Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 22

1 And it happened after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Look! I am here.⁠ 2 And he said, Take your son, the beloved one, whom you have loved, Isaac,⁠ and go into the high land, and offer him there for a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of. 3 And Abraham rose up in the morning and saddled his donkey, and he took with him two servants, and Isaac his son, and having split wood for a whole burnt offering, he arose and departed, and came to the place of which God spoke to him, 4 on the third day; and Abraham having lifted up his eyes, saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his servants, Sit here with the donkey, and I and the lad will proceed thus far, and having worshiped we will return to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the whole burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took into his hands both the fire and the knife, and the two went together. 7 And Isaac said to Abraham his father, Father. And he said, What is it, son? And he said, Look, the fire and the wood, where is the sheep for a whole burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, God will provide himself a sheep for a whole burnt offering, my son. And both having gone together, 9 came to the place which God spoke of to him; and there Abraham built the altar, and laid the wood on it, and having bound the feet of Isaac his son together, he laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife to kill his son. 11 And an angel of the Lord called him out of heaven, and said to him, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Look, I am here. 12 And he said, Do not lay your hand upon the child, neither do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, and for my sake you have not spared your beloved son.⁠ 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and look! a ram caught by his horns in a plant of Sabec;⁠ and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a whole burnt offering in the place of Isaac his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord has seen; that they might say today, In the mount the Lord was seen. 15 And an angel of the Lord called Abraham the second time out of heaven, 16 saying, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and on my account have not spared your beloved son, 17 surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is by the shore of the sea, and your seed shall inherit the cities of their enemies. 18 And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have listened to my voice.⁠ 19 And Abraham returned to his servants, and they arose and went together to the well of the oath; and Abraham lived at the well of the oath. 20 And it happened after these things, that it was reported to Abraham, saying, Look, Milcah herself too has borne sons to Nahor your brother, 21 Uz the firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of the Syrians, 22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel fathered Rebekah; these are eight sons, which Milcah bore to Nahor the brother of Abraham. 24 And his concubine whose name was Reumah, she also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 22:13 and LXX Genesis 22:13

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

Genesis 22 says Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket. The Greek Septuagint transliterates the Hebrew word as "sabek" rather than translating it, creating a link to the Aramaic word for forgiveness.

Passages

Genesis 22:13

Hebrew Bible
12 “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord provides.” It is said to this day, “In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

LXX Genesis 22:13

Septuagint
12 And he said, Do not lay your hand upon the child, neither do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, and for my sake you have not spared your beloved son. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and look! a ram caught by his horns in a plant of Sabec; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a whole burnt offering in the place of Isaac his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord has seen; that they might say today, In the mount the Lord was seen.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

References

"... the LXX writer transcribes it as (sabek bush). It may have been a misreading or a deliberate choice. Hayward suggests that the LXX translator chooses to transcribe Sabek, because it resonates with the Aramaic term for forgiveness, a soteriological term that LXX's original readers may have recognised." ..."
Paba Nidhani De Andrado, “The Akedah Servant Complex: Tracing the Linkage of Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53 in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Texts” (diss., Durham University, 2011), 56.
"... 13 (LXX), which refers to the "plant of sabek" (= Heb. "thicket"), in which the ram was caught by its horns. The interpretation of "sabek" as "forgiveness" (and thus a prefiguration of the cross) assumes a derivation of the word from the Aramaic/Syriac root SBQ ("loose" or "forgive"). For this interpretation of "sabek," see, for example, Melito, Fragmenta 12." ..."
Richard Bauckham, James R. Davila, and Alexander Panayotov, eds., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 1:661.
"... the "bush" becomes a sabek tree, "tree of forgiveness"; the tree occurs in the earliest (Jewish) iconographical representations of the Akedah; and the reading of sabek for shbaq occurs elsewhere, as well." ..."
Menahem Kister, “Allegorical Interpretations of Biblical Narratives in Rabbinic Literature, Philo, and Origen: Some Case Studies,” in New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, Jointly Sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity, 9–11 January, 2007, ed. Gary A. Anderson, Ruth A. Clements, and David Satran (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 232.

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

Your feedback

Genesis 22:13 and LXX Genesis 22:13

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library