Jesus and the Septuagint

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lea
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lea

Guest
Is it true that Jesus and the apostles used the Septuagint version of the Old Testament? If so, how do the Protestant religions justify their belief that the deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books are not inspired Scripture?

Thanks and God bless…
 
From what I know, which is not a great deal, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod does not have a doctrine on which books are in the Bible.

It is my observation that most Protestant and Catholics people do not know, understand or worry about such matters.

Again, the statement about the LCMS is accurate. The other idea is just an opinion or observation, nothing more.
 
40.png
Lea:
Is it true that Jesus and the apostles used the Septuagint version of the Old Testament?
Click to expand...
Most, but not all, of the OT quotes in the NT are from the Septuagint.
If so, how do the Protestant religions justify their belief that the deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books are not inspired Scripture?
Click to expand...
The early Protestants predicated their OT on the Jewish Tanakh. Thus, they allowed the Jews to decided what was inspired Scripture for the OT.

This also applied to most of the Septuagint, as the Torah and the Nevi’im, the Law and the Prophets, had been formalised prior to Jesus’ ministry, hence the repeated references to them in the NT. The Psalms were not among these, which is why Luke 24:44 says, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.
 
I just heard them discuss this on CA Live last week - Tim Staples said the early Church used the Greek translation, which included the Deuterocanonicals, and later on the Protestants used the Jewish version, the Jewish of course having rejected Jesus.
 
40.png
Lea:
Is it true that Jesus and the apostles used the Septuagint version of the Old Testament? If so, how do the Protestant religions justify their belief that the deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books are not inspired Scripture?

Thanks and God bless…
Click to expand...
It is true that out of the approximately 340 New Testament references to the Old Testament that 300 are from the Septuagint.
The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures done for the Alexandrian Jews during the 2nd and 1st Century B.C. Since Greek was the “universal” language at the time the Septuagint was widely accepted by most Jews of the dispersion with some acceptance in Palestine as shown in the Dead Sea Scrolls. During the 1st century A.D. after the destruction of the temple a Jewish religious council was held to finalize the canon of the Bible. The Jewish leaders rejected all the Christian books and accepted a four part criteria for inclusion in the Jewish Canon:
  1. Book must have been written in Hebrew (this had been St. Jerome’s objection to the deutrocanical works which latter Martin Luther was to use as his excuse for deleting - Judith, Baruch, Sirach, Wisdom, Tobit, and Maccabees I & II, this argument would take a hit in 1947 with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls where parts of Tobit and Sirach were found in Hebrew)
  2. Had to be written in Palestine
  3. Had to be no earlier than the Prophet Ezra (approximately 400 B.C.) due to “prophetic silence” (please not this silence is going on now for nearly 2400 years and is still counting
  4. Could not conflict with the Law, the first five books of Moses, the Torah
Later Protestants have concluded that the mere mention of verses from the Septuagint does not prove them to be inspired, but only “worthy” of use by Christ and the Apostles.

The real question people must ask, whether you are Catholic or Protestant, is who would you rather believe as to the canon of the bible. The Jewish leaders who were persecuting the early Christians, who could not recognize what was the inspired word of God, since they rejected Christ and his teachings or the Catholic Church who in the 4th and 5th century through papal decree and various councils established what the Catholic Church has today and was accepted for over 1000 years prior to the Reformation. :whistle:
 
Jesus not only quoted from the Septuagint.

He celebrated Hanukkah(the feast of dedication) in John 10 22-23
that feast comes from Maccabees.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top