Page 40 - Yahwehs Book

the seventy, rather than the altered and corrupted versions that were common at the time.

Jerome ascribes the introduction of errors into the Septuagint to Origen who merged Theodotion’s
version of the Greek Old Testament with the original Septuagint. Origen did, however, indicate
where changes had been made to the Greek text. Where there was additional material added by
Theodotion, he marked the content with an asterisk. Jerome then challenges Augustine to only accept
those portions of the Septuagint where there are no asterisks, for then he would be true to the original
Septuagint. He cautions Augustine, however, warning him that if he is faithful to the seventy that
he will find himself at odds with all of the Bibles in use by the Christian churches of the day.

I am surprised that you do not read the books of the Seventy translators in the genuine form in which
they were originally given to the world, but as they have been corrected, or rather corrupted, by
Origen, with his obelisks and asterisks; and that you refuse to follow the translation, however feeble,
which has been given by a Christian man, especially seeing that Origen borrowed the things which
he has added from the edition of a man who, after the passion of Christ, was a Jew and a
blasphemer. Do you wish to be a true admirer and partisan of the Seventy translators? Then do not
read what you find under the asterisks; rather erase them from the volumes, that you may approve
yourself indeed a follower of the ancients. If, however, you do this, you will be compelled to find
fault with all the libraries of the Churches; for you will scarcely find more than one manuscript here
and there which has not these interpolations.
[Source: Ibid]

This discourse between these two men reveals the disparity that existed in the Greek Bibles over
1,600 years ago, and the prejudice that existed among men such as Augustine who favored a specific
translation. Augustine’s bias in favor of the Septuagint was not based upon the merits of the
translation, for it had been corrupted, and many variants existed. I believe Jerome’s attitude is the
proper one. He favored examining all the existing manuscripts, whether Hebrew, or Greek, while
laboring to arrive as closely as possible to the original words of the prophets. Ironically, in time, the
Roman Catholic Church would manifest the same bias in favor of Jerome’s Latin translation as
Augustine had demonstrated for the Greek Septuagint.

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In the 16 century we see a similar manifestation of translation bias for a specific Bible as some
began to inordinately venerate Erasmus’ Latin/Greek Bible which came to be known as the Textus
Receptus. Erasmus never boasted of having created a flawless Bible translation. As so often happens,