Texts in Conversation
In the Greek Septuagint of Isaiah, obscure names like Hamath are replaced with familiar ones like Arabia, using Genesis to help readers recognize forgotten locations. This creates anachronistic links to Genesis and reshapes Isaiah's geography.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 10:9
Hebrew Bible
7 But he does not agree with this; his mind does not reason this way, for his goal is to destroy and to eliminate many nations. 8 Indeed, he says: ‘Are not my officials all kings? 9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish? Hamath like Arpad? Samaria like Damascus? 10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s or Samaria’s.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 11:2
Septuagint
1 And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all. 2 And it happened as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there. 3 And a man said to his neighbor, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was bitumen.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 10:9
Septuagint
7 But he did not mean thus, neither did he devise thus in his soul: but his mind shall change, and that to destroy nations not a few. 8 And if they should say to him, You alone are ruler; 9 then he shall say, Have I not taken the country above Babylon and Calneh, where the tower was built? and have I not taken Arabia, and Damascus, and Samaria? 10 As I have taken these in my hand, I will also take all the kingdoms: howl, you idols in Jerusalem, and in Samaria.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... a hint towards viewing the period of the Isaiah translation seems to be revealed in what might appear as the translator's struggle in seeking to help his audience to recognize some of the place-names in both chapter 10 and 11. As Troxel has rightly observed, it is only in chapter 10 and 11 where the translator (via intertextual associations with texts outside Isaiah, i.e., LXX Genesis 10:10 and 11:2), has translated חמת by Ἀραβία (Isaiah 10:9 and 11:11; compare 15:7, 9), inserted τὴν χώραν τὴν ἐπὶ τῶν Βαβυλωνίων (Isaiah 10:9), and intelligibly rendered וּמִשְׁנֵהָ with Βαβυλωνίας (Isaiah 11:11). Troxel’s interesting observation here provides further vital proof of the argument advanced in our study pertinent to the translator's use of intertextuality in the production of his text, a method that seems to have been set for any reader of his text to read hermeneutically ..."
Abi T. Ngunga, Messianism in the Old Greek of Isaiah: An Intertextual Analysis, FRLANT 245 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 99.
* 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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