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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 6

1 And it happened in the year in which king Uzziah died, that I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory.⁠ 2 And seraphs stood all around him:⁠ each one had six wings: and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one cried to the other, and they said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth: the whole earth is full of his glory.⁠ 4 And the lintel shook at the voice they uttered, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said, Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart; for being a man, and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts. 6 And there was sent to me one of the seraphs, and he had in his hand a coal, which he had taken off the altar with the tongs: 7 and he touched my mouth, and said, Look, this has touched your lips, and will take away your iniquities, and will purge off your sins. 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, look, I am here, send me. 9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You shall hear indeed, but you shall not understand; and you shall see indeed, but you shall not perceive. 10 For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; for fear that they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.⁠ 11 And I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate. 12 And after this God shall remove the men far off, and they that are left upon the land shall be multiplied. 13 And yet there shall be a tenth upon it, and again it shall be for plunder, as a turpentine tree, and as an acorn when it falls out of its husk.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Isaiah 6:10 and John 12:37

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

John 12 blends the Hebrew and Greek versions of Isaiah 6. The Hebrew has God hardening the people; the Septuagint has them blinding themselves. John uses a third option: a third party has blinded them, likely the devil, called the prince of this world.

Passages

LXX Isaiah 6:10

Septuagint
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, look, I am here, send me. 9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You shall hear indeed, but you shall not understand; and you shall see indeed, but you shall not perceive. 10 For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; for fear that they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 11 And I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

John 12:37

New Testament
37 Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, 38 so that the word of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled. He said, “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 For this reason they could not believe because again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory and spoke about him.
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

References

"... Who is it that blinded people’s eyes and hardened their hearts? Commentators tend to assume that it is God that has hardened their hearts; this interpretation finds support in the Masoretic text for Isaiah 6:9–10 where God tells his prophet to dull the minds, stop the ears, and shut the eyes of the people, so that they do not believe. Their inability to believe appears to be in accordance with God’s will. In the Hebrew text, it is God who has willed that the eyes of the people be shut and their hearts hardened; this reading fits well with the use given the passage in Mark 4:11–12. John does not give a straight translation of the Hebrew, however. Rather he seems to combine expressions from the Septuagint and the Masoretic text, in addition to making other changes to the text ... In the Septuagint, God does not ask the prophet to make it impossible for the people to hear his word; here the people have closed their eyes all by themselves. In John’s version of the quote, someone else is responsible for the people not being able to see. The verbs “blinded” and “hardened” are in the third person singular, while the final verb “heal” is in the first person singular as in the Septuagint. I will argue that John is implying that the people’s blindness was caused by the “prince of this world,” i.e., the devil ..."
T. Löfstedt, “Who is the Blinder of Eyes and Hardener of Hearts in John 12:40?” SEÅ 84 (2019): 167–192.

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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LXX Isaiah 6:10 and John 12:37

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