much of our language of the New Testament comes from the Greek language of the Septuagint, the language of sacrifice. Our word for covenant is the word that is used in the Septuagint, the Greek word διαθήκη(diathake). And so there's a lot of our language in the New Testament that may not be quoting the Septuagint, but the expressions and descriptions of especially sacrificial things and things having to do with Israel and the Old Testament come from the Old Testament itself. Yeah, that makes sense. We will dive into some of these things. first I wanted to ask, why is the Greek Old Testament even called the Septuagint? It's quite a strange word. Yeah, you know, if someone wants to just really have some fun, just studying something related to the Bible, I would encourage them to just do some, you can even just Google, know, or search online, but our get some books to learn about it, but the Septuagint is really, its history is amazing. of course, I'm getting off a little bit here. I'll come back to your question about the Septuagint name, but when you get to the church fathers, they were using the Septuagint almost completely. Very few of them knew Hebrew. And so again... it's just had a huge impact on the church. But the name, yes, as tradition has it that the Septuagint was translated, well, I need to back up here now. I'm already getting ahead of myself that the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, were translated in Egypt, perhaps around 285 BC. So we're over 300 years before. Christ that would be. And that was called the Septuagint, the 70, because the tradition is, as recorded in the letter of Aristeas, which is another fun thing people might want to look at and read, which purportedly gives the history of the translation of the Septuagint, how it came. I'm sorry, of the translation of the Torah, the first five books of our Old Testament, the books of Moses into Greek. Now that translation of those five books, which took place in about 285 BC, according to tradition, somewhere in that area, was called the Septuagint or the 70. Because according to Aristeas, There were 72 translators who translated it and that was rounded off to 70. so actually Septuagint originally referred to the translation of the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah into Greek about 285 BC. But as you can imagine, shortly thereafter, many other books of the Septuagint to agent were else of the Hebrew Bible were also translated into Greek. so as time passed on. All these books that came to be, of course, at least by the first century of this era, all the books that are in our Old Testament were translated into Greek. And that whole collection came to be called the Septuagint or the 70. But actually, originally, the name comes from the translation of the five books of Moses by 72 translators in apparently as far as we know Alexandria Egypt about 285 BC so that's where the name comes from. Yeah fascinating so now we also know why they use this strange name about the Old Testament in Greek. yeah it was 70 translators who were sent from Jerusalem by the high priest Six translators from each of the 12 tribes, as the tradition has it, who translated the books of Moses and supposedly translated the Hebrew very correctly, very rightly, according to the story of in Aristeas. Yeah. Yeah. So, and what can we learn from the Septuagint that we cannot learn from the Hebrew Old Testament? I know it's a little bit, so might push back on this one. Yeah, no, that's a good question. Well, I can go back a few of the things we've already talked about. Let me just take a sip of my coffee here and. clear my throat out yeah well For one thing, maybe I should just, this might be helpful for our listeners. I have an English standard ESV Bible here and that I use on my desk. my ESV Bible has notes on the text at the bottom of the pages. And for example, on Genesis chapter four, verse eight. It says, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Now that's a little bit awkward because he spoke to Abel, his brother, and then it says, when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and killed him. in the the ESV, there's a note at the bottom of the page. And this is just one example of many, if you have this version of the Bible or one that has notes at the bottom of the page. Instead of the... Hebrew, which is what I read, Cain spoke to Abel and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and killed him. The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, the Syriac version and the Vulgate also add some words here that make sense of the verse saying, let us go out to the field. Because in the Hebrew version, he spoke to his brother and the next thing you know, they're in the field. So those versions add, Cain spoke to Abel, his brother, and he said, let us go out to the field. Those are added. And so the Septuagint, many times has slightly different texts than the Hebrew Bible. And you don't need to know Hebrew or Greek to understand some of those. Many of them are marked in our English Bibles. So there is one there in chapter four, verse eight. There's another one also that is in. later in the chapter, I think it's verse 15, yes, verse 15. And so, you know, this is one thing that the Septuagint can do. What can we learn from the Septuagint that we don't know from the Hebrew Bible? Well, we learn about... different possible readings in the text that some of them actually the text adopts. and feels that they are better readings occasionally even than the Hebrew. But we can also learn maybe another area that we should talk about a little bit is the quotations in the New Testament of different passages from the Old Testament. And here I there are many because well, I feel like I'm going on and on talking here, but let me just say this, no translation is an exact replica of what it translates. The Spanish have a saying, all translators are traitors, because it is impossible with the language and with the grammar. and with the vocabulary to ever translate something that has exactly the same nuance in the translated language that it had in the original. So there are differences definitely between the Septuagint and between the Hebrew. Now, can I take five minutes and maybe just give one example of one that's very important for us? And that is in Acts chapter 15 at the Jerusalem Council... And this is one that I think probably all of our readers should be aware of and maybe try to understand what's going on here. There's a quotation that James makes at the Jerusalem Council that settles the issue. The issue at the Jerusalem Council was whether Gentiles needed to become Jews to become Christians. In other words, do you have to become a Jew to you have to keep the law and you have to be therefore circumcised to be a follower of the Jewish Messiah. Let me read a few verses here. It says. The assembly listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, now James is going to speak, who is leading the council, and he's going to really settle the issue here. Brothers, listen to me. Simeon, that is Peter, has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name. So if God gave the spirit to Gentiles, do they need to be circumcised and become Jews? And with this, the words of the prophets agree, he says. So now he's going to quote James saying that James supports Peter's experience so that Gentiles can come directly to Christ without becoming Jews first. After this, and he quotes, says, James says, the words of the prophets, and I emphasize to you, it says the prophets here agree. Just as it is written, after this, I will return, I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen, which I think refers to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Christ is the Davidite. God's going to rebuild that tent, the house of David. I will rebuild its ruins. I will restore it. And then in verse 17, he's quoting here from Amos nine and the remnant of mankind will seek the Lord and the remnant of mankind will seek the Lord. In other words, people from all different nations, not just Jews, can come to the Lord when I rebuild the tent of David. And it goes on to say, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord. So that's the argument that Gentiles may come into the church. The issue is that this is a quotation from the Septuagint. It is not exactly what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says instead of that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, it says that they, that is Israel, people of David may possess the remnant of Edom. And the Septuagint made a couple changes in the Hebrew there. They translated Edom as mankind or man. They're very similar words in Hebrew. And they translated that that Israel may possess the remnant of Edom. The verb possess Yerosh was translated as Darash to seek that mankind might seek the Lord. Now, it's it's a very similar translation. I mean, it's very similar to the words that are in the Hebrew, but it's a slight change of a couple words to get a different meaning. If you don't understand that that is coming from the Septuagint, you're going to wonder if you look at it closely and go back to Amos 9, where did this come from? Well, it came from the Septuagint. Why? How? Well, I believe my understanding of this and it's very complicated. It's I guess we could say people might disagree on it. But I think what Peter is what James is giving us here is a theological understanding of what the prophets say. Remember when James got up to speak, he said this with this what happened with Peter at Cornelius's house with this the words of the prophets agree. And I think when James is using this Old Testament passage, he is realizing that the summary of the message of the prophets concerning Gentiles has been put together in this passage in Amos chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. And there are also the end of the passage that all the nations who are called by my name declares the Lord who does this is a quotation from Isaiah, I believe also. So he is putting together, did the Septuagint translator do violence to the text? No, I don't think so, if we understand it as a theological translation. He translated in the Septuagint what seems to be the message of the prophets of the Old Testament. And James at the Jerusalem council, even in Jerusalem, quotes this and it is found to be authoritative and convincing in Jerusalem at this council, which involves people from Antioch and other places also who would have used the Septuagint. But it is convincing because the Septuagint translation, which is slightly different. changing a couple consonants to get this translation is actually the message of the Old Testament prophets. And I try to defend this in some of the things that I've written on this passage and on the Book of Amos that I think it is consistent with exactly what James says. It's what the words of the prophets say, but they're summarized in the Septuagint rendering of Amos 9, 11, and 12. So, yeah, the Septuagint is quite different here. And it's a theological rendering of, as I understand it, of the words that are in the Hebrew, not communicating exactly the same essence and meaning of what is found in the Hebrew. But at the same time, in light of the whole Hebrew scriptures communicating something that is true. It is right. It is what will happen when God raises up the 10 of David in the future in Christ. I hope that makes sense. don't know. But it's one of these problem passages where the Septuagint really comes in and plays the key role at the Jerusalem Council in the settling of that council. And it is consistent with the scriptures, but the Septuagint rendering is more of a summary of what the Hebrew scriptures say about this, than it is an exact representation of what is in the Hebrew of this verse. Yeah, and that may lead to questions about how... So you're trying to reconcile the differences here between the Hebrew and the... the Septuagint. So is always a theological reading or how do we reconcile these differences that do occur? Not always, I don't think. There are different views about how this reading got here in the Septuagint. Some people think the Septuagint translator had a different Hebrew he was translating. That's possible. To me, the changes are so obvious when we look at the Hebrew text, changing a couple of consonants to get this, that it seems more likely that it happened when he made the translation. But it could have happened with a scribe copying the Hebrew earlier. Now, sometimes we have minor changes like that, and none of them, I don't think, affect the meaning of the theology of the New Testament. But they do bring out different emphases at different places and different times that we wouldn't have, you know, that many times the New Testament writers use to their advantage to support their argument. mean, a well-known one is Isaiah 7.14, which in the Hebrew is a young woman, And in the Septuagint, remember it is a virgin will conceive, a Parthenas, which fits the theological context of the New Testament much better and is apparently the when, you know, when that's quoted in Matthew chapter one, for example, he's using the Septuagint there, but it It has to be a virgin in the context from what we know of the narrative concerning Jesus birth. the Septuagint fits very nicely there. The Hebrew could, as I understand it, it could be a virgin, but it's not as clear that it is. Young woman. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we have time for two more questions. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on... We already touched upon it already, so that's why I wanted to... So the Septuagint in many ways was the Bible of the early Christians. What does that mean for the way we read scripture? Well, I think that... I mean, I think our Old Testament as Christians is the Hebrew Bible, okay? Can I say that? mean, this is a difficult issue. I mentioned to you earlier that I'm involved in a book right now on the authority of the Septuagint. How do we think about that? Well, I'm not sure exactly how to say it, but I think we need to understand the Septuagint as having a derivative authority. In other words, its authority comes from... The fact that it is a translation of the inspired words of God, which go back to the Hebrew Old Testament. Now, it's like it's in some ways like different versions in our churches today. For some churches, one Bible version, for example, maybe the in America, there many, maybe in other countries where the King James version is the authority of authoritative Bible for them. And it is. It is their authority. They have chosen that. Others would say it's the NIV or the ESV or whatever. And there is a sense in which that is the authority when they meet and they have their worship service and study it. And I think that's the way it was with the Septuagint in the early church. became the Bible. It was all that any of many of them had that they could read and understand. But You know, we just like I would say that my ESV, ultimately, it's based on the authority of the Hebrew scriptures and they are the authoritative, ultimately the the word of God that we go back to. And I think. I think. Readers of the Septuagint always understood, at least Christian leaders. in the apostolic era, let's at least say it that way, would have understood that the Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew and we are using it and because... it's the best thing we have to communicate the gospel to other people. And I think many times where it differs, it is theologically correct and it is used for that reason, but every variant I wouldn't say that every variant in the Septuagint from the Hebrew is necessarily theologically correct. You know, it's translation. And so we can have confidence that the New Testament writers knew what they were doing. When it is quoted in the New Testament, it becomes authoritative and it becomes scripture as part of the New Testament. when it's quoted there. What does that mean for how we read scripture? I think we should always keep in the back of our minds if we are studying the Septuagint. Ultimately, as Christians, its authority is based on the inspired word of God, which goes back to the Hebrew originals. Yeah, thank you for that. I think it's important to make these like considerations. What do we do when we have an early translation that was used in the early church? And how do we think that in relation to the original Hebrew? And I think that's helpful, some of your thoughts on that. I might add that if anybody's interested, the new English translation of the Septuagint, NETS, is a very helpful English translation if anyone's interested in studying the Septuagint. And it would be a way you could compare the Septuagint with our Bibles. think all English Bibles are translations otherwise from the Hebrew. And so you are getting the Hebrew Bible in your English translations that you read. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you for that. That may be a helpful tool for some other listeners. So, but on the backdrop of this, tradition on this podcast is to ask how can this talk about the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible and all this, how can that be applicable to everyday life and walk with Christ for the viewers or listeners of this podcast? Well, at least let me say one thing and that is, I mean, we've talked about some technical issues today and so on. But I sincerely believe the translations we have in English and in other languages today are more than adequate. And we can have confidence that we are understanding and getting the message of God's Word when we use the good translations that we have today. Now, some are better than others, but we have many very good translations. And I think we can have confidence in them. Can we know sometimes a little bit more by knowing the original languages? Yes, but we can know God and know how to be right with God through the translations that we have, I think. that is such a blessing. And also I would encourage people that if they're interested in these kind of things to get some good tools. Like I mentioned, the translation of the Septuagint, good English Bibles. good concordances, good commentaries and other things to help them to study the Bible and maybe stand on the shoulders of those who have studied the original languages perhaps more than they have been able to. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And yeah. Then also if people are interested in learning the languages, then pursue that. Yes. That would be great. Because I firmly believe, that's why I started NT Greek Tutoring, that we should have more people who are not like educated theologians or pastors who actually can read these original languages. And to answer and deal with some of the questions and issues we talked about today, you actually need some knowledge of the original languages. You can't really do that just from an English Bible very well. And so I find, I mean, that's another great advantage of knowing the biblical languages. When I read a commentary, when you read a commentary, if when our listeners read a commentary, if they, is hard to follow the argument and really refute or accept an argument. If you do not know the original languages enough to enter, to follow along and interact with what the commentator is saying or doing. so it really gives you insight and a perspective. to help you make decisions that will be correct and according to Scripture, what the Scripture means if you are able to work with the original languages. Yeah. But be assured that the translations are good. Yes. Yes. What a great heritage we have in our translations of the Bible in our languages. It's amazing the wealth we have. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, being native danishes know that we might not have as many translations, but we do have good ones too. Yes. Good. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for joining me Ed. Daniel, thank you. It's been great. I've really enjoyed it and it's just fun to talk about the Bible and the great heritage we have in translations and the way the Bible has been kept by God. that we might have these copies of it today. I'm so thankful. So thankful for the work you're doing. God bless you in it. Thank you. And you too. Thank you. Yeah. And to you guys out there, see you in the next one. But before you go, if you enjoyed this podcast and you want more people to see it, please subscribe and leave a like. It really helps us create more episodes like this one. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great day and I'll see you in the next one