Texts in Conversation
Leviticus 20 says that a man who sleeps with his sister “shall bear his iniquity,” but the Greek Septuagint changes this to say “they shall bear iniquity,” applying guilt to both. This change introduces an interpretation based on shared responsibility.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 20:17
Hebrew Bible
16 If a woman approaches any animal to copulate with it, you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 17 “‘If a man has marital relations with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. 18 If a man goes to bed with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood, and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them must be cut off from the midst of their people.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Leviticus 20:17
Septuagint
16 And whatever woman shall approach any beast, so as to have connection with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast: let them die the death, they are guilty. 17 Whoever shall take his sister by his father or by his mother, and shall see her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a reproach: they shall be destroyed before the children of their family; he has uncovered his sister's nakedness, they shall bear their sin. 18 And whatever man shall lie with a woman that is set apart for a flux, and shall uncover her nakedness, he has uncovered her fountain, and she has uncovered the flux of her blood: they shall both be destroyed from among their generation.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... It is no easy task to determine whether a deviation from the Masoretic text in the Septuagint reflects a Hebrew variant or the translator's style or exegesis. For example, in the case of differences in grammatical categories such as sing/pl and different pronoun forms. However, some such variants are supported by other ancient witnesses, including Hebrew texts such as the Samaritan Pentateuch and biblical or non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls. For example, Leviticus 20:17 the Masoretic text says “he shall bear his iniquity”; and the Greek Leviticus says “they shall bear iniquity”, applying to “a man and his sister”. In cases of harmonization scholars differ as to whether they should be attributed to the Greek translator or his Vorlage. When the harmonization refers to a remote location, it is more likely that it was already present in the Hebrew Vorlage ..."
Moshe A. Zipor, “The Nature of the Septuagint Version of the Book of Leviticus,” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 121–132.
* 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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