A Biblical Examination of the Septuagint (LXX)

Paul identifies a real advantage given to the Jewish people when he says that they were entrusted with God’s oracles. The Old Testament came to Israel through Hebrew prophets. It was guarded within Israel’s worship and through the work of its scribes. The nation also received these writings within a Hebrew canonical structure.

The Masoretes worked many centuries after Christ, but they did not invent the Hebrew consonantal text. They received an older tradition and recorded its vowel points and accents. Their work also included marginal notes and detailed controls for accurate copying. Earlier Hebrew manuscripts show substantial continuity with this tradition even while preserving visible variants.

For Unforsaken, the Masoretic Text controls Old Testament quotation and exposition. It also provides the base for language study and biblical chronology. Greek evidence may clarify an ancient interpretation or alert readers to a genuine textual question. It may not silently replace the controlling Hebrew reading.

Jesus names the Law of Moses before referring to the Prophets and the Psalms. His words fit the received Hebrew divisions of Scripture. They also declare that all these writings point to Him. Jesus does not identify one later Greek codex or certify every translation choice found within it.

The New Testament was written in Greek. Its writers could quote wording already familiar to Greek readers. At other times, they could translate the Hebrew themselves or adapt a citation to fit the surrounding sentence. They might combine passages or give the Holy Spirit’s inspired interpretation. Some citations agree closely with surviving Greek forms, while others follow the Hebrew more closely or differ from both.

The inspired authority belongs to the New Testament sentence as written. If Paul uses Greek phrasing in Hebrews, that phrasing is authoritative in Hebrews because the Holy Spirit inspired Hebrews. The citation does not transfer inspiration to every line in every Greek Old Testament manuscript.

The Hebrew word almah describes a young woman of marriageable age. In its biblical uses and Isaiah’s sign, the word is entirely suited to a virgin. The prophecy promises an extraordinary conception and a Son called Immanuel.

Matthew uses the Greek word parthenos. Under inspiration, he applies Isaiah directly to Mary’s virginal conception. This provides decisive Christian interpretation. The Greek translation of Isaiah uses the same term, showing that Jewish translators before Christ already understood the prophecy in this direction.

That agreement is significant, but the source page overreached when it treated parthenos as incapable of any broader historical use. Word meaning is governed by context. The doctrine rests on inspired Isaiah and inspired Matthew, not on an exaggerated dictionary claim.

The traditional English Christian reading describes pierced hands and feet. The Masoretic consonants and pointing are ordinarily read “like a lion,” producing an abrupt expression before “My hands and My feet.” The ancient Greek uses a verb meaning “they dug,” which came to be rendered “pierced.” A Nahal Hever Hebrew witness appears to end the disputed word with waw rather than the Masoretic yod, yet the spelling and grammar remain debated.

Those facts support serious consideration of a verbal reading. They do not prove that medieval Jewish scribes deliberately erased a prophecy about Jesus. The source page admitted that accusation was unproved and then spoke as though it were established. That is not faithful apologetics.

The crucifixion and bodily resurrection are certain. Jesus showed His disciples the nail marks and His wounded side. Psalm 22 also depicts the Messiah’s suffering and the mockery directed toward Him. It describes His divided garments before moving toward vindication and worldwide worship. This Messianic witness stands securely without a fabricated story of textual sabotage.

The Greek Jeremiah is roughly one-eighth shorter than the Masoretic book, and it places the oracles against the nations in a different location. The source page called the shorter form a distortion and then falsely suggested that Jeremiah 29:10 was missing. The seventy-year promise is present in the Greek tradition, although its wording differs.

Hebrew fragments from Qumran agree in important places with the shorter form behind the Greek. That evidence indicates that the translator did not simply cut thousands of words from the Masoretic book. A shorter Hebrew parent text circulated in antiquity.

Jeremiah 33:14-26 is absent from the shorter Greek form. Unforsaken receives the Masoretic passage as inspired Scripture. Its Davidic promise agrees with many other passages and reaches fulfillment in Jesus. The omission is a genuine textual fact, but it cannot erase a doctrine taught across the canon or justify accusing translators of anti-Messianic intent.

Genesis distinguishes Adam’s age when Seth was born from the years he lived afterward. It then gives his total lifespan. Standard Greek witnesses to Genesis raise the begetting age from 130 to 230. At the same time, they reduce the remaining years from 800 to 700, so the total remains 930.

Calling this an inflated lifespan is false. The Greek number lengthens the chronology before Seth while preserving Adam’s total life. The same adjustment does not occur without exception in every generation or every Greek manuscript. Genesis 5 and 11 contain recognizable patterns, but they also contain exceptions and later textual variation.

The Septuagint chronology is longer than the Masoretic chronology, but both remain within a young-earth scale measured in thousands of years. Unforsaken retains the Masoretic numbers because the Masoretic Text is its settled Hebrew base, not because one added century would create evolutionary deep time.

The Textus Receptus and received Byzantine tradition name Cainan between Shelah and Arphaxad. The NKJV therefore prints him. The source page tried to protect Masoretic Genesis 11 by suggesting that Cainan entered Luke through corruption. That conclusion violates the received New Testament evidence and is unnecessary.

The Masoretic Genesis line moves directly from Arphaxad to Shelah. Many Greek Genesis witnesses include Cainan. A careful reader preserves the wording of Luke and the wording of Genesis rather than deleting one to make a chart easier.

Genealogies can express ancestry with different levels of selectivity. Ancient textual history may also preserve questions that we cannot fully reconstruct. None of this creates confusion about Christ’s identity. Luke traces the virgin-born Son’s true human ancestry through Abraham and Noah. The line continues through Adam and ultimately reaches God.

Stephen says that Joseph called Jacob and all his relatives to Egypt, seventy-five people. The Masoretic enumeration in Genesis 46 uses seventy, while Greek forms of Genesis and Exodus contain a count of seventy-five by including additional descendants in their reckoning.

Acts is inspired, and seventy-five is the received New Testament reading. Genesis is also inspired, and its Hebrew enumeration should be read according to the people included in that list. Family totals can differ when one writer counts people who were already in Egypt. Another total may include later descendants while excluding wives or the named head of a family. Each count must be understood on its own terms.

This passage shows why a Greek witness cannot be dismissed whenever it differs from the MT. It also shows why a New Testament use does not require replacing every related Hebrew number. Each inspired context states its own count and purpose.

Paul writes, “a body You have prepared for Me,” wording close to the Greek Psalter. The Masoretic Psalm 40 speaks of ears God has opened or dug. The expressions are not identical, yet both concern the obedient servant whose embodied submission surpasses ritual offerings.

Hebrews develops the truth openly. The eternal Son took a real human body and came to do God’s will. He then offered that body once for all. Paul’s inspired exposition remains authoritative even when readers cannot trace every step by comparing one modern Hebrew edition with one modern Greek edition.

The passage neither makes every Septuagint rendering inspired nor allows Christians to ignore the Greek. It demonstrates that the apostolic use of Scripture may employ a known translation while giving the Spirit’s own explanation of Christ.

Each shortcut avoids the necessary work at the passage level. The first elevates Greek evidence above the Hebrew base. The second condemns evidence that may still be useful. The third confuses the authority of an inspired citation with the status of the entire translation tradition from which its wording may have come. Christians can hold a clear textual position without caricaturing the evidence.

Jesus is the eternal Son who is fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin and lived completely without sin. The Law anticipated His coming, and the Prophets spoke of His suffering and saving work. The Psalms also looked toward His resurrection and reign. Greek translation helped carry this witness across the ancient world, but the glory belongs to the Christ revealed rather than to a translation label.

Wicked men physically tortured Jesus before punishing and killing Him. He willingly bore that real punishment for our sins in His innocent body. Jesus shed His blood and died before being buried. Then He rose bodily from the grave. The Father did not punish or curse Jesus. He never abandoned His Son. Nor did the Father strike or bruise Him or pour wrath upon Him.

Christ died for the whole world, and people may resist or reject God’s genuine offer. Whoever repents and believes is forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals that believer, who is eternally secure. Textual study reaches its proper end when it leads the reader to trust the Savior whom Scripture proclaims.

Use the Masoretic Text confidently as the Old Testament base. Preserve the received New Testament even when a wording such as Cainan complicates an easy chart. The same principle applies to the number seventy-five in Acts. Consult the Greek to understand ancient translation and apostolic vocabulary. It should also be examined wherever it supplies actual textual evidence.

Refuse allegations that outrun proof. Jewish scribes should not be accused of erasing Jesus from Psalm 22, and Greek translators should not be accused of deleting Jeremiah’s promises when an alternate Hebrew form explains the evidence. Accuracy is part of Christian witness.

Do not let textual questions become an excuse to delay obedience. Read each passage within its context and receive its correction. Proclaim Christ clearly, and submit every translation and textual theory to God’s inspired Word.