Texts in Conversation
In Isaiah 63, God tramples the nations in fury, his garments becoming soaked with blood. The Greek Septuagint removes the reference to blood on his clothes; the change reflects an attempt to soften the harsh image of God acting violently.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 63:3
Hebrew Bible
2 Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat? 3 “I have stomped grapes in the wine press all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage. Their juice splashed on my garments and stained all my clothes. 4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance, and then payback time arrived.
Date: 740–450 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Isaiah 63:3
Septuagint
2 Why are your garments red, and your clothing as if fresh from a trodden winepress? 3 I am full of trodden grape, and of the nations there is not a man with me; and I trampled them in my fury, and dashed them to pieces as earth, and brought down their blood to the earth. 4 For the day of retribution has come upon them, and the year of redemption is at hand.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Cruelty in God ... In LXX Isaiah 63:3, the notion of God’s appearance in clothes stained red with blood is avoided; further, God does not save himself but others ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 21–22.
* 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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