The Septuagint: A Critical Analysis - Christian Mission Connection

The Authenticity of the LXX Chapter 3
Testament the context demands that it means "virgin". The other six times "almah " occurs, it is
translated virgin in nearly all of the various versions. One cannot but wonder as to why the sudden
departure was deemed necessary on the part of the translators in the particular verse before us. The
sign given to bring hope in a desperate situation was that a virgin w a s g o i n g t o c o n c e i v e ! T h e
conception of some arbitrarily selected "young woman" would hardly have been taken as an assuring
prediction.
Moreover, all languages contain both "weak" and "strong" words. By "weak" is meant a word that
has many shades of meaning or even widely different meanings, i.e., the word "cool" in today's
English. Such words can defy etymological studies. "Strong" word s , o n t h e o t h e r h a n d , a r e w o r d s
w h i c h h a v e a v e r y l i m i t e d n a r r o w m e a n i n g – often they contain only one possible sense. We begin to
see the manifold wisdom of God in choosing to reveal His Word to man in two tongues. Weak words
i n o n e l a n g u a g e , w h i c h c o u ld lead to confusion, can be covered by strong words in the other by cross
references and quotations. Such is the case before us. The "weak" Hebrew word "almah" (although
not so weak by its Biblical usage, as already noted) is covered in the N.T. by the " s t r o n g " G r e e k w o r d
"parthenos" which can only be translated "virgin". The translators of the modern versions are well
aware of the incontrovertible decisive nature of "parthenos"; hence, the translation of Isaiah 7:14 into
a n y o t h e r w o r d r e p r e s e n t s a d e liberate willful alteration of the Word of God.
M o r e o v e r , context is the decisive factor for determining the final connotation of any word or phrase,
n o t t h e d i c t i o n a r y d e f i n i t i o n o r e t y m o l o g y . E t y m o l o g y , t h o u g h o f t e n h e l p f u l , i s n o t a n e x a c t s c i e n c e .
I t should be used for confirmation, not as the deciding factor.
Furthermore, Genesis 3:15 records the prophecy that there would be a "seed" of the woman and that
"seed" would be a man. This promised individual would come in the fullness of time and crush th e
serpent's head. This prophecy can only pertain to a virgin conception (called "parthenogenesis") for
w o m e n d o n o t h a v e s e e d s ; t h e y h a v e e g g s . O n l y w h e n a n e g g i s f e r t i l i z e d d o e s i t b e c o m e a s e e d .
T h e r e w a s g o i n g t o b e a " s e e d " w i t h n o m e n t i o n o f a n y man. This is the import of what Genesis 3:15
declares and in so doing, it corroborates and confirms both the Isaiah passage as well as Matthew
1:23. Moreover, the account of Mary's promised miraculous (not - i m m a c u l a t e ) c o n c e p t i o n r e c o r d e d
by Luke declares the same truth; viz., that Mary was a virgin and yet she was to conceive a son (Luk.
1:26- 37, especially vs. 34). Thus we establish that the Bible believer does not need the LXX to bolster
and support the certainty that Mary was a virgin when she miracul o u s l y c o n c e i v e d ( w i t h o u t
intercourse) the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. TO ESTABLISH THAT THE ENTIRE O.T. WAS TRANSLATED
The second reason is even less essential. It involves establishing, on the part of those w h o f e e l t h a t
the Septuagint is a viable and necessary link in sustaining the faith, that the entire Old Testament
was translated into Greek by the 72 scholars and not merely the Pentateuch. The rational for this is
that the radicals, in espousing their theory of "Christological development," attempted to establish
that Aristeas and Josephus had declared that only the Law (the first 5 books of Moses) had been
translated into Greek. 1 This was a shrewd move on their part, for the messianic predictions in those
5 books are relatively few and often obscure. Such a position enabled them to relegate to a later date
and an anonymous authorship the translation into Greek of all the prophetic books of the O.T. –
books which contain indisputable messianic predictions. This was done to make it seem that these
prophecies concerning Jesus were written after the fact.
At the time of Christ, Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the land of Palestine. Only the better
e d u c a t e d J e w s w e r e w e l l v e r s e d i n H e b r e w – much as Latin was the language of the learned in
Europe and America during the past several hundred years. Most of the early Christians, Gentile or
1 Wallace, A Review of the New Versions, op. cit ., Addenda, 4th section, p. 34. Wallace reprints R.C. Foster's "The Battle of
t h e V e r s i o n s .
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