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LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 1

1 In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. 2 But the earth was invisible and unformed,⁠ and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water. 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water,⁠ and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so.⁠ 7 And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.⁠ And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. 15 And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. 17 And God placed them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, 18 and to regulate day and night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life, and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven, and it was so. 21 And God made the great sea monsters, and every living reptile, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every creature that flies with wings according to its kind, and God saw that they were good. 22 And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so. 25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good. 26 And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness,⁠ and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 27 And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them.⁠ 28 And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth,⁠ and all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 29 And God said, Look, I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed that is sown, to you it shall be for food. 30 And to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the flying creatures of heaven, and to every reptile creeping on the earth, which has in itself the breath of life, even every green plant for food; and it was so. 31 And God saw all the things that he had made, and, look, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Texts in conversation

Compare Plato, Timaeus 31b and LXX Genesis 1:6

Classical · Septuagint

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Summary

The Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis uses language similar to Plato’s Timaeus, such as its description of the sky as a “structure” and the pre-creation world as “unseen and unformed,” showing how Greek traditions shaped the translation.

Passages

Plato, Timaeus 31b

Classical
31 Are we right, then, in describing the Heaven as one, or would it be more correct to speak of heavens as many or infinite in number? One it must be termed, if it is to be framed after its Pattern. For that which embraces all intelligible Living Creatures could never be second, with another beside it; for if so, there must needs exist yet another Living Creature, which should embrace them both, and of which they two would each be a part; in which case this Universe could no longer be rightly described as modelled on these two, but rather on that third Creature which contains them both. Wherefore, in order that this Creature might resemble the all perfect Living Creature in respect of its uniqueness, for this reason its Maker made neither two Universes nor an infinite number, but there is and will continue to be this one generated Heaven, unique of its kind. Now that which has come into existence must needs be of bodily form, visible and tangible; yet without fire nothing could ever become visible, nor tangible without some solidity, nor solid without earth. Hence, in beginning to construct the body of the All, God was making it of fire and earth. But it is not possible that two things alone should be conjoined without a third; for there must needs be some intermediary bond to connect the two. And the fairest of bonds is that which most perfectly unites into one both itself and the things which it binds together; and to effect this in the fairest manner is the natural property of proportion. For whenever the middle term of any three numbers, cubic or square,
360 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Plato, Timaeus

LXX Genesis 1:6

Septuagint
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so. 7 And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

References

"... An early example of the attempt at theological reconciliation with philosophy appears in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek beginning in the third century B.C.E., which originally only concerned the translation of the Torah. It adopts the terminology of the means of creation from Plato’s Timaeus for the creation of the world in its translation of Genesis 1. The concepts and implicit assumptions evidently attempt to harmonize biblical and Platonic cosmology. The world described in the Bible is, according to the Septuagint, none other than the one addressed in Greek philosophy and science. The proximity to Timaeus is apparent in Genesis 1:2, for example: the Septuagint expresses the state of the world before creation, which is Hebrew is described by the proverbial tohuwabohu (that is, ‘life-threatening wasteland’; compare Isaiah 34:11; Jeremiah 4:23), as ἀόρατος καί ἀκατασκεύστος (‘unseen and unformed’), which appears to indicate a correspondence to the distinction between the world of ideas and the material world that is central in Timaeus. The rendering of rāqiaʿ (‘firmament’) in Genesis 1:6 by στερέωμα (‘structure’) should likely also be explained as a reference to Timaeus, where the related adjective, στερεός (‘firm, solid’) is used repeatedly for the heavenly bodies (31b; 43c, among others) ..."
Konrad Schmid, Is There Theology in the Hebrew Bible?, CSHB 4 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 109–110.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Plato, Timaeus 31b and LXX Genesis 1:6

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