A brief or perhaps medium-size thread in honor of International Septuagint Day.

Our family read this book tonight. Simply told and beautiful illustrated.

Most of my familiarity with the Septuagint comes from studying Genesis 1-11. There are some pretty neat nuggets in studying it.

I was reminded of this one when I looked at part of my pastor's preaching text (James 5:18, with its use of βλαστανω for the earth producing fruit). That verb appears here, but the LXX also categorizes the plant creations of day 3 a bit differently than the accents in the MT.

Are there 3 groups of plants here (grass, herb, tree) or 2? Most Hebrew scholars see 2, both under the umbrella of deshe (often trans. grass; I prefer "fresh growth"). LXX sees 2, but basically sees them as "green plant" and "fruit tree" rather than subsets of a larger group.

If you want to dig deeper on this point, see Bryan Paradise "Food for Thought: The Septuagint Translation of Genesis 1.11-12" in A Word in Season: Essays in Honour of William McKane, ed. Martin & Davies (1986), which happens to be available in @Logos Bible software.

Moving ahead a couple of chapters, I love see the different translation techniques in the LXX. Gen. 3:20 conveys the wordplay. While Adam is transliterated into Greek, Eve is not. Instead, her name is Zoe (Greek for "life") because she is the mother of all living (zonton).

But note that in 4:1, she is "Euan," which, though not as obvious to English readers as Adam and its Greek and Hebrew forms, is a transliteration of Eve's name in Hebrew, Hava. Also note the preposition δια. This take the Hebrew את as a preposition.

The Hebrew form of את is sometimes ambiguous. It can be a definite direct object marker, or a preposition. It's important here for what Eve is saying about her first child: is it a case of apposition-she thinks she has birthed YHWH? Or has YHWH helped her acquire a man?

LXX interprets it as through or by means of. It's also interesting to see the genitive form of θεος rather than the κυριος one expects to translate the divine name.

One of the more famous LXX readings is Genesis 4:8. If you look at a footnote in your English Bible, you may well see this reading. The MT tells us that "Cain said to his brother Abel," using the verb that normally introduces speech, whether direct or indirect.

The LXX (as well as the Samaritan Pentateuch, an ancient Hebrew text) gives a quote: "Let us go into the plain."

Ch. 5 is a fascinating study, esp. the dates, but I'll leave that for others to pursue. Moving to the Flood account, note 6:14. In the MT, Noah is commanded to make the ark of "gopher-wood." Gopher is a transliteration of a word occurring only once in the Hebrew Bible.

Traditional Jewish interpretation sees "gopher wood" as a resinous evergreen, such as a cypress (compare the Targums on this verse). The LXX sees it more as a preparation process than a quality, speaking of "squared wood," perhaps rectangular or planed, ready for construction.

The last portion of the primeval history is quite relevant to a thread on a translation & languages. Genesis 11:9 has a great wordplay between בבל (Babel) and בלל (balal). Fox & Alter are in a minority of those who show it: (Babel-baffled; Babel-babble), but the LXX did it first.

While there is a word for Babylon (which is what the Hebrew Babel equals), the LXX uses a noun and verb from confusion. In the Septuagint, the city is called Confusion because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the earth.

There is much more that can be said, from how LXX varies in portraying various words and verbal constructions, to its apparent interplay between formal and dynamic translation, to the difference in the LXX Pentateuch vs other parts, etc. but I hope I have whetted your appetite.

@BrentNiedergall has some good suggestions: https://niedergall.com/what-should-i-read-on-the-septuagint/

You may also wish to follow @TextandCanon if you're interested in the LXX. Friends, feel free to add other Septuagint social media suggestions.

Happy International Septuagint Day, everyone!