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LXX Leviticus

Septuagint

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Chapter 1

1 And the Lord called Moses again and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of witness, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, If any man of you shall bring gifts to the Lord, you shall bring your gifts of the cattle and of the oxen and of the sheep. 3 If his gift be a whole burnt offering, he shall bring an unblemished male of the herd to the door of the tabernacle of witness, he shall bring it as acceptable before the Lord. 4 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering as a thing acceptable for him, to make atonement for him. 5 And they shall kill the calf before the Lord;⁠ and the sons of Aaron the priests shall bring the blood, and they shall pour the blood all around on the altar, which is at the doors of the tabernacle of witness. 6 And having flayed the whole burnt offering, they shall divide it by its limbs. 7 And the sons of Aaron the priests shall put fire on the altar, and shall pile wood on the fire. 8 And the sons of Aaron the priests shall pile up the divided parts, and the head, and the fat on the wood on the fire, the wood which is on the altar. 9 And the entrails and the feet they shall wash in water, and the priests shall put all on the altar: it is a burnt offering, a sacrifice, a smell of sweet aroma to the Lord. 10 And if his gift be of the sheep to the Lord, or of the lambs, or of the kids for whole burnt offerings, he shall bring it a male without blemish, and he shall lay his hand on its head. 11 And they shall kill it by the side of the altar, toward the north before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron the priests shall pour its blood on the altar all around. 12 And they shall divide it by its limbs, and its head and its fat, and the priests shall pile them up on the wood which is on the fire, on the altar. 13 And they shall wash the entrails and the feet with water, and the priest shall bring all the parts and put them on the altar: it is a burnt offering, a sacrifice, a smell of sweet aroma to the Lord. 14 And if you bring a gift, a burnt offering to the Lord, of birds, then he will bring his gift of doves or pigeons. 15 And the priest shall bring it to the altar, and shall wring off its head; and the priest shall put it on the altar, and shall wring out the blood⁠ at the bottom of the altar. 16 And he shall take away the crop with the feathers, and shall cast it forth by the altar toward the east to the place of the ashes. 17 And he shall break it off from the wings and shall not separate it, and the priest shall put it on the altar on the wood which is on the fire: it is a burnt offering, a sacrifice, a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 1:15 and LXX Leviticus 1:15

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Leviticus says the sacrificial blood is to be drained “on the wall of the altar,” while the Greek Septuagint translates this as “at the base of the altar.” This follows other changes in the Septuagint that clarify ritual details and ambiguous language.

Passages

Leviticus 1:15

Hebrew Bible
14 “‘If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, he must present his offering from the turtledoves or from the young pigeons. 15 The priest must present it at the altar, pinch off its head and offer the head up in smoke on the altar, and its blood must be drained out against the side of the altar. 16 Then the priest must remove its entrails by cutting off its tail feathers, and throw them to the east side of the altar into the place of fatty ashes,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

LXX Leviticus 1:15

Septuagint
14 And if you bring a gift, a burnt offering to the Lord, of birds, then he will bring his gift of doves or pigeons. 15 And the priest shall bring it to the altar, and shall wring off its head; and the priest shall put it on the altar, and shall wring out the blood at the bottom of the altar. 16 And he shall take away the crop with the feathers, and shall cast it forth by the altar toward the east to the place of the ashes.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Leviticus

References

"... In the Masoretic text, this corresponds to "on the wall of the altar". This expression is found only here and in Leviticus 5:9, where it is nevertheless correctly translated with "on the wall of the altar." The Greek term βάσις is generally used to translate the Hebrew יְסוֹד. It is only here that the translation is different. This must also be considered in 7:2, where the Masoretic text has "and he shall pour its blood on the altar all around", which the Septuagint translates specifically: "and the blood shall be poured at the base of the altar all around." This reading also appears in 11QTemple 34:8, 52:21, and in the Septuagint of Deuteronomy 12:27, but regarding the holocaust. According to Dion and Milgrom, it reflects the concern, explicitly expressed in the Mishnah, Zebahim 3:32a, that this blood should not be poured on the ramp leading to the altar, but rather on the base of the same altar, under penalty of invalidating the sacrifice ..."
Giorgio Paximadi, “Entre variantes et interprétations. Corruption textuelle ou exégèse dans le texte de la Septante du Lévitique ?” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 133–148.

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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