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Septuagint

59 Episodes

The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, begun in the Hellenistic period and expanded over time by different translators. In its narrower sense the term originally referred to the Greek Pentateuch, but it is commonly used for the broader Greek translation tradition of the Jewish scriptures.

Redirected from: LXX, Septuigent

Why this topic matters

The Septuagint sits near the center of the show’s discussions about textual criticism, canon formation, and the history of the Bible as a collection of changing texts rather than a single fixed object. It keeps coming up when the hosts explain how Greek-speaking Jewish communities accessed scripture, why early Christian authors so often quote forms of the text that differ from later Hebrew manuscripts, and why manuscript history can reshape theological arguments.

It also matters because it preserves evidence of earlier Hebrew textual traditions that do not always line up with the Masoretic Text. Episodes on variant readings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Letter of Aristeas return to the Septuagint as both a translation and a historical witness, showing how interpretation, transmission, and community use all helped determine what later readers would call the Bible.

Where to start

Start here for the best in-depth listening on Septuagint: featured segments, featured episodes, and the episode with the most mentions.

Quotes from the Data

“That is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. And you know, that sounds pretty banal. Okay, it was translated into Greek. But it's actually quite fascinating because until we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint was the oldest version of the Hebrew Bible that we had.”

Dan McClellan Episode 100

“The reality is that each book, and sometimes, you know, parts of books were translated by different folks. We can go through and look at translation philosophy and style and all this kind of stuff, and they differ significantly from book to book.”

Dan McClellan Episode 100

“The Septuagint has always been text-critically important. And even today, there are lots of places where translations are going to give preference to the Septuagint. And the Dead Sea Scrolls in their own way have demonstrated that there are many places where, yeah, the Septuagint is very clearly based on a variant Hebrew source text and not just the translator going, 'la da da.'”

Dan McClellan Episode 155

“The majority of scholars would agree that the Septuagint is the Old Testament of the New Testament.”

Dan McClellan Episode 100

Top episodes

Ranked by mentions of Septuagint across the transcript. Start with the top mention above, then keep going here.

All episodes

Every episode currently tagged with Septuagint.