Texts in Conversation
Numbers 12 says God spoke to Moses face to face and that Moses saw God's form, emphasizing a direct encounter. The Greek Septuagint changes "form" to "glory," avoiding the anthropomorphic idea that God's physical appearance could be seen.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 12:8
Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not like this; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I will speak face to face, openly and not in riddles, and he will see the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed. 10 After the cloud had departed from above the tent, there was Miriam, leprous like snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and realized that she was leprous.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Numbers 12:8
Septuagint
6 And he said to them, Hear my words: If there should be of you a prophet to the Lord, I will be made known to him in a vision, and in sleep I will speak to him. 7 My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house. 8 I will speak to him mouth to mouth in appearance, and not in riddles; and he has seen the glory of the Lord; and why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the great anger of the Lord was upon them, and he departed. 10 And the cloud departed from the tabernacle; and, look, Miriam was leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, look, she was leprous.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The translators generally felt free to literally render verses or words, in which God is portrayed anthropomorphically, but in the present instance, as in some others, anthropomorphic expressions were avoided. Rejecting the idea that God’s תמנה (‘humility’) can be seen, the translator introduced the idea of δόξα ('glory') ..."
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, 3rd ed. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 53.
* 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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