Texts in Conversation
In Exodus 24, God's glory is said to live on Mount Sinai, suggesting a permanent presence. In the Greek Septuagint, this is changed to describe God descending on the mountain, likely theologically motivated to emphasize divine transcendence.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 24:16
Hebrew Bible
15 Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the Lord resided on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in plain view of the people.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Exodus 24:16
Septuagint
15 And Moses and Joshua went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 And the glory of God came down upon the mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the Lord called Moses on the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud. 17 And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was as burning fire on the top of the mountain, before the children of Israel.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In the Septuagint of Exodus, the idea of God’s dwelling in Exodus 25:7 is replaced by the notion of God’s appearance and in Exodus 29:45 by the motive of human invocation of God. The connection of “dwelling” with the glory of God is replaced in Exodus 24:16 by the motif of descending and in Exodus 40:35 by the motif of overshadowing. Critical examination of these changes suggests they are the conscious work of the translator. Due to this emphasis of God’s transcendence, any definition of physicality or containment of God is avoided ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 144.
* 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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