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In the Greek Septuagint version of Jeremiah 26, the Hebrew word for “prophet” is changed to “false prophet.” The translators saw those confronting Jeremiah not as prophets but as frauds and added their own interpretation to the text.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jeremiah 26:7
Hebrew Bible
6 If you do not obey me, then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’” 7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the Lord’s temple. 8 Jeremiah had just barely finished saying all the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people when all at once some of the priests, the prophets, and the people grabbed him and shouted, “You deserve to die!
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Jeremiah 33:7
Septuagint
6 then I will make this house as Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of all the earth. 7 And the priests, and the false prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. 8 And it happened, when Jeremiah had ceased speaking all that the Lord had ordered him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the false prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shall surely die,
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Dissociation from the nations is mirrored sometimes also terminologically: the translators of Septuagint avoid the term µάντις for “prophet” ... This topic, known from Tobit 14:4 caused changes in Amos 5:1; Jeremiah 1:1; 45:27; 51:29. Some of them can be caused by the Vorlage; in other cases it is uncertain. In Jeremiah 33[26]:7, where נביא ('prophet') is translated by ψευδοπροφήτης ('false prophet'), the lack of divine authority is marked. It is not possible that a prophet who is really sent by God would partake in the priest’s activity against Jeremiah ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 106.
* 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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