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Leviticus 3 describes an animal being burned as a “food gift to God.” An early Greek version, found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, avoids calling this “bread,” a word used in later Greek versions. This was likely changed to avoid implying that God eats.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 3:11
Hebrew Bible
10 the two kidneys with the fat on their sinews, and the protruding lobe on the liver (which he is to remove along with the kidneys). 11 Then the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar as a food gift to the Lord. 12 “‘If his offering is a goat, he must present it before the Lord, 13 lay his hand on its head, and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash its blood against the altar’s sides.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Leviticus 3:11
Septuagint
10 and both the kidneys and the fat that is upon them, and that which is on the thighs, and the caul which is on the liver with the kidneys, 11 the priest shall offer these on the altar: it is a smell of sweet aroma, a burnt offering to the Lord. 12 And if his offering be of the goats, then he will bring it before the Lord.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The two Greek manuscripts from Qumran, 4QLXXLeva and 4QpapLXXLevb, which contain the earliest formulation of the Septuagint of Leviticus, are the best candidates to reflect the profile of the translator of that book. The translation technique was free and the translator avoided semitisms. The terminology he chose was less ideological and less standardized. This does not exclude any ideological approach in his translation, since in Leviticus 3:11 he clearly avoided, on ideological grounds we may suppose, the notion that God should receive “bread”. The other aspect of the translation I pointed out is that it was closer to the Samaritan Pentateuch than the actual edited Septuagint (Rahlfs). Thus, the literal aspect, the word-by-word technique of translation of the edited Septuagint are the result of a later recension. Therefore, although the two Greek manuscripts of Leviticus from Qumran are fragmentary, they allow us to recover the closest and the earliest text of the Septuagint, as well as the earliest profile of the translator ..."
Innocent Himbaza, “The Edited Septuagint of Leviticus Is Not the Septuagint: A Plea for a Paradigm Shift,” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 107–120.
* 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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