Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 25 promises that God will swallow up death forever. The Greek Septuagint misunderstands the ancient Near Eastern reference and reverses the language so that death swallows people, turning God’s defeat of death into death’s victory over them.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 25:8
Hebrew Bible
7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 9 At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
LXX Isaiah 25:8
Septuagint
7 they will anoint themselves with perfume. Deliver all these things to the nations on this mountain, for this counsel is against all the nations. 8 Death, having prevailed, swallowed them up, and God has again taken away every tear from every face; the disgrace of the people he has taken away from all the earth, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 9 And they will say on that day, Lo, our God, in whom we were hoping, and we were glad in our salvation,
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Notes and References
... This results in the translation: “Death swallowed [them]” (κατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος), which makes death appear at the feast, threatening to devour the food and drink God has prepared, the guests, or even God himself. The appearance of death at the feast, no doubt, was theologically problematic to the translators. The Septuagint resolves the problem by making death’s destructive activity penultimate to the ultimate graciousness of God. The Septuagint of verse 8a reads: “Death, having prevailed, swallowed them up, but God has again taken away every tear from every face” (κατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος ἰσχύσας, καὶ πάλιν ἀφεῖλεν ὁ θεὸς πᾶν δάκρυον ἀπὸ παντὸς προσώπου; Isaiah 25:8a, New English Translation of the Septuagint). That God’s grace trumps death’s momentary threat is the point. ...
Cho, Paul Kang-Kul; Fu, Janling
"Death and Feasting in the Isaiah Apocalypse" in Hibbard, J. Todd; Kim, Hyun Chul Paul (ed.) Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24-27
(pp. 118-119) Society of Biblical Literature, 2013
* 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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