Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Schmuel wrote:

> > > Conclusion.
> > > An easier general explanation for the verses in question -
> > > The Greek OT was 'smoothed' by low-quality scribes between 100 AD to 500 AD
> > > to be closer to the NT - by scribes who simply could not leave midrash alone 
> > > :-)
>
> > HH: Where did you get this information? 

> Many places.
> One good book is by Floyd Nolen Jones.
> http://www.floydjones.org/LXX.pdf
> The Septuagint: A Critical Analysis

HH: This does not look like a good piece of 
writing, as reviewed here:

http://ecclesia.org/truth/defense.html


> > You don't include other sources of LXX quotations such as Philo and Josephus. 
>
> Schmuel
> You have confused two distinct issues. The
>
> 1) question of a vorlage behind the Greek OT and 
> 2) actual verses that are used for NT/Tanach supposed borrowing.

HH: The Dead Sea Scrolls show that there are 
differences in the LXX that stem from a different 
Hebrew vorlage. This can account for differences 
in the LXX text from the Hebrew such that the NT 
writer quoting the LXX is not necessarily changing 
anything.


> Do Philo or Josephus give any support for those actual verses ?
> I have never seen even one.

HH: Please!
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/gopher/other/journals/kraftpub/Judaism/Septuagint%20(Old%20Greek)


The earliest preserved OG materials: The growing 
body of
relevant materials that antedate the Second Jewish 
Revolt (135
CE) permits a glimpse of early OG textual 
developments. Actual
Greek fragments include:

Approximate
Date           Siglum       Identification
2nd BCE         801     4 QLXX          Lev\a
2nd/1st BCE     957     P.Rylands 458   Deut
                805     7 QLXX          Exod
                804     7 QLXX          Epist.Jer
1st BCE         942     P.Fouad 266     Gen
                848     P.Fouad 266     Deut #1
1st BCE/1st CE  802     4 QLXX          Lev\b
                803     4 QLXX          Num
1st CE          847     P.Fouad 266     Deut #2
1st/2nd CE      814     P.Yale 1        Gen (codex)
Early 2nd CE    963     Chester Beatty  Num-Deut 
(codex)


Extensive quotations and allusions in Greek are 
also preserved in
Philo (ca. 30 CE), Paul (ca. 50), Josephus (ca. 
80), 1 Clement
(ca. 95), and a number of other Christian texts 
from the early
[[813]] period. Determination of the exact wording 
of a
quotation often must remain problematical, 
however, since the
original text of the document in which it occurs 
must itself be
reconstructed by careful textcritical methods. 
Finally, some
later non-Greek versions and quotations 
(especially OL) can also
be used, since they are clearly based upon Greek 
texts of an
early date (see LATIN VERSIONS [SI).


Yours,
Harold Holmyard