Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 2

1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and the whole world of them. 2 And God finished⁠ on the⁠ sixth day his works⁠ which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made.⁠ 3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to do. 4 This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were made, in the day in which God made the heaven and the earth, 5 and every herb of the field before it was on the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up, for God had not rained on the earth, and there was not a man to cultivate it. 6 But there rose a fountain out of the earth, and watered the whole face of the earth. 7 And God formed the man of dust of the earth,⁠ and breathed upon his face the breath of life,⁠ and the man became a living soul. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and placed there the man whom he had formed. 9 And God made to spring up also out of the earth every tree beautiful to the eye and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of learning the knowledge of good and evil. 10 And a river proceeds out of Eden to water the garden, from there it divides itself into four heads. 11 The name of the one, Pishon, this it is which encircles the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good, there also is carbuncle and emerald. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon, this it is which encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. 14 And the third river is Tigris, this is that which flows forth over against the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates. 15 And the Lord God took the man whom he had formed, and placed him in the garden, to cultivate and keep it. 16 And the Lord God gave a charge to Adam, saying, Of every tree which is in the garden you may freely eat, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat, but in whatever day you eat of it, you shall surely die. 18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, let us make for him a help suitable to him.⁠ 19 And God formed yet farther out of the earth all the wild beasts of the field, and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called any living creature, that was the name of it. 20 And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky, and to all the wild beasts of the field, but for Adam there was not found a help like to himself. 21 And God brought a trance upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and filled up the flesh instead of it. 22 And the Lord God formed the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. 23 And Adam said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cling to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.⁠ 25 And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Genesis 2:2 and Megillah 9a

Septuagint · Rabbinic

Share:

Summary

Genesis says God finished his work on the seventh day, but the Greek Septuagint says he finished on the sixth. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Megillah is aware of this difference and defends the Hebrew, saying God finished at the edge of Sabbath.

Passages

LXX Genesis 2:2

Septuagint
1 And the heavens and the earth were finished, and the whole world of them. 2 And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to do. 4 This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were made, in the day in which God made the heaven and the earth,
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

Megillah 9a

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud
Instead of: “And on the seventh day God concluded His work” (Genesis 2:2), which could have been understood as though some of His work was completed on Shabbat itself, they wrote: And on the sixth day He concluded His work, and He rested on the seventh day. They also wrote: Male and female He created him, and they did not write as it is written in the Torah: “Male and female He created them” (Genesis 5:2), to avoid the impression that there is a contradiction between this verse and the verse: “And God created man” (Genesis 1:27), which indicates that God created one person.
450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Megillah

References

"... Readers perceive themselves advancing from one day to the next, learning the details of Creation and the logic behind it. Naturally, then, this path leads to the final stage, which is the Creator’s rest once his work has ended. The writer or editor chose the materials for his new story from the versions within the traditions at hand, or even from a familiar epic. This new story is designed to announce an additional creation connected with the seventh day, namely, resting after six days of work. This perception that cessation from work is a kind of creation arises from the phrasing ‘On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing’; and it is not written that he finished his work on the sixth day, or at least at the end of the sixth day. (In the Samaritan Version, the Septuagint and the Peshitta it is the sixth day. Compare also Jubilees 2:2, 16, as well as Talmudic and Midrashic attempts to confront this difficulty by describing the Holy One as one who ‘entered by a hair’s breadth’ (b. Megillah 9a; Genesis Rabbah 10:10 and Rashi’s commentary on this verse). The ancient versions, the Sages and the commentators who followed them, in contrast to the Masoretic text, have in mind the pragmatic halakhic problem of Sabbath observance, hence the centrality of separating the days from what was done on each day) Hence the Masoretic version prepares the basis for the oxymoronic concept of activity that is cessation, and thus hints at the creation of the Sabbath as a new entity that is cessation of any type of work ..."
Yairah Amit, In Praise of Editing in the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays in Retrospect, trans. Betty Sigler Rozen (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2012), 5–6.

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

Your feedback

LXX Genesis 2:2 and Megillah 9a

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library