What is the LXX?

First, let’s get the obvious question out of the way for those who don’t know. Just what is the Septuagint (often given in numeral form as LXX)?

Put simply, the Septuagint was the first translation of the Old Testament into a language other than Hebrew/Aramaic. It was translated into Greek, starting fairly early in the 3rd century B.C. The exact dates aren’t known, but it’s believed that the Greek text of the Pentateuch/Torah (the 5 books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) was complete by around 270–250 B.C. The rest of the Old Testament is said to have been completed somewhere between 150 and 100 B.C., with some sections, known as either “Apocrypha” or “Deuterocanonicals” (depending on your exact faith), such as the 3rd and 4th books of Maccabees, being completed as late as 100 A.D.

More importantly, however, is that the Septuagint was the version of Scripture that the writers of the New Testament were familiar with. In fact, almost all of the Old Testament quotes found in the New Testament come from the Septuagint.

Who am I and why should you care?

I can hear you asking, what qualifies me to write about the Septuagint and compare it to other translations of Scripture?

Well, if I’m being completely honest … not much. I’m not a bible scholar, nor a theologian. I never went to Seminary. I’m not a pastor or an experienced spiritual author or Bible commentator.

What I do have, however, is perspective and a calling.

Now, first, I do feel that the Septuagint translation of the Bible has value to add to even the “casual” believer. Not only is this the version of scripture that Jesus and his disciples would have been familiar with (in the original Greek, at least), but the book has a certain flavor that just feels like it belongs to the period and location where the Word Made Flesh offered the greatest sacrifice.

And there are, in fact, some unique aspects to the Septuagint that are different from any translation based on our oldest Hebrew sources.

I think the Septuagint is criminally unknown among modern Christians, and my primary motivation with this newsletter (and the books I’m writing to accompany it) is to bring the LXX to greater light in the modern world.

You see, I don’t do anything halfway. I don’t believe in half measures. I don’t dabble. When I invest myself into an endeavor or topic, I jump in feet first and almost obsessively consume every scrap of detail I can get my hands on. My goal, with anything I invest my time in, is to become as much of an expert as I am capable of being.

And the final part of this comes down to my calling.

In short, I tried to fight doing this. I tried to ignore it. I told myself I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t qualified. I hadn’t been immersed in Christianity and the Word for nearly long enough. A project like this was massively over-reaching for someone in my position. What made me think I could actually do this?

In fact, I started this project almost a year ago and then put it away to focus elsewhere. I immersed myself in my other writing projects and let this one slip.

But my mind kept coming back to this over and over, until it started to dominate my every waking thought. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Even though I feel stupidly underqualified to embark on this, I eventually came to a stark realization:

This wasn’t even my idea. And it isn’t as though I would be the first crazy-underqualified person that the Lord has called into His service.

So I prayed about it.

And prayed.

And prayed.

And eventually I came to accept the reality of what was happening. I’ve accepted that God called me to this. I don’t know why. I don’t know who will benefit from me undertaking this venture. But I am convinced that this is exactly what God has been telling me to do.

So I’m trusting that He will give me the words to say what He wants to have said about the Septuagint and its relationship to the Masoretic Text and its many modern translations.

What you’ll find here

Each week I’m going to be picking a passage of scripture to exposit on. I’ll talk about textual analysis/criticism, historical context, various interpretations of its meaning, and what I think it really means and how it relates to modern culture/society (naturally, since this is where I’m from, this will focus pretty strongly on American culture).

Now, I’m not going to limit myself to the Old Testament on this. In fact, I’ll probably be pulling a lot from the New Testament. As I mentioned above, there are a lot of quotations from the Old Testament in the New, and most of them come from the Septuagint.

A free publication

The LXX Scrolls is fully free. Every post, every series, every word study, all of it. I’ve come to believe that this kind of teaching about Scripture shouldn’t sit behind a paywall, and so it doesn’t. If you want to read it, you can read it. That’s it.

If you’d like to support this work financially, Substack offers a paid subscription that lets you contribute to publications you value. It’s not a membership to anything (since everything is already free), it’s patronage, plain and simple. You’re not buying access; you’re helping me keep doing the work. That option is open to anyone who feels called to partner with this publication in that way, and I’m grateful for every reader who does.

Ebooks

For readers who want a more permanent, polished, and expanded version of the teachings I offer, I publish ebooks through Curios, Amazon, and other retailers under the series title Two Witnesses, One Truth. These take the work from this publication and elsewhere and turn it into a curated, structured resource you can keep on your Kindle (or other ereader), mark up, highlight, and return to for years.

The first three titles are exclusive to the ebooks (Discovering the Septuagint: The Bible Jesus Knew, The Letter of Aristeas (with commentary and modern formatting), The Septuagint: An Introductory Analysis) and not based on any Substack teaching.

The remainder, however (The 70 Weeks of Daniel, Beyond Golden Calves: A Comprehensive Biblical Study of Idolatry, and The Woman in Travail, with The Divine Council and Walking With Daniel available for pre-order, to be released shortly after those series are completed) are based on teachings I have posted here on Substack.

The teaching here is free. The ebooks are a separate product that help sustain the work I do.

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