Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 65 describes God making himself “available,” suggesting a natural physical presence. The Greek Septuagint translation changes this to “became visible,” emphasizing divine transcendence and avoiding any hint of God having a physical form.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 65:1
Hebrew Bible
1 “I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke my name. 2 I spread out my hands all day long to my rebellious people, who lived in a way that is morally unacceptable and who did what they desired. 3 These people continually and blatantly offend me as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards and burn incense on brick altars.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 65:1
Septuagint
1 I became manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me: I said, Look, I am here, to a nation, who did not call on my name. 2 I have stretched forth my hands all day to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who did not walk in a true way, but after their sins. 3 This is the people that provokes me continually in my presence; they offer sacrifices in gardens, and burn incense on bricks to demons, which do not exist.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Natalio Fernández Marcos showed that the textual variants in Isaiah 65–66 attest a pattern of readings in manuscripts Ziegler called “Lucianic.” In these manuscripts he identified 13 small changes taken from the Three toward conformity with the Masoretic Text, but even more stylistic improvements and a few Atticizing tendencies. He then pointed out a few older readings preserve in Antiochene manuscripts, readings that were supplanted in later manuscripts. Finally, he noted the Antiochene reading was an exegetical method that emphasized the historical over the allegorical method of interpretation, but he did not associate this method with specific Antiochene textual readings. In other words, the label “Antiochene reading” does not constitute a witness to Antiochene theology in the same way as Seeligmann claimed the Old Greek was a witness to Alexandrian theology ..."
Ken M. Penner, Septuagint Commentary Series: Isaiah (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 638–639.
* 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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