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Leviticus 23 describes the Passover offering as occurring “between the two evenings,” a phrase that is ambiguous and difficult to interpret. Later traditions, including the Greek Septuagint, do not follow the literal timing implied by the text.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 23:5
Hebrew Bible
4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you must proclaim at their appointed time. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is a Passover offering to the Lord. 6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month will be the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Leviticus 23:5
Septuagint
4 These are the feasts to the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall call in their seasons. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evening times is the Lord's passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you will eat unleavened bread.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Quite surprisingly, the Septuagint rather than the Samaritan Pentateuch includes by far the largest number of harmonizations in Leviticus, especially in pluses. Altogether, the LXX contains 281 instances of harmonization, followed by the Samaritan text with 108 and the Masoretic text with a mere twenty-five instances ... In all of the Torah, the source that contains the largest number of harmonizations is the LXX. Possibly an equally large number was once contained in the pre-Samaritan scrolls, but at this point we only have fragmentary information for them ... The Septuagint stands out not only regarding the number of its harmonizations, but also in relation to their nature. The harmonizations in that source are more extensive than those in the Samaritan and Masoretic text ..."
Emanuel Tov, “Textual Harmonization in Leviticus,” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 13–38.
* 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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