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In Genesis 1: 26, is tanniyn translated into the Septuagint as drakon?
 
John 7 thanks!

What is the Greek?

Does it appear in the N. T.?

Thanks!
 
sorry for the short answer 😃
good morning

there are no tanniyns in verse 1:26
but there are hebrew-'dageth’s > fish

But

in verse 1:21 τὰ κήτη τὰ μεγάλα (ta khth ta megala) > tanniyn hgedolim
translated as
-the great fish (pl)
-great sea creatures
-whales
 
actually ‘khtos’ by itself is big/great fish

and there are no ‘khtos’ in NT

in NT fish is ‘ikthus’
 
John7

You are a saint and scholar, thanks!

Does the Greek for Tanniyn in the Septuaging appear in the New Testament?

I am sorry for not being able to get my ideas out clearly.

THANKS!!!
 
John7

You are a saint and scholar, thanks!

Does the Greek for Tanniyn in the Septuaging appear in the New Testament?

I am sorry for not being able to get my ideas out clearly.

THANKS!!!
No scholar, just have BibleWorks (great software) 🙂
I edited post 5
 
actually ‘khtos’ by itself is big/great fish

and there are no ‘khtos’ in NT

in NT fish is ‘ikthus’
**Correction **there is one ‘khtous’ in NT,

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

NASB translates it as 'sea monster, NAB as 'whale

If go to book of Jonah, 1:17 the ‘fish/whale’ is hebrew ‘dag’ not ‘tanniyn’.
 
In Genesis 1: 26, is tanniyn translated into the Septuagint as drakon?
This question’s already answered, but here’s a supplement.

I think you meant Genesis 1:21 here:

כא וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים; וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם, וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב.

21: Va’yivra Elohim et-ha’taninim ha’gedolim ve’et kol nefesh ha’chayah ha’romeset asher shartzu hamayim le-minehem ve’et kol-of kanaf leminehu vayar Elohim ki-tov.

And Elohim is making the great taninim, and every living soul that is creeping, with which the waters swarmed with, after their kind, and every bird with wing, after his kind. And Elohim is seeing that it is good.

The Hebrew ha’taninim ha’gedolim (“the great taninim”) may have originally referred to mysterious creatures that dwell within the waters (i.e. ‘sea-creatures’ or ‘sea-monsters’). The 1917 translation of the Tanakh by the Jewish Publication Society of America thus rendered it as “the great sea-monsters”.* The Septuagint therefore renders the verse thus:

21: καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ κήτη τὰ μεγάλα καὶ πᾶσαν ψυχὴν ζῴων ἑρπετῶν, ἃ ἐξήγαγεν τὰ ὕδατα κατὰ γένη αὐτῶν, καὶ πᾶν πετεινὸν πτερωτὸν κατὰ γένος. καὶ εἶδεν ὁ θεὸς ὅτι καλά.

And God made the great sea-monsters (ta kētē ta megala) and every breath of living-creatures of creepers (erpetōn, from erpo “to creep”; often rendered “reptiles”), which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every winged feathered creature according to kind. And God saw that they were good.

Tanin was rendered in Greek as kētos because its original meaning overlapped with the Hebrew tanin (c.f. the sea-monster Kētos of Greek Mythology). It was only in the Middle Ages that the Greek kētos and the Latin cetus shifted in meaning to mean “whale” - as the word can also denote a fish of big size. This is the reason why we commonly think (perhaps incorrectly) that Jonah was swallowed by ‘a whale’.

*Meanwhile, note that the word’s meaning has shifted in modern Hebrew to “crocodile” or “alligator”.
 
patrick457

Thanks!

I do not know Hebrew or Greek–that should have been clear. I hope it was and is.

I was not going to ask again, but since you have been so gracious: does the Septuagint’s translation of anniyn of Genesis 1: 21 appear in the New Testament’s Greek? All of the people that answered have written above my head.

I think that in the Psalm 74: 13 it was translated a drakon. Drakon does appear in the Apocalypse. But my question is concerning the translation of the Hebrew to the Greek of Genesis 1: 21 and then does that Greek word appear in the New Testament and where.

THANKS!!!
 
patrick457

Thanks!

I do not know Hebrew or Greek–that should have been clear. I hope it was and is.

I was not going to ask again, but since you have been so gracious: does the Septuagint’s translation of anniyn of Genesis 1: 21 appear in the New Testament’s Greek? All of the people that answered have written above my head.

I think that in the Psalm 74: 13 it was translated a drakon. Drakon does appear in the Apocalypse. But my question is concerning the translation of the Hebrew to the Greek of Genesis 1: 21 and then does that Greek word appear in the New Testament and where.

THANKS!!!
Well, tanin is rendered kētos in the Septuagint Genesis. When the word kētos is used in the New Testament (as mentioned, the only use of it is in Matthew 12:40), it is used to mean the creature that swallowed Jonah - since the Septuagint Jonah (1:17) renders the Hebrew phrase dag gadol (“a great fish”) with the same word used in Genesis 1:21: kētei megalō.

As an aside about Psalm 74 (73):13-14:

You split by your strength a sea, you broke to pieces heads of taninim upon the waters.
You crushed heads of Livyatan; you are giving him as food for the people of the dry places.

Which the Septuagint does render as:

You strengthened in your might the sea; you broke to pieces the heads of the dragons (drakontōn) upon the water.
You shattered the heads of the dragon (drakonton); you give him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.
 
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