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LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 15

1 And after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram, I shield you, your reward shall be very great. 2 And Abram said, Master, what will you give me? whereas I am departing without a child, but the son of Masek my home-born female slave, this Eliezer of Damascus is my heir. 3 And Abram said, Since you have given me no seed, my home-born servant shall succeed me. 4 And immediately there was a voice of the Lord to him, saying, This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come out of you shall be your heir. 5 And he brought him out and said to him, Look up now to heaven, and count the stars, if you shall be able to number them fully, and he said,⁠ Thus shall your seed be. 6 And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.⁠ 7 And he said to him, I am God that brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans, so as to give you this land to inherit. 8 And he said, Master and Lord, how shall I know that I shall inherit it? 9 And he said to him, Take for me a heifer in her third year, and a she-goat in her third year, and a ram in his third year, and a dove and a pigeon. 10 So he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and set them opposite to each other, but the birds he did not divide. 11 And birds came down upon the bodies, even upon the divided parts of them,⁠ and Abram sat down by them. 12 And about sunset a trance fell upon Abram, and look! a great gloomy terror falls upon him. 13 And it was said to Abram, You shall surely know that your seed shall be a temporary resident in a land not their own, and they shall enslave them, and afflict them, and humble them four hundred years. 14 And the nation which they shall serve I will judge; and after this, they shall come forth here with much property. 15 But you shall depart to your fathers in peace, buried in a good old age. 16 And in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up, even until now. 17 And when the sun was about to set, there was a flame, and look, a smoking furnace and lamps of fire, which passed between these divided pieces. 18 In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, 21 and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 15:6 and LXX Genesis 15:6 and Jubilees 14:6 and Romans 4:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions · New Testament

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Summary

Genesis 15 says Abram’s faith was counted as righteousness, which is quoted in Jubilees and Romans. The quote in Jubilees uses different language that matches other ancient versions, hinting at an older form of the story than the Masoretic tradition.

Passages

Genesis 15:6

Hebrew Bible
5 The Lord took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars—if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him. 7 The Lord said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

LXX Genesis 15:6

Septuagint
5 And he brought him out and said to him, Look up now to heaven, and count the stars, if you shall be able to number them fully, and he said, Thus shall your seed be. 6 And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 7 And he said to him, I am God that brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans, so as to give you this land to inherit.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

Jubilees 14:6

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
4 And He brought him outside, and said to him: 'Look toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to count them.' 5 And he looked toward heaven, and saw the stars. And He said to him: 'So your descendants shall be.' 6 And he believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 7 And He said to him: 'I am the Lord that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you the land of the Canaanites to possess it forever; and I will be God to you and to your descendants after you.'
170–125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jubilees

Romans 4:3

New Testament
1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter? 2 For if Abraham was declared righteous by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation.
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

"... Compared to the Masoretic text of Genesis 15:1–6, Jubilees 14:1–6 has the addition of the dating (Jubilees 14:1), some other small additions (elements in Jubilees 14:2-5), some small omissions (Genesis 15:3, and elements in Genesis 15:3-4), and some variations (elements in Jubilees 14:1-6). Some of the differences are possibly due to the fact that the text of Genesis the author of Jubilees uses is a text different from the Masoretic one. The suffix (“to him”) to the verb in Jubilees 14:4 occurs also in the Peshitta, Septuagint, old Latin, and Ethiopic text of Gen 15:5. (See also Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23; 1 Maccabees 2:52) The passive form in Jubilees 14:6 (“it was counted”) occurs also in the Peshitta, Septuagint, old Latin, and Ethiopic text of Genesis 15:6. Therefore, we cannot consider these deviations as variations of the scriptural text ..."
Jacques T. A. G. M. van Ruiten, Abraham in the Book of Jubilees: The Rewriting of Genesis 11:26–25:10 in the Book of Jubilees 11:14–23:8, JSJSup 161 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 123.

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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Genesis 15:6 and LXX Genesis 15:6 and Jubilees 14:6 and Romans 4:3

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