Texts in Conversation
The Greek Septuagint translation of Isaiah 8 may reference internal conflict in the Hellenistic Jewish community during the time it was translated. The Hebrew version calls for preserving the message among the faithful, and the Greek criticizes reformers, possibly linked to figures in texts like 1 Maccabees.
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Isaiah 8:16
Hebrew Bible
15 Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, and will fall and be seriously injured, and will be ensnared and captured.” 16 Tie up the testimony32, seal the official record of God’s instructions, and give it to my followers. 17 I will wait patiently for the Lord, who has rejected the family of Jacob; I will wait for him.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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LXX Isaiah 8:16
Septuagint
15 Therefore, many among them shall become powerless, and they shall fall and be crushed, and people who are in safety shall draw near and be taken. 16 Then shall become manifest those who seal up the law so that they might not learn. 17 And one shall say, “I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Iakob, and I will trust in him.
Date: 1st Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... We distinguish different kinds of contemporizing: Sometimes the translators actualize their source text by introducing actual external enemies of Israel; sometimes we can detect allusions of inner-Israelite struggles; sometimes we can detect references on actual state without emphasizing enemies ... Polemics against inner-Israelite enemies are debated with regard to Amos 1:15; Isa 8:6, 9:4. In Amos 1:15, the Septuagint reads οἱ βασιλeῖς αὐτῆς (plural instead of singular). The Ammonite rulers are most likely the Tobiad supporters of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes. Isaiah 8:16 is ad vocem τοῦ µὴ µαθεῖν perhaps a polemic against the Jewish radical reformers who are described also in 1 Maccabees 1:11–15. Maybe the same is true for Isaiah 9:4 according to Arie van der Kooij and Florian Wilk: Iason and Menelaos bought the στολή of the high priest (2 Maccabees 4:7), and the translator criticizes it ..."
* 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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