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Genesis 7 says the flood started on the 17th day of the second month, but the Greek Septuagint translation changes it to the 27th day. The Greek version likely changed this so that the flood lasted exactly one year.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 7:11
Hebrew Bible
9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him. 10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month—on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. 13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 7:11
Septuagint
9 pairs went in to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 10 And it happened after the seven days that the water of the flood came upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, on this day all the fountains of the abyss were broken up, and the flood-gates of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that very day entered Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah, and the three wives of his sons with him into the ark.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Genesis 7 ... The Hebrew text has the flood beginning on the 17th day of the month, whereas the Septuagint of Genesis has it as the 27th day of the month (the word 'day' is idiomatically omitted). By having the flood start ten days later LXX Genesis makes the period from start to finish exactly one year in length; compare 8:14 - in the Masoretic text the period is ten days longer ..."
John William Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis, SCS 35 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1993), 93.
* 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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