Greek Versions of the Jewish Scriptures

Greek Versions of the Jewish Scriptures

In the third century B.C. Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Many Jewish people lived in Greek-speaking areas of the Mediterranean world, and spoke Greek on an everyday basis. This Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures is known as the Septuagint (commonly abbreviated LXX). For an explanation of this name, see the article called "How the Bible Came to Us." Some of the Jewish scholars in Egypt did not agree about what books should be included in the official list of Scriptures, even though a canon was being agreed upon by another group of Jewish scholars in Palestine. For example, some of the Egyptian scholars would allow only documents written in Hebrew or Aramaic (a Semitic language similar to Hebrew). Other Greek-speaking Jews included documents originally written in Greek (some of them from as late as the first century A.D.). These Greek writings included:

Historical Writings:

    1 Esdras (a Greek version of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, with some additions)

    Judith

    Tobit

    1~4 Maccabees

Poetic and Prophetic Writings, Wisdom, and Tales:

    Sirach (sometimes called Ecclesiasticus)

    Wisdom of Solomon

    Psalms of Solomon

    Baruch

    Letter of Jeremiah

    Susanna

    Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

    Bel and the Dragon

Though most of these titles may not sound familiar to many Christians today, many of the early Christians seem to have accepted them as part of their Scriptures. Aside from these documents, there were also additions to the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of Esther that was made in the second and first centuries B.C. And, some of the tales listed above were added to the Greek translation of the book of Daniel (see the notes in the O/T Christian Bibles chart.)

The Roman Catholic Bible still includes many of these books, along with the fuller versions of the books of Esther and Daniel. The Greek Orthodox Bible includes many of these books, plus a few others, such as the Prayer of Manasseh and an extra Psalm (151). Although most Protestant Bibles now follow the list called "Hebrew Scriptures" shown in the O/T in Christian Bibles chart, and exclude the "extra" books, some editions include them but place them between the Old and New Testaments or at the end of the Bible.