Download or read book Septuagint Paralipomena written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2023 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term Paralipomena, which means 'things left out,' is a general translation of Divrei-hayyamim, which means 'things in the days.' The books are a collection of texts from various eras of Israelite history, spanning the era of the old Israelite Kingdoms, circa 1000 BC, through the Persian conquest, of circa 539 BC. Scholars have debated the origin of the books throughout their history, and there is no consensus within Rabbinical literature, Christian literature, or modern scholarship. The general Rabbinical view is that the two books of Paralipomena were written by one author, as Divrei-hayyamim, and then translated into Greek. The dominant early Christian view was that the books were written by Ezra the Scribe, circa 350 BC, however, this view was generally abandoned in Western Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Modern scholarly analysis has no consensus, however, the books do themselves indicate the eras they were compiled, nevertheless, the authors remain unknown. Based on the references within 2ⁿᵈ Paralipomenon to the Egyptian king Osorkon I as a Kushite, parts of the book must have been compiled sometime between 943 and 716 BC, when Egypt was part of the Kushite Empire, while later sections of 2ⁿᵈ Paralipomenon must have been compiled sometime after 539 BC when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonian Empire. The surviving Hebrew text of Divrei-hayyamim does, however, contain a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem as the 'Temple of the Gods,' which means the original text of the book has to predate King Josiah's reforms of circa 625 BC, and likely predates King Hezekiah's similar reforms decades earlier. Both Hezekiah and Josiah are recorded as removing the idols of the gods from the temple, which had by all accounts been in the temple since it was built by King Solomon.
Download or read book Septuagint 1 Paralipomenon written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. The creation of the Septuagint resulted from this order. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of the Paralipomena were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint around 180 BC after a large number of refugees fled from the war in Judea and settled in Egypt. The two books of the Paralipomena were one book in the Masoretic Texts: the book of Divrei-hayyamim. Subsequent Latin translations were renamed 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Chronikon by Jerome in the 5ᵗʰ century AD. Subsequent English translations of the Old Testament labeled these books as 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Chronicles. The term Paralipomena, which means ‘things left out,’ is similar to the Hebrew name Divrei-hayyamim, which means ‘things in the days.’ The books are a collection of texts from various eras of Israelite history, spanning the era of the old Israelite Kingdoms, circa 1000 BC, through the Persian conquest, of circa 539 BC. Scholars have debated the origin of the books throughout their history, and there is no consensus within Rabbinical literature, Christian literature, or modern scholarship. The general Rabbinical view is that the two books of Paralipomena were written by one author, as Divrei-hayyamim, and then translated into Greek. The dominant early Christian view was that the books were written by Ezra the Scribe, circa 350 BC, however, this view was generally abandoned in Western Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Modern scholarly analysis has no consensus, however, the books do themselves indicate the eras they were compiled, nevertheless, the authors remain unknown. Based on the references within 1ˢᵗ Paralipomenon, the book was compiled sometime after 732 BC, when Tiglath-Pileser III deported the Reubenites, Gadites, and the people of Manasseh to other regions of the Assyrian Empire. The surviving Hebrew text of Divrei-hayyamim does, however, contain a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem as the ‘Temple of the Gods’, which means the original text of the book has to predate King Josiah’s reforms of circa 625 BC, and likely predates King Hezekiah’s similar reforms decades earlier. Both Hezekiah and Josiah are recorded as removing the idols of the gods from the temple, which had by all accounts been in the temple since it was built by King Solomon. The books of Paralipomena differ slightly from the later Masoretic book of Divrei-hayyamim, although the three are generally similar. In 200 BC the Greek Kingdom of Syria under the Seleucid Dynasty took Judea from Egypt and began an effort to Hellenize the Judeans, which included erecting a statue of Zeus in the Second Temple in Jerusalem and effectively banning traditional Judaism. This Hellenizing activity was partially successful, creating the Sadducee faction of Judaism, however, it also led the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BC, which itself created the independent Kingdom of Judea. This Kingdom had a tenuous alliance with the Roman Republic until General Pompey conquered Syria into the Roman Republic in 69 BC. Pomey’s goal was to liberate Greek-speaking communities in the Middle East that had fallen under the rule of non-Greeks when the Seleucids Syrian Empire had collapsed, and he carved up Judea, and Edom to the east, placing Greek-speaking cities under the protection of the Roman province of Syria. He also liberated several smaller communities that had been occupied by Judea, granting them self-government, including Ashdod, Yavne, Jaffa, Dora, Marissa, and Samaria.
Download or read book Septuagint 2 Paralipomenon written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-11-03 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term Paralipomena, which means 'things left out,' is a general translation of Divrei-hayyamim, which means 'things in the days.' The books are a collection of texts from various eras of Israelite history, spanning the era of the old Israelite Kingdoms, circa 1000 BC, through the Persian conquest, of circa 539 BC. Scholars have debated the origin of the books throughout their history, and there is no consensus within Rabbinical literature, Christian literature, or modern scholarship. The general Rabbinical view is that the two books of Paralipomena were written by one author, as Divrei-hayyamim, and then translated into Greek. The dominant early Christian view was that the books were written by Ezra the Scribe, circa 350 BC, however, this view was generally abandoned in Western Europe during the Protestant Reformation. Modern scholarly analysis has no consensus, however, the books do themselves indicate the eras they were compiled, nevertheless, the authors remain unknown. Based on the references within 2ⁿᵈ Paralipomenon to the Egyptian king Osorkon I as a Kushite, parts of the book must have been compiled sometime between 943 and 716 BC, when Egypt was part of the Kushite Empire, while later sections of 2ⁿᵈ Paralipomenon must have been compiled sometime after 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonian Empire. The surviving Hebrew text of Divrei-hayyamim does, however, contain a reference to the Temple in Jerusalem as the 'Temple of the Gods,' which means the original text of the book has to predate King Josiah's reforms of circa 625 BC, and likely predates King Hezekiah's similar reforms decades earlier. Both Hezekiah and Josiah are recorded as removing the idols of the gods from the temple, which had by all accounts been in the temple since it was built by King Solomon.
Download or read book Septuagint Tobit written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-09-21 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The differences between the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus versions of Tobit are too extensive to treat the books as the same book, however, their story is essentially the same. The two books must have had a common source, however, the Sinaiticus's version is over 20% longer than the Vaticanus's version, and appears to be an older version of Tobit. One of the reasons that the Book of Tobit is interpreted as fiction, is the existence of historical errors and anachronisms found in the Vaticanus version, which includes the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the Persian king Ahasuerus jointly destroying Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Nineveh was sacked by Babylonian King Nabopolassar in 612 BC, along with Median and Persian allies, led by the Median King Cyaxares, who then integrated the city into his Median Empire. Nabopolassar's son Nebuchadnezzar, who assumed the throne in 605 BC, finally conquered the remnants of the Assyrian forces in Syria at the Battle of Carchemish that same year, however, he did not attack or destroy Nineveh. Meanwhile, the name Ahasuerus was the Aramaic name of Xerxes, the Persian king who ruled between 486 and 465 BC. These anachronisms are not found in the Codex Sinaiticus' version, which does not mention either king, but gives credit to King Achiacharos of Media, which is likely an attempt to transliterate the Median name of King Cyaxares into Aramaic. Cyaxares's Median name was Uvaxshtra, however, it was transliterated several ways into the languages and scripts of the day, including the Assyrian and Babylonian Umakishtar, and the Phrygian Ksuwaksaros, and the Greek Cyaxares from which the modern English name is derived. The Sinaiticus version of Tobit describes King Achiacharos as conquering Nineveh and integrating it into his Median Kingdom, which, was done by King Cyaxares according to the Median, Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek records from the era, and so, even if the origin of the name is disputed, the person described in King Cyaxares. There are several differences between the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus versions that point to the Sinaiticus version being older, and that point to the Vaticanus version being a later translation created in Alexandria, likely from an Aramaic early-Jewish redaction of the original Aramaic version.
Download or read book Septuagint 1 Ezra written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-11-11 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. It is generally accepted that there were several versions of the ancient Hebrew and Samaritan scriptures before the translation of the Septuagint. The two books of Ezra were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint before 200 BC when a large number of refugees fled the ongoing wars in Judea and settled in Egypt. The two books of Ezra were two different versions of the same basic story, one likely a Sadducee version, and the other a Pharisee text. 2ⁿᵈ Ezra became in the Masoretic Texts' version of Ezra, and by the year 100 AD, the Apocalypse of Ezra was in circulation as 3ʳᵈ Ezra. This has created some confusion among Biblical Translators throughout the centuries. This version of Ezra is called 1ˢᵗ Esdras (1ˢᵗ Ezra) in Orthodox Bibles and Protestant Bibles that include the Apocrypha, 3 Esdras in Catholic Bibles that include the Apocrypha, and Greek Ezra in the Ethiopian Bible. The Septuagint's 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra are thematically similar, telling the generally same story, however from two different points of view. They tell the story of the fall of Jerusalem, first to the Egyptians, and then the Babylonians, followed by Babylon's fall to the Persians, following which the Judahites returned to Judah and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. 1ˢᵗ Ezra was clearly written from a non-spiritual viewpoint, common among the Sadducees, and repeatedly makes it clear that the author, Ezra, and various kings, viewed the Lord as the Judahite version of other gods, including the Egyptian creator and Sun-god Atum, and the Zoroastrian 'god of truth' and 'King of the Sky' Ahura Mazda. These views are inconsistent with the view of the Pharisees, which developed under the rule of the Hasmonean dynasty after Judea broke free from the rule of the Greeks, and the Lord became a separate god from all others. Both the Greek translations of 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, and the Hebrew translation of Ezra-Nehemiah (2ⁿᵈ Ezra), contain relics of an Aramaic source-text, unfortunately, the Aramaic Book of Ezra is lost. The difference in the surviving Aramaic words within the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra, and Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, it appears that the two versions of Ezra already existed in the Aramaic versions. 1ˢᵗ Ezra, the less spiritual of the two, clearly dates to the Persian era, as it treats the Judahite Lord of the Temple in Jerusalem as another version of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian God. Several Zoroastrian titles of Ahura Mazda are applied to the Judahite Lord, including King of Truth, and King of the Sky. Letters from the Persian Kings Cyrus II, Artaxerxes I, and Darius II, as included in the book, all of which were closely associated with Zoroastrianism, yet, referred to the Judahite Lord using titles generally associated with Ahura Mazda. In the Greek 1ˢᵗ Ezra and 2ⁿᵈ Ezra, and the Hebrew Ezra-Nehemiah, the temple is described as being a Zoroastrian fire-temple, containing an eternal fire, which Nehemiah even referred to as burning naphtha, like the other fire-temples across the Persian Empire.
Download or read book Septuagint s Ezekiel and the Ba al Cycle written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 1901 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid-3rd century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. The Book of Ezekiel is connected to Ezra and his Great Assembly in Jewish tradition, who apparently finished the book. It is one of the most standardized books, where the Greek and Hebrew translations are extremely similar. Both books contain some of the most obscure language, both Greek and Hebrew, containing many Aramaic loanwords. The Aramaic dialect is not consistent, with the early section, chapters 1 through 39, having Amorite and Assyrian loanwords, while the latter section, chapters 40 through 48, appears to have been written in Persian Imperial Aramaic. The early and later sections of Ezekiel also used different titles for God, and appear to have been written at different points in time, centuries apart. The early section is consistent with the historical records and was likely written during the late Assyrian and early Babylonian eras. The latter section appears to have been added during the time of Ezra, as the Persian Empire collapsed before the onslaught of the Macedonians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and Egyptians. The Book of Ezekiel is certainly one of the strangest books to survive from antiquity and has been the source of much speculation throughout centuries, by Jews, Christians, and atheists alike. Ezekiel's opening vision, of the flying machine, was the source of an entire branch of Jewish literature, Merkabah mysticism. The Septuagint uses the strange title Lord Lord through the first 39 chapters, before switching to the more common term Lord God for the later section of the book. This term could only have read Adon Ba'al in the Aramaic texts the Greeks translated Ezekiel from, as both adon and ba'al translate as 'lord.' This meaning that Ezekiel's god was Ba'al, the Canaanite god of thunder, whose holy mountain was Mount Zephon. Ezekiel describes his Lord Lord as being a thunder cloud, and refers to the god as coming from Zephon, which confirms that he did view the god as being Lord Ba'al. The Ba'al Cycle is a collection of stories about Ba'al Hadad, the supreme god of the Canaanite pantheon in the late bronze age. Unfortunately, the Texts that comprise the Ba'al Cycle are damaged, especially in the first section, where Hadad fights Yam to become Ba'al. In the subsequent section where the battle is discussed, Anat's defeat of the seven-headed monster Lotan is mentioned, however, this section is missing from the battle itself. Many tablets are believed to be lost from the epic, nevertheless, it is an important series of texts, as it allows us to see the other great religion of Canaan in the era that the early Israelite (later Samaritan and Jewish) religion was forming.
Download or read book Septuagint History Volume 1 written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2023-03-13 with total page 919 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the mid 3ʳᵈ century BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures for the Library of Alexandria. This translation later became known as the Septuagint, based on the description of the translation by seventy translators in the Letter of Aristeas. The History section of the Septuagint contained the books that told the history of the Israelite and Judahites from Joshua's conquest of Canaan circa 1500 BC, until the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, in 140 BC. Septuagint: History, Volume 1, is composed of modern, non-theological translations of the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and the four books of the Kingdoms, which spanned 1504 BC to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Most of the era is not well documented in the historic records of Canaan, however, some limited correlations are found in the Amarna Letters, which are cuneiform correspondences between the Egyptian government and various officials in Canaan and Mesopotamia. By the final book, 4th Kingdoms, the historic records of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians confirm the general history recorded in the book, although the theological interpretation is unique to the Judahites of the era. The Septuagint's translation differs significantly from the later Masoretic version of the books, as it uses a different dating for the events, such as Joshua's invasion of Canaan just before 1500 BC, as opposed to the 1200s or 1300s BC, depending on interpretations of the Masoretic texts and the Talmud. The Septuagint's dating correlates significantly with the dating of major Egyptian events according to Egyptologists. It is unclear if the Septuagint's dating was altered by the translators in Alexandria to correlate with Egyptian history, however, that seems unlikely as the Greek historians 2200 years ago do not seem to have had any records of the era of Akhenaten, when Aten became the dominant god of Egypt, yet, the prophetess Deborah sang a song to Aten during the same era, in the book of Judges. As the Septuagint was based on the once common Aramaic version of the books, and not the priestly Judahite version, it is likely that the dating in the Septuagint is a more accurate reflection of the histories, as both Judahite version of the books appear to have been edited by astrologers at some point, which is generally acknowledged by historians to have ruined any historical value to the texts. The consensus is that the astrological edits must have happened fairly late, likely in the Hasmonean Dynasty, which also produced the first official 'Hebrew' translation of the older Judahite version of the texts. One of the complaints the Romans had regarding the Judeans of the Hasmonean dynasty is that they were astrology to confuse the weak minded, which supports the concept that they made the astrological edits when they created the 'Hebrew' language translations. This altered timeline continued into the Talmud, and is known as "Rabbinical History," however, it not taken seriously by historians.
Download or read book Septuagint Judges and Ruth written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 2020-12-27 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Judges is very old, and the Song of Deborah may be the oldest surviving piece of Israelite literature. It uses some of the most archaic forms of Hebrew, and was likely composed in Canaanite before Hebrew became a defined dialect as this issue of dialect was part of the division between the Israelites during the battle between the Gileadites, east of the Jordan, and the Ephraimites from west of the Jordan. There is evidence that the book was either assembled or redacted in the Kingdom of Samaria. The region of the book also generally corresponds with the territory of the northern kingdom, both the region that had once been under Egyptian authority west of the Jordan, and the region east of the Jordan which had generally been independent of Egypt. The synchronizations between the Book of Judges and the records of Egypt are far too many to be overlooked or ignored. As almost all denominations of Christians and Jews agree that King Saul established his kingdom in 1037 BC, and the Septuagint's version of Judges includes 460 years of the land being ruled by Judges, or foreign kings, followed by an era of chaos when there was no king, the latest possible date the Exodus could have taken place was the 1500s BC, which supports the idea that the 10 plagues of Egypt were descriptions of the fallout and effects of the Minoan eruption which Egyptologists date to 1550 BC. According to Judges, 42 years later the Israelites invaded Samaria, (northern modern Israel and the Palestinian West Bank) under the leadership of Joshua, which would have been 1508 BC. The plan was already laid out in the Book of Joshua to occupy the entire land of Canaan, yet just three years later, when Joshua was 85 years old, the Israelites stopped their campaign, after having only occupied the cities in Samaria, this would have been in 1505 BC. The reason they stopped their invasion is not given, however, Egyptian records do explain it, as in the same year, 1505 BC, Pharaoh Thutmose I marched his army through Canaan to reconquer it for the Egyptian Empire. It had previously been under the control of the Hyksos Dynasty whose empire collapsed in the aftermath of the Minoan eruption. In 1550 BC, the Hyksos capital fell to the rival southern dynasty of Pharaoh Ahmose I, and the Hyksos retreated to their fortress of Sharuhen, near modern Gaza in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. This suggests the Hyksos maintained control over Canaan until Sharuhen fell to Ahmose I in 1540 BC. Ahmose I led an invasion of southern Canaan a few years later in an attempt to root out any remaining Hyksos. Egyptologists are not sure when this campaign was, placing it sometime between 1537 and 1527 BC. This campaign is not believed to have reached farther north than Byblos, in modern Lebanon, and did not result in any long-term political control over Canaan. Ahmose I's main goal seems to have been to destroy any remaining Hyksos in the region to ensure they did not try to recapture Egypt.
Download or read book Septuagint 4 Kingdoms written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Septuagint's 4ᵗʰ Kingdoms tells the history of the kingdoms of Samaria and Judah from circa 850 BC until the Babylonians conquered Judah circa 600 BC. This era of history is well documented in the historical records of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Babylonians, and unlike the earlier books of the Kingdoms, is generally accepted by historians. This era included the rise and fall of the Aramean Empire based in Damascus, the rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire farther north, the Assyrian wars against Egypt, and the sack of Thebes, and ultimately the rise of the Babylonian Empire. During this tumultuous time, the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, and Aram, which also appears to have been considered an Israelite kingdom by the prophet Ezekiel, struggled for survival and fell one by one to the expanding empires around them. Before the era of 4ᵗʰ Kingdoms, Samara had established an empire, occupying the Aramean kingdoms of Damascus and Hama in modern Syria, which had ended suddenly when an earthquake had leveled Samaria. The earthquake was mentioned in the Book of Amos, and archaeological evidence of it is found throughout modern northern Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. It is estimated to have been between 7.8 and 8.2 on the Richter Scale, and aftershocks likely lasted around 6 months. In the aftermath, Damascus rose to form its own Aramean empire, occupying Hama, and northern Samaria, as well as Gilead in southern modern Syria, which had been part of Samaria since the division of Israel into Samaria and Judah. However, as Assyria began to expand to the north, Samaria and Aram formed an anti-Assyria alliance, and the Samarian forces were stationed in Aram to help defend the northern border from the Assyrians. Judah was invited to join the alliance, but instead formed an alliance with the Assyrians and invaded and pillaged Samaria and southern Aram. Judah continued to be an ally of Assyria as the Assyrians conquered Aram, Samaria, and Sidon which had also allied with them. Fortunately, as Samaria finally fell to the Assyrians after a three-year campaign, the king of Assyria died, sparking a civil war between rival heirs. This civil war provided Judah with almost twenty years to build up defenses, and King Hezekiah built extensively across his kingdom. Archaeological evidence of Hezekiah's construction projects is common in the region around Jerusalem, and the southern region of the Palestinian West Bank, including the Broad Wall in Jerusalem, and the Siloam Tunnel, which connected Jerusalem with a water source outside the walls of the city. Ancient records of anti-siege artillery on the walls of Jerusalem also exist, likely ballistas or catapults, so, it is clear the Judahites knew they would be next. While the Assyrians did lay siege to Jerusalem according to 4ᵗʰ Kingdoms, they were not able to conquer the city. The Assyrian Annals record the campaign against Judah and record the cities they captured, which did not include Jerusalem, and so historians accept the general account of what happened found in 4ᵗʰ Kingdoms.
Download or read book Septuagint 1 Maccabees written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1ˢᵗ Maccabees tells the story of the Maccabean Revolt against the rule of the Seleucid Empire in the 2ⁿᵈ century BC. The content of 1ˢᵗ Maccabees appears to be a Sadducee text, as it gives all credit to the self-declared high priests that led the rebellion against the Greeks, occasionally mentioning the sky-god Shamayim or the earth-goddess Eretz. It also omits the names of the other gods that 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees and 3ʳᵈ Maccabees mention the Judeans worshiping, such as Dionysus, which supports its authorship in the Hasmonean Dynasty, when the other gods were no longer tolerated. Four books of Maccabees were ultimately added to the Septuagint, three in the 1ˢᵗ century BC, and the 4ᵗʰ as an appendix in the 1ˢᵗ century AD. No trace of these books has been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they are generally thought to have been written in Greek. 1ˢᵗ and 2ⁿᵈ Maccabees do include several Aramaic loanwords that support an Aramaic source text. The Syriac Bibles also include a 5ᵗʰ Maccabees, which is a translation of book 6 of Josephus’ The Judean War. The Judean War is considered extended canon in the Ethiopic Bibles, however, the Ethiopic Bibles also include three books of Maccabees, which are not based on the Greek books, or Josephus. An Arabic book of Maccabees also exists, which is often mislabeled as 5ᵗʰ Maccabees in English language literature, because it was initially misidentified as being the same book as Syriac 5ᵗʰ Maccabees. The Arabic book is a translation of a Palestinian Aramaic book from circa 525 AD, which itself appears to be based on the Hebrew book of Maccabees, which surfaced much later. The Hebrew version of Maccabees was collected with other Hebrew language manuscripts from various eras in a Yiddish compilation in the 1300s. The Hebrew translation of Maccabees was likely composed in Iberia earlier than 500 AD and was probably based on an Aramaic text, along with an Iberian tale about Hannibal. The Aramaic text that was used is closely related to the text found in the Josippon, which is believed to have been composed in southern Italy in the 900s. The Josippon claims to be a copy of the book of Joseph ben Gurion, one of the leaders of the Judean Revolt of 66 AD. Joseph died in 68 AD, and Josephus, who survived the war, did not report that Joseph was a writer, however, it stands to reason his faction must have had some form of propaganda, likely based on the Maccabean Revolt. These Josippon-related versions of Maccabees are of very little historic value, as they are replete with historical errors. Their original function appears to have been to serve as inspiration rather than to educate.
Download or read book Septuagint Esther Alpha Version written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-12-14 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are two versions of the Book of Esther the various copies of the Septuagint, however, neither originated at the Library of Alexandria. The common version of Esther is found in almost all copies, while the rare version is only found in four know manuscripts, numbered as 19, 93, 108, and 319. This version follows the rare version, also known as the Alpha version, using the oldest surviving copy as a source text, the Septuagint manuscript 319, while also comparing the other surviving manuscripts: 19, 93, and 108 The Alpha Texts version only survives in a few copies of the Septuagint, and based on its dialect, it was translated somewhere in the Seleucid Empire. The Alpha version is probably the oldest of the four translations, as it includes several unique elements that appear to have disappeared in later translations. One of these unique elements is the use of the month name Adar-Nisan, which is then clarified in a scribal note as being Dystros-Xandicos. Dystros-Xandicos was not a month, but two months on the modified Macedonian calendar used by the Seleucid Empire. As the story is set in the Persian Empire, the calendar in use was either the Persian calendar, or the Babylonian calendar. The names are the same as the Hebrew calendar, which are themselves based on the Babylonian Calendar, suggesting that this was the calendar the author used.
Download or read book Septuagint Tobit Vaticanus Version written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Digital Ink Productions. This book was released on 2019-11-20 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Tobit appears to be from an older sect of Judaism, likely the one led by the ‘false priest’ Tobiah, who was expelled from the temple by Ezra when his genealogy could not be proven in 2ⁿᵈ Ezra. 2ⁿᵈ Ezra was the version of Ezra used by the Pharisee sect which emerged under the Hasmonean Dynasty, while Tobit, along with Enoch, Jubilees, and Job appears to have primarily been used by the Essenes sects. The Book of Tobit is generally viewed as fiction by most scholars for a variety of reasons. One major reason it is viewed as fiction is the presence of Tobit’s cousin Ahikar, in both versions of the book, who is the protagonist of the Words of Ahikar, a book set in the same era, which is also considered fiction. It is quite clear from the text of Tobit, that it is the same Ahikar, and not just someone with the same name, as Ahikar’s betrayal by his nephew is mentioned, which is part of the early section of Ahikar. Nevertheless, both books, Tobit and Ahikar survive in various forms, meaning that they were edited multiple times before the versions that survive to the present were transcribed. The surviving copies of the Septuagint include two versions of the Book of Tobit, the more common form, found in the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus, and most other surviving copies of the Septuagint, and the less common version found in the Codex Sinaiticus. Additionally, fragments of Tobit found among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri don’t match either the Vaticanus or Sinaiticus version of Tobit. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a collection of ancient texts found in southern Egypt dating to the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine eras of Egyptian history, approximately 300 BC to 640 AD. Among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, two fragments of Tobit have been found, Papyrus 1594, dated to circa 275 AD, and Papyrus 1076, dated to circa 550 AD. Unfortunately, these fragments are extremely short, with only a few lines surviving from chapters 12 and 2 respectively. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri fragments of Tobit are in Greek but do not match surviving versions found in the Septuagint codices, meaning there were no less than three Greek versions of Tobit in circulation by 350 AD, when the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are dated to.
Download or read book Septuagint Song of Songs written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Song of Songs appears to be love poetry, exchanged between Solomon and one of his wives, however, is not clear who exactly the wife was. The wife describes herself as black, suggesting a Kushite woman. She also refers to herself as a Shulammitess, and makes clear she was not from Jerusalem. The town of Shunaam was located near the Jezreel Valley north of Mount Gilboa, in the tribal lands of Issachar at the time. It was also listed as one of the towns conquered by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III circa 1450 BC, and then again by Pharaoh Shoshenk I circa 925 BC, meaning there was a significant town was there for over 500 years. It was the hometown of King David’s last concubine, the 12-year-old Abishag, who Adonijah attempted to marry after David’s death, which suggests the author was Abishag the Shulamite. If this song was the work of Abishag, it means that it would date to the time of Solomon, and imply she was one of Solomon’s wives or concubines. The geography of the Song of Songs is curious, as it seems focused on northern Israel and southern Lebanon, not Judea. Jerusalem is mentioned repeatedly but as part of the phrase ‘daughters of Jerusalem,’ which is a group the author clearly does not see herself as being a part of. This suggests that she was living in the north, possibly in the palace Solomon built in the mountains of Lebanon, and saw the daughters of Jerusalem as her rivals for his affection.
Download or read book Septuagint Wisdom of Solomon written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 2020-06-14 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The final version of the Septuagint was published in 132 BC, which included the Wisdom of Solomon, a book of wisdom credited to King Solomon, circa 950 BC. This book was never copied by the Masoretes, and no fragments of it have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, indicating it was not used much in Judea, if at all. A Syriac version of it is included in the Peshitta, the Syrian Orthodox Bible, which the Syrian Orthodox Church has always claimed was transcribed from the Aramaic text that the Jews translated into Hebrew, however, most modern scholars believe the Peshitta was a Syriac translation of the Septuagint. As a result, Wisdom of Solomon is a text that cannot be proven to have existed earlier than 132 BC, when it appeared in the Septuagint, and some scholars have concluded it was written in Greek at the Library of Alexandria. Wherever it was written, it is a very un-Jewish Israelite text, which contradicts, and occasionally even attacks the Torah. These contradictions are often interpreted as indicators that the writer was not particularly knowledgeable regarding the Torah, suggesting a Hellenized Jew, and therefore, it is generally assumed the book was written shortly before its inclusion in the Septuagint. All of these assumptions are, of course, based on the underlying assumption that Judaism was already standardized before the Greek Era. The books of Maccabees tell a very story. Given the complex religious history of the Second Temple Era, and the fact that none of the Israelites in Elephantine appear to have even heard of Moses in the 5th-century BC, the Wisdom of Solomon does not seem out of place or anachronistic at all, and dismissing it based on contradictions with the Torah seems completely invalid. The Wisdom of Solomon itself appears to have been redacted before the Greek translation, as the first half is about the spirit of wisdom, Sophia in Greek, who is credited with actually doing most of what God (or Yahweh in the Masoretic Text) was credited with doing in the Torah, however, this changes abruptly to crediting the Lord in chapter 11, and Sophia disappears entirely from the rest of the book. Chapter 11 was also the beginning of what scholars call the ‘history’ section of the book, which generally retold the history found in the Torah up until the exodus from Egypt, however, with some differences. One significant difference was the identification of the Lord as the Sun in chapter 16.
Download or read book Septuagint s Esther and the Vetus Latina Esther written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition to the two copies of the Book of Esther found in the Septuagint manuscripts, there are two additional surviving copies of the Book of Esther, one is found in the Masoretic texts, while the other is found among the Vetus Latina manuscripts. The Masoretic texts are the Hebrew translations of the ancient Israelite and Judahite books that form the core of the modern Tanakh which is used by Rabbinical Jews, while the Vetus Latina manuscripts are the Latin translations of the ancient books that were made before Jerome's official Latin translation of the Orthodox Christian Bible, published circa 405 AD. Each of these texts is unique, however, all appear to derive from earlier Aramaic texts. The oldest surviving physical copy of Esther is found in the Codex Vaticanus, which dates to circa 350 AD. The version of Esther in the Codex Vaticanus is generally accepted as being the original version added to the Septuagint sometime in the 2ⁿᵈ century BC, however, it claims to have not been translated in Alexandria, like the rest of the Septuagint. The next oldest version of Esther that survives is in the Leningrad Codex of the Masoretic Texts, with is dated to circa 1008 AD. This version is in Hebrew, and is the only one of the three copies that does not appear to have once been in Greek, and it is the only one of the three copies that does not mention God. This version was copied as part of the Masoretic Texts between the 7ᵗʰ and 10ᵗʰ centuries AD. With many Masoretic Texts, there are precursors found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, there are no known fragments of Esther found among the Dead Sea Scrolls to date. It is unclear where it originated, or why there is no reference to God in it. The Vetus Latina's version of Esther is one of the books not translated from either the Septuagint or proto-Masoretic versions of Esther, and therefore, is the fourth primary source for the Book of Esther. Dating the Vetus Latina is more difficult than the Septuagint, as it was the work of many individual translators over several centuries. The bulk of the work is believed to have been done between 330 BC and 50 AD by Judeans living within the expanding Roman Empire, however, around 50 AD the Latin-speaking Christians began using the texts as well. After Jerome translated the Vulgate bible, published in 405 AD, the Vetus Latina continued in use alongside the Vulgate in the Catholic countries until the 1300s. While the Vetus Latina is by nature a Latin translation of the ancient Israelite scriptures, the translations were generally made from existing Greek translations, and in the case of the Book of Esther, not from either the Vaticanus or Alpha versions.
Download or read book Septuagint Daniel Vaticanus Version written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 1901 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Book of Daniel is by far the least standardized of all the books that made it into both the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text, with no less than 16 versions surviving from the classical and early medieval eras. The Septuagint manuscripts contain two versions, the standard version found in most manuscripts, and the 'Old Greek' version, which only survives virtually complete in the Medieval era Codex Chisianus. The common translation was done by the Jewish scholar Theodotion circa 150 AD, and supplanted the Old Greek translation as it was closer to the Jewish and Christian theology of the period. The Old Greek translation was the version originally in the Septuagint, however, the authenticity and accuracy of any and all versions of the Book of Daniel have always been in doubt. The Codex Chisianus is accepted as being the closest to the Old Greek translation. It claims to be a copy of the Christian scholar Origen of Alexandria's recension from circa 240 AD, and as the Syro-Hexaplar Codex, a Syriac translation of Origen's recension from 616 and 617 AD, is virtually identical, they are both accepted as Origen's work. Origen rejected both the shorter version of Daniel found in the Hebrew and Aramaic translation that the Jews of his day were using, and Theodotion's translation, which was largely based on the Hebrew and Aramaic text, and claimed the Old Greek translation was the closest to the original text of Daniel. When Theodotion made his translation, he primarily used the shorter Hebrew and Aramaic texts that the Jews were using at the time, and filled in the missing sections by copying from the Old Greek translation. The version of Daniel found in the Masoretic Text is the shortest version of Daniel to survive to the present, and is arguably the strangest, as it is a book retained in two languages. Chapter 1, and the opening lines of chapter 2 are in Hebrew, the rest of chapter 2, as well as chapters 3 through 7 are in Aramaic, and the rest is in Hebrew. This strange combination of Hebrew and Aramaic is also present in the surviving fragments of Daniel found among in the Dead Sea Scrolls, indicating the book was already half-Hebrew and half-Aramaic by the era of the Hasmonean Dynasty, which is when the Hebrew translations of most of the other Aramaic and Canaanite (Paleo-Hebrew) books first appeared.
Download or read book Septuagint Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira written by Scriptural Research Institute and published by Scriptural Research Institute. This book was released on 2020-06-21 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira was likely the last book added to the Septuagint, in 132 BC, after Joshua ben Sira's grandson translated it in Alexandria. The book is known by several names, including Sirach, Wisdom of Sirach, Wisdom of Jesus Sirach, ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of the All-Virtuous Wisdom of Yeshua ben Sira. This diversity of names is based on the fact that the Masorites did not copy the text, however, an Aramaic copy and some fragments of the ancient Hebrew version have survived. As the Masorites did not copy the Wisdom of Solomon, it was ultimately dropped from most Protestant bibles, however, remains part of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Tewahedo Bibles. Hebrew and Aramaic fragments of the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira were in circulation during the Herodian Dynasty, and fragments have survived among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the 2QSir, 11QPsa, and MasSir scrolls, however, the fragments may not have been part of a book called the Wisdom of Joshua Ben Sira. The 2QSir and MasSir scrolls are so damaged that they are barely recognizable as being excerpts from Joshua ben Sira, and the 11QPsa scroll, while being one of the best-preserved scrolls found in the Qumran caves, includes random psalms and proverbs from multiple sources, including excerpts from Joshua ben Sira. As the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira was itself a collection of proverbs that Joshua had collected, it is possible that these scrolls may have simply drawn on the same sources. Some elements of the hedonistic version of Judaism remain in the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira, including the reference to Iaw reacquiring Israel as his portion when the Highest God divided the nations of humanity between the princes. This is a reference to the 70 or 72 Elohim who were placed over the 70 or 72 nations of humans, in the early Second Temple era hedonistic form of Judaism. This was first mentioned in the Song of Moses, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, and then again in the Talmud which mentions the story of Dobiel, the 'prince of Persia' who was once the proxy for Gabriel in heaven for 21 days after Gabriel angered God by allowing the Jews to leave Babylon, when God wanted the Babylonians to kill them. While be was Gabriel's proxy Dobiel allowed the Persians to conquer the known world, which was the explanation of the sudden rise of the Persian Empire in the early Second Temple era. Dobiel was again referred to as the 'Prince of Persia' in the Revelation of Metatron, which listed Samael as the 'Prince of Rome.'