LXX LAX

       The Septuagint (LXX) was *supposedly* a Greek translation of the Old Testament, BEFORE the New Testament, and is supposedly what Jesus and Paul quoted from.

        But there are a few (ahem!) minor problems with that claim, the main one being IT IS NOT TRUE. It is so thoroughly corrupt that no Christian with the spiritual discernment of a sea monkey could mistake it for any kind of scripture.

NOT B. C.        The EARLIEST mss. considered to be an LXX was done by Origen 200 years AFTER Christ - and NO copy of that is extant, so we really can't even trace it back to Origen's fifth column for certain. That's according to Sir Frederick Kenyon, (The Text of the Greek Bible, p.35). Confirmed by the editor of a contemporary LXX text, Brenton's Septuagint Introduction (Zondervan, from the original 1851), p ii. and "Invitation To The Septuagint," Moises Silva & Karen Jobes, Baker Academic, 2000.

NOT ENTIRE OT        The Letter of Aristeas is the piece of evidence that is appealed to as a claim that there was a pre-Christian Greek OT, but even that letter only made a claim for the Pentateuch - the first five books of Moses, not the entire OT.

        There are a few scraps of OT scriptures written in Hebrew, but that doesn't mean there was ever an entire OT done. I often jot down passages of scripture on scratch paper, and later toss them in the garbage. Does my garbage can then prove that the KJV is the originals? I have more scripture
on any wall of my house than exists of pre-BC Greek OT scraps. Apparently, my bathroom walls prove the KJV is the pure word of God.

NOT SCRIPTURAL!        The LXX got its name by supposedly having been written by six scholars from each of the twelve tribes of Israel (which makes 72 - an LXXII). But there is another (cough!) minor problem. The custodian of the Old Testament was the tribe of Levi alone - not the other tribes. Not only that, orthodox OT Jews were having a hard time with Paul's Gentile ministry well after the Christian era, they never would have submitted to an OT in a heathen, Gentile language. Thus, a Greek OT worked on by the other 11 tribes, is UNSCRIPTURAL in the first place. Even IF it existed, it was not an official scripture.

        Now there are also some (hack!) big problems with the LXX, as if the above weren't enough. For one, it contains the apocrypha AS part of the canon. The Jewish OT rejected the apocrypha.

        The main extant representatives of the LXX are the Alexandrian texts (Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus) which include the OT and NT. They include such whoppers as:

WRONG DAY!* Gen 2:2 LXX has God ending His work on the SIXTH day instead of the SEVENTH.

METHUSELAH SURVIVES FLOOD!* Several genealogical goofs:

Gen 5:25 LXX = 167 years
Gen 5:28 LXX = 188 years
Gen 11:13 LXX = 430 years
Gen 11:17 LXX = 370 years
Gen 11:24 LXX = 79 years
Gen 11:25 LXX = 125 years

* Some of these errors lead to the conclusion that Methuselah had to survive 14 years beyond the flood!

PEE WEE GIANT!* 1 Sam 17:4 LXX = FOUR cubits, instead of SIX, making Goliath only about 6' 6", hardly a frightful giant to the seven foot plus King Saul and the armies of Israel.

MORE MUFFS:        The rest of these OT goofs are of lesser importance, but still show the LXX should be discarded as thoroughly corrupt.

* Jonah 3:4 LXX = Yet THREE days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. (instead of FORTY - the LXX can't count!)

* Deu 32:8 LXX = angels of God (instead of children of Israel)

* Gen 14:13 LXX = Abram the WANDERER (instead of HEBREW)

* 1 Sam 11:5 LXX = Saul came after the MORNING (instead of HERD)

* Hosea 11:1 LXX = called my CHILDREN out of Egypt (instead of SON)

* Jer 17:5 LXX omits "Thus saith the Lord"

* Isa 53:4 LXX omits "God"

* Isa 8:14 LXX Interpolates "And if thou shalt trust in him" at the beginning of the verse

        Here are some of the blatant boners in the Alexandrian New Testament:

BLASPHEMY!* Jesus being killed by the soldier in Matthew 27:49-50 instead of laying down His life freely.

HERESY!* Death being swallowed up into CONTROVERSY rather than victory in 1 Cor 15:54.

* Jesus praying for His disciples to be kept under the power of Satan in John 17:15.

STUPIDITY!* 1 Thess 2:7 says But we were BABIES among you (instead of gentle).

* Luke 23:45 where it says the sun was “eclipsed” during a full moon.

FACTUAL ERRORS!* The pool of Bethesda is misidentified as Bethzatha or Bethsaida in John 5:2.

* Judea is misidentified as Galilee in Luke 4:44.

* The Alexandrians say the sun was “eclipsed” during a full moon in Luke 23:45.

        Only two men alive today have actually collated the main LXX texts (aleph and B), Scott Jones (a friend of mine) and Reuben Swanson. Both attest to the numerous errors in those texts.

CREATING ERROR, NOT CORRECTING ERROR        The New Testament writers did not copy from the LXX, because it did not yet exist. The LXX writers copied from the NT to try to pass itself off as legitimate. One example that proves this is when the LXX tried to reconcile Gen 47:31 with Heb 11:21 (the passage where Jacob bowed upon the staff or bed). They copied the word in HEBREWS (staff) back into Genesis to make the "reconciliation" - which proves they had a copy of Hebrews on hand to make the 'correction' - UH OH! BUSTED! Another problem is that the account needs no reconciliation since it is talking about two different events (Gen. has Jacob with Joseph alone, Heb. has him additionally with Joseph's sons). The LXX tried to correct this supposed error and actually created a real error. OOPS!

        The Alexandrian Septuagint is hopelessly corrupt and should not be used to line a bird cage in case a parrot might accidentally repeat some of its nonsense.