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The Greek Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 16 adds the instruction to roast the Passover offering, attempting to harmonize the conflicting command to boil it with the earlier command in Exodus that strictly forbids boiling and requires roasting.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 16:7
Hebrew Bible
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but you must sacrifice it in the evening in the place where he chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt. 7 You must boil13 and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents. 8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. 9 You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Deuteronomy 16:7
Septuagint
5 you shall not have power to sacrifice the passover in any of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you. 6 But in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to have his name called there, you shall sacrifice the passover in the evening at the setting of the sun, at the time when you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall boil and roast and eat it in the place, which the Lord your God shall choose; and you shall return in the morning, and go to your house. 8 Six days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a holiday, a feast to the Lord your God: you shall not do in it any work, save what must be done by any one. 9 Seven full weeks you will number to yourself; when you have begun to put the sickle to the grain, you shall begin to number seven weeks.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Septuagint, then, is not just a translation but also an interpretation of Deuteronomy. There is a concern to disambiguate, to contemporise and to harmonise readings with other biblical texts and contemporary Jewish practice. For instance, the translator adds the verb ‘roast’ (ὀπτήσεις) to chapter 16, verse 7 in order to specify that the paschal offering must not only be boiled in water, but also be roasted by fire. LXX Deuteronomy is a harmonisation of two incompatible laws: Exodus 12:8-9 forbade emphatically the cooking of the lamb in any way with water, prescribing instead its roasting over the fire (compare 1 Samuel 2:15); the MT of Deuteronomy 16:7, however, uses the verb bashal ‘to boil’ for cooking. The Septuagint of Deuteronomy combines these two laws, so that the meat must be both boiled and roasted (compare 2 Chronicles 35:13 and its resolution of the laws). As Wevers rightly asked, “Could this then have reflected local practice in Alexandria?” ..."
Timothy H. Lim, “Deuteronomy in the Judaism of the Second Temple Period,” in Deuteronomy in the New Testament, ed. Maarten J. J. Menken and Steve Moyise (London: T&T Clark International, 2007), 6–26.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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