Septuagint and Jewish OT Apocrypha

[Nan_S]

Does anyone know how the books of the Septuagint were chosen, and why most of the Jewish apocalyptical literature such as Enoch and the Assumption of Moses were omitted, as well as Jubilees? The only lead I’ve got was that the Septuagint was translated into Greek in Alexandria, but I have no clue how the scholars decided which books belonged.

We are studying the background of the Book of Revelation, comparing its images to the other literature of the period. We know why the Revelation was included in the NT. One of our members asked why no similar apocalyptical works were included in the Septuagint except for the 2nd half of Daniel.

Thanks,
Nan

 

[colliric]

Does anyone know how the books of the Septuagint were chosen, and why most of the Jewish apocalyptical literature such as Enoch and the Assumption of Moses were omitted, as well as Jubilees? The only lead I’ve got was that the Septuagint was translated into Greek in Alexandria, but I have no clue how the scholars decided which books belonged.

We are studying the background of the Book of Revelation, comparing its images to the other literature of the period. We know why the Revelation was included in the NT. One of our members asked why no similar apocalyptical works were included in the Septuagint except for the 2nd half of Daniel.

Thanks,
Nan

I simply assumed the books contained the same books as the generally thought “Hebrew Canon” of the time, with the addition of personal books the Alexandrian Jews thought should be considered Canon books written after the original Hebrew books, so the skeleton of the Septuagint is the original Hebrew canon with the added books which all occur after the “end” of the old testament, as they seemed not to be of the belief that the bible’s canon should be a completely “set” canon, so they freely added acceptable books. In fact some books in the Septuagint aren’t in Catholic bibles because of the fact they were added after Jesus Christ came.

Their ideas make sense to me and I accept their books as canon when the Catholic Church also does so.

 

[Nan_S]

I simply assumed the books contained the same books as the generally thought “Hebrew Canon” of the time, with the addition of personal books the Alexandrian Jews thought should be considered Canon books written after the original Hebrew books, so the skeleton of the Septuagint is the original Hebrew canon with the added books which all occur after the “end” of the old testament, as they seemed not to be of the belief that the bible’s canon should be a completely “set” canon, so they freely added acceptable books. In fact some books in the Septuagint aren’t in Catholic bibles because of the fact they were added after Jesus Christ came.

Their ideas make sense to me and I accept their books as canon when the Catholic Church also does so.

OK so far, and I understand that there was no apparent definitive declaration of a set of books, but does anyone know why Enoch, Jubilees, the Assumption of Moses, and other works from that period were excluded? Did the translators hold a council or publish their reasons? Or did they just translate whatever they could get their hands on?

 

[Todd_Easton]

Does anyone know how the books of the Septuagint were chosen, and why most of the Jewish apocalyptical literature such as Enoch and the Assumption of Moses were omitted, as well as Jubilees?

It is possible that at least some of the Jewish apocalyptical liturature that you mention were written long after the Septuagint translation was made about 200 B.C. The article on “Apocrypha” in the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia, indicates that at least some of them may not have been written until well after Christ was born.

 

[Alexius]

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has the largest OT canon, because their canon is “open.” Their canon includes 52 books:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, [1]Enoch, Jubilees, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 3rd Ezra, 4rth Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther (includes additions to Esther), 1 Macabees, 2 Macabees, 3 Macabees, Job, Psalms (+ Psalm 151), Proverbs (Proverbs 1-24), Täagsas (Proverbs 25-31), Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Baruch (includes Letter of Jeremiah), Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zecariah, and Malachi.

Just thought someone might find that interesting…

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius