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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 Genesis 2:7 and LXX Genesis 2:7

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Genesis 2:7 describes God breathing life into the man’s nostrils, but the Greek Septuagint translates “nostrils” as “face,” likely reflecting the translator’s interpretation of the Hebrew through Aramaic, where the same word means “face.”

Passages

Genesis 2:7

Hebrew Bible
6 Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. 7 The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 The Lord God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

LXX Genesis 2:7

Septuagint
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.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

References

"... In this verse, the creation of man is described in slightly different terms in Hebrew and in Greek: in the Massoretic Text God breathes into man's nostrils; in the Septuagint he breathes upon his face. The deviation in the Greek text is readily explained as reflecting Aramaic 'apin', 'face'." ..."
Martin Rösel, Collected Studies on the Septuagint (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 68.
"... The concrete dual 'appayim, "nostrils," occurs in the idiom "to bow one's face to the ground," for which prosopon "face" is very natural. Now, the first occurrence of 'ap in Genesis is 2:7, in the context of the creation of the human being out of dust, God breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life." A concrete equivalent is needed, and the translator offers eis to prosopon autou." ..."
Anneli Aejmelaeus, “The Septuagint and Oral Translation,” in XIV Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Helsinki, 2010, ed. Melvin K. H. Peters (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), 19.
"... While in the Hebrew text of Gen 2:7 Adam's panim is not mentioned, in the Septuagint's rendering of that passage, the deity breathed the breath of life in Adam's face. LXX version of Gen 2:7 reads: "And God formed man, dust from the earth, and breathed into his face (eis to prosopon autou) a breath of life."" ..."
Andrei Orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology, Jewish and Christian Texts 31 (London: T&T Clark, 2019), 39.

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 2:7 and LXX Genesis 2:7

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