A New English Translation of the Septuagint

A New English Translation of the Septuagint PDF Author: Albert Pietersma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019972394X
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 1050

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Book Description
The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of Jewish sacred writings) is of great importance in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. The first translation of the books of the Hebrew Bible (plus additions) into the common language of the ancient Mediterranean world made the Jewish scriptures accessible to many outside Judaism. Not only did the Septuagint become Holy Writ to Greek speaking Jews but it was also the Bible of the early Christian communities: the scripture they cited and the textual foundation of the early Christian movement. Translated from Hebrew (and Aramaic) originals in the two centuries before Jesus, the Septuagint provides important information about the history of the text of the Bible. For centuries, scholars have looked to the Septuagint for information about the nature of the text and of how passages and specific words were understood. For students of the Bible, the New Testament in particular, the study of the Septuagint's influence is a vital part of the history of interpretation. But until now, the Septuagint has not been available to English readers in a modern and accurate translation. The New English Translation of the Septuagint fills this gap.

A New English Translation of the Septuagint

A New English Translation of the Septuagint PDF Author: Albert Pietersma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019972394X
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 1050

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Book Description
The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of Jewish sacred writings) is of great importance in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. The first translation of the books of the Hebrew Bible (plus additions) into the common language of the ancient Mediterranean world made the Jewish scriptures accessible to many outside Judaism. Not only did the Septuagint become Holy Writ to Greek speaking Jews but it was also the Bible of the early Christian communities: the scripture they cited and the textual foundation of the early Christian movement. Translated from Hebrew (and Aramaic) originals in the two centuries before Jesus, the Septuagint provides important information about the history of the text of the Bible. For centuries, scholars have looked to the Septuagint for information about the nature of the text and of how passages and specific words were understood. For students of the Bible, the New Testament in particular, the study of the Septuagint's influence is a vital part of the history of interpretation. But until now, the Septuagint has not been available to English readers in a modern and accurate translation. The New English Translation of the Septuagint fills this gap.

A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Genesis

A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Genesis PDF Author: Johann Peter Lange
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 686

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Book Description


Septuagint's Solomon and the Testament of Solomon

Septuagint's Solomon and the Testament of Solomon PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1989852408
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
King Solomon is arguably the most famous of all ancient Israelite kings, with several books in the Septuagint dedicated to him, or about him, or even by him, yet, to date, no archeological evidence for his life has been found. Additionally, the Testament of Solomon has survived from the Second Temple era which displays another side of King Solomon. The lifetime of King Solomon falls during the Third Intermediate Period (dark age) in Egyptian history, and therefore are no records of Solomon within the very limited Egyptian records from the time. Egyptologists believe the Kingdom of Egypt collapsed at the beginning of the time period, and by the time that Solomon would have lived, in the early-9th century BC, the king of Egypt only controlled the northern region, while the rest of Egypt was under the rule of the High Priest of Amen (Amun). The various books associated with Solomon that made it into the Septuagint, include 3rd Kingdoms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, and Psalms of Solomon, als of which have been retranslated into modern English. The first book in this collection is 3rd Kingdoms, which tells the life of Solomon, likely from Ezra the Scribe's perspective, 500 years later. The book likely dates to before the reign of King Josiah, circa 700 BC, but is believed to have been redacted by Ezra the Scribe, or someone else in his era. The second book, Proverbs, also called Proverbs of Solomon, is generally attributed to King Solomon, who is explicitly referred to as the author of some of the proverbs. A number proverbs are known to have been copied from older collections of proverbs, most notably the Wisdom of Amenemope, which was apparently written by Amenemope son of Kanakht sometime before Pharaoh Akhenaten, circa 1350 BC. The third book, Ecclesiastes is generally also attributed to King Solomon, however, he is not mentioned anywhere by name. The idea that King Solomon was the author, is found in the introduction to the text. At some point before the Greek translation was made, someone added an introduction and conclusion to the text, in which the author is described as being the 'son of David,' and a 'King in Jerusalem.' The fourth book, Song of Songs, also called the Song of Solomon, is a song about King Solomon theoretically written in his time, circa 950 BC. The book does not list its author, but it was clearly written by a woman in love with Solomon. She is believed to have been referring to herself as a Shulamite in chapter 7, which suggests she was Abishag the Shulamite, King David's youngest concubine. The fifth book, Wisdom of Solomon was added to the Septuagint sometime between 250 and 132 BC, and while it was traditionally attributed to King Solomon, today scholars generally believed to have been composed in Greek, shortly before it was added to the Septuagint. 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 the Lord (Iaw/Yahweh) was credited with doing in the Septuagint and Masoretic Texts, however, this changes abruptly to crediting the Lord in chapter 11, and Sophia disappeared entirely from the rest of the book. The sixth book, Psalms of Solomon, is also called Psalms of Salomon in many of the surviving manuscripts, although it is not clear why. At this time, it is universally agreed that the Psalms of Solomon is a pre-Christian work, as early Christian writers referred to it even though it is clearly not about the life of Jesus as described in the gospels. The seventh book, Testament of Solomon, was widely used by Christian and Gnostic astrologers in the first few centuries of the Christian era.

The Septuagint with Apocrypha in English

The Septuagint with Apocrypha in English PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781635489910
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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3rd Enoch: Astronomical Book

3rd Enoch: Astronomical Book PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1989852181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
The five books of Enoch are a collection of books written in Semitic languages, and often grouped together as the 'Book of Enoch,' or '1st Enoch.' The books were likely written at different points in time and different Semitic languages. The first book was the Book of the Watchers, which is generally considered to be the oldest book in the collection, however, the age of the book is debated. The book is now known to have originated long before Christianity since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, was lost for well over a thousand years to Europeans, and assumed to be a Christian-era work when the Europeans rediscovered it in Ethiopia. The five books of Enoch only survive in Ge'ez, the classical language of Ethiopia, however, do not survive intact, and some sections of text do not survive. The Astronomical Book explains a very different version of reality from the one that most people believe in today: a flat world with a physical sky above it. In this other world, the sun, moon, and stars all enter the space under the sky through portals at the east edge of the world and exit through the portals at the western edge of the world. The Astronomical Book attempts to explain the movement of the sun, moon, and winds, and is sometimes referred to as the Enochian Calendar, as it tried to explain the way the days, months, and years pass over time, and how the winds changed through the year. The world described is similar to the ancient Babylonian world view, which many ancient cultures inherited and used until the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes proposed the alternate concept that the world was spherical around 240 BC. The two world-systems were debated until the Imperial Church of Rome officially endorsed the flat Earth, which became the standard European world-view until the time of Copernicus. The Astronomical Book does not have many unique terms or descriptions of events to date it by like the other books of Enoch. There are many unique names found in the Astronomical Book but most cannot be traced back to a specific language or culture, and are therefore not useful for dating the text. The surviving fragments found among the Dead Sea scrolls are accepted as dating back to the 3rd-century BC, however, the book could be significantly older. The names of the sun in chapter 7 could indicate that some of the text originated in the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The names are listed as Orjares and Tomas are possibly based on the Egyptian terms Her-ur and Atum, which were pronounced as herwer and tmw respectively, and were both solar gods. Her-ur was the national god in the first few dynasties of the Old Kingdom, however, had been replaced by the sun-god Ra by the 5th Dynasty. By the Middle Kingdom, Her-ur was replaced by Osiris as the husband of Isis and the father of Horus the younger. If the name Orjares is a corruption of Her-ur, the date of the original text would most-likely date back to before the 5th-Dynasty, and almost certainly before the Middle Kingdom. On the other hand, Atum continued to be worshiped until the New Kingdom, and based on the Letter of Aristeas and the Pithom Stele, was believed to have been Moses' original god by some Jews and Greeks at the time the Septuagint was translated at the Library of Alexandria.

Septuagint's Ezekiel and the Ba'al Cycle

Septuagint's Ezekiel and the Ba'al Cycle PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1990289169
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
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.

Three Steles of Seth

Three Steles of Seth PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1989604269
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
The Three Steles of Seth was a central text of the Sethian sect of Samaritanism. While Sethians are generally described in modern literature as a Gnostic Sect, which would place their genesis in the late-1st or early-2nd-century AD, the sect was recorded by both early Christian, and Jewish historians from the period, as being a Samaritan sect that dated back to before Alexander's conquest of the Persian Empire circa 330 BC. It was nevertheless quite popular during the 2nd and 3rd-centuries AD, along side various Gnostic beliefs that likely had sprang from it. The sect was supposedly founded by a Samaritan named Dositheos, who found the Three Steles of Seth on a mountain top.

Voyage of Wenamen

Voyage of Wenamen PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
ISBN: 1989852688
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
The story of the Voyage of Wenamen, also called the Report of Wenamen, or the Misadventures of Wenamen, is considered one of the earliest surviving adventure tales. Unlike many of their neighboring cultures, the Egyptians did not write historical narratives, the text must have started as an autobiography of Wenamen circa 1065 BC. The one partially surviving copy appears to have been excerpted from the original autobiography, copied for one of the Meshwesh (Berber) Pharaohs that ruled the late 21ˢᵗ Dynasty after Osorkon the Elder seized the throne in 992 BC. It appears as if only the sections about Canaan were copied, which suggests the Pharaoh in question was looking for information on Canaan, likely as a prelude to an invasion. The surviving text includes the beginning of Wenamen's voyage, but not the beginning of his biography, which would have included his titles and honors and the story of how he became a priest of Amen. The surviving text covers Wenamen's voyage from his departure from Thebes, through his stops in the Egyptian capital of Tanis, and the coastal Canaanite cities of Dor, Tyre, and Byblos, before his ship was blown off course to Cyprus, and the story abruptly ends. The section that covers the stop in Tyre is in the damaged section, in the middle of the story, and only survives in fragments. The abrupt ending of the story is clearly not the end of Wenamen's Biography as it does not include his return to Egypt, which must have taken place or his story would never have been known to the Egyptians.

Codex Sinaiticus

Codex Sinaiticus PDF Author: British Library
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780712349987
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Codex Sinaiticus is one of the world's most remarkable books. Written in Greek in the fourth century, it is the oldest surviving complete New Testament, and one of the two oldest manuscripts of the whole Bible. No other early manuscript of the Christian Bible has been so extensively corrected, and the significance of Codex Sinaiticus for the reconstruction of the Christian Bible's original text, the history of the Bible and the history of western book making is immense. Since 2002, a major international project has been creating an electronic version of the manuscript. This magnificent printed facsimile reunites the text, now divided between the British Library, the National Library of Russia, St Catherine's Monastery, Mt Sinai and Leipzig University Library.

The Life of Harkhuf

The Life of Harkhuf PDF Author: Scriptural Research Institute
Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
ISBN: 1990289339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The life of Harkhuf is one of the better-documented lives from the era of the Old Kingdom era of Egyptian history. Harkhuf lived during the reigns of kings Merenre I and Pepi II of the 6ᵗʰ Dynasty, at the same time as the more famous Weni, whom he may have mentioned in his autobiography. Like Weni, he is primarily known from the inscriptions on his tomb, however, unlike Weni, he only seems to have had one tomb. On the front of his tomb were carved two inscriptions, one promising to intercede in the afterlife for those who prayed for him at his tomb, and the other was his autobiography, telling of his three expeditions into Nubia for King Merenre I. This appears to have been the original design of the tomb, as the front of the tomb was completely covered in the two inscriptions, however, like Weni, he later had more to add. Unlike Weni, Harkhuf did not build a second tomb, instead, he had one side of the tomb smoothed off so a letter to him from King Pepi II could be inscribed there, providing more information about the world he lived in. Harkhuf lived during the 6ᵗʰ Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, which would have been at the peak of the Old Kingdom’s international reach, but after the major pyramid-building feats of the 5ᵗʰ Dynasty were completed. Egypt had already built the tallest building in the world around a century before Harkhuf’s expeditions into Nubia, which would continue to be the tallest building in the world for thousands of years, until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. As Merenre I is only believed to have ruled for around 9 years, Harkhuf and Weni had to be active in Nubia at the same time. Weni’s Autobiography includes two lists of Nubian tribes, first a list of five tribes that fought in Canaan with the Egyptian army, and later a list of four tribes when he went to Nubia to dig five canals to open the region to trade via Egyptian barges. Nubia was the land to the south of Egypt, was Aswan and Elephantine at the First Cataract of the Nile. Elephantine, under its older Egyptian name Abu was mentioned as one of the mines that Weni visited, however, was considered Egyptian during the Old Kingdom, and marked the boundary between the two cultures. As only four of the five Nubian tribes that Weni mentioned are mentioned by Harkhuf, it allows both their routes through Nubia to be compared and tracked, establishing where the Nubian settlements were probably located.