Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com>]

Fred wrote:

 

Hello Paul:

 

Thanks for your simple and direct answer; and your nice explanation.

 

At least one scholar however, opines that septuagint represents a hebrew
text different from and precedent to, the masoretic text.

 

Does that opinion change your answer?

 

 

My response:

 

Not really.  Even if it were true (and the jury definitely remains out on
the question) that there were significant differences between the versions
of the Hebrew and, as your question implies, the version used for the LXX
was closer to the original, the fact remains that the LXX is a translation.
Who will be able to judge which differences are the result of a different
source text, and which ones are the result of the interpretations required
to determine how to express the message in Greek?

 

Perhaps you might want to research the problems inherent in
back-translation, a technique used frequently to attempt to check the
accuracy of a translation.

 

Paul Zellmer