Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Bob and Your Life. Today we’re getting into an excellent sermon series that my pastor gave at Agape Kingdom Fellowship. It’s a sermon series on the Septuagint. If you don’t know, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and And a lot of Christians have started saying that the Septuagint is way more important than we ever gave it credit for. Typically, we would want to take the original Hebrew and translate that directly into English. But what a lot of Christians are now starting to think is, hey, that translation that was made before Jesus, taking that Hebrew version into Greek, and then a lot of people at Jesus’ time, including Jesus himself, likely including some of the apostles, they would have been using this Greek translation And so the thought is, hey, this Greek translation, there might be more to it than normal. Typically, we want to add that extra step to it, but considering this is what Jesus used and the historical significance of the Septuagint, There’s a little bit more to it than you would typically think. So this is my pastor’s series on why he changed his mind on the Septuagint, a really fun sermon series, a little bit heady. So put your thinking caps on. Now let’s jump right into it. This is part two.
SPEAKER 02 :
All right. Good morning, AKF. So this morning, this is part two. on why I changed my mind on the Septuagint. Now, one of the things that I truly enjoy doing, right, something that just energizes me, is I love nerding out on complex topics and then explaining them to people in a way that’s easy to digest and understand. Now, this is received well for the most part, which is why I continue to do it, but occasionally there are those who really understand the topic that I’m talking about, meaning at the same level as I do, usually more than I do, and they give me feedback and they criticize me for leaving out details. Now, that’s the nature of the beast, unfortunately, because if I included those details, it would no longer serve the purpose that it does, which is making it easy to understand and easy to digest. So I won’t be able to please everyone. If you enjoy what we are going to dive into today and you want to nerd out on this topic as well, I would recommend that you look up Henry B. Smith Jr. Henry B. Smith Jr. He is with the Associates of Biblical Research. Henry, believe it or not, has spent seven or eight years studying and researching the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11. Let that sink in. Seven or eight years studying the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11. It’s incredible, right? By the way, this is exposing one of my secrets. I find people who have studied a particular issue for their entire life or for a long period of time, and I learn from them. As much as I would love to spend years and years of time studying or researching something in particular, I personally have way too many interests and projects to go that deep on idiosyncratic and esoteric issues. And so, in my opinion, this is the next best thing, right? Find someone who has dedicated their life or many years of their life on an issue and and learn from them. And of course, when you read their material and when you watch their videos, you’re never going to understand it like they do, but boy, will you benefit from their hard work, and it will save you a lot of time. Now, what we learned in part one most likely caused a couple different reactions based on the type of personality that you have individually. The first type of personality, you probably felt a little bit of discomfort and maybe even some insecurity in the idea that the texts which underlie our Bible are not clear cut. Now, I totally get it. I get that reaction. It feels good. to think that everything is just all buttoned up and that our Bible, specifically the Old Testament in this series, is based on a Hebrew text that perfectly represents the original manuscripts. I get it. Now, the second type of person, and this is me, which is why I’m doing the series, is gets excited at the thought of new discoveries and digging deep, looking for the equivalent of modern day buried treasure. I get energized. at the thought that we can maybe get closer to the original Hebrew manuscripts through something like the Septuagint. This excites me so much, I become like Indiana Jones in search of the lost Ark. So, hang in there if this makes you a little uneasy. And I think you will feel better when we are done because we won’t just be uncovering issues along the way, but we will also be solving problems as well. So in our last message, we discovered that Canaan in the Luke 3 genealogy was missing from the genealogy in Genesis chapter 11. Now, Canaan is really not that important. The purpose of bringing him up was simply to lay the groundwork for what we are going to be discussing, and that’s a conversation concerning textual criticism of the Old Testament and the Septuagint. Now, there are some significant differences between the Hebrew Masoretic text and the Greek Septuagint, and I would not consider this guy Canaan a significant difference. But, Canaan did serve as a great introduction to the topic, as he is in all English versions, every single English version of Luke 3.36, and he’s missing from all English versions of Genesis 11.12, except the Orthodox Study Bible, whose Old Testament is based on the Septuagint. Now, the reason Canaan is missing… from all but one of our English version Old Testaments, is because they are based on the Hebrew Masoretic text. And Canaan is not in the Hebrew Masoretic text. Now, if Luke originally included Canaan in Luke 3.36, which again, people still debate, the only logical reason is because Luke was using the Septuagint Genesis, which predates the Masoretic text by over a thousand years, and even predates Christ by over 200 years. And Genesis in the Septuagint includes Canaan. It’s a very logical conclusion. So I’d like to move on from Canaan. He was just our introduction to what we’re going to be discussing. And that is a very significant difference between the Hebrew Masoretic text and the Greek Septuagint and how I’ve changed my mind on the Septuagint. I now consider the Septuagint an important resource when it comes to studying the Old Testament, and even when it comes to studying the New Testament, and Jesus and the apostles as the New Testament authors quoted from a Greek Old Testament a lot of the time. Now we’re going to stick with Shem’s genealogy in Genesis 11. That’s what we discussed last time. But we’re going to look at a much bigger difference than the absence of Canaan, and that is the ages of the men in this genealogy. The difference we are about to uncover is very significant. especially because it has the potential to change the age of the earth as believed by many Christians throughout history, including by many Christians today, including myself. Genesis 11-12 again says, Arphaxad lived 35 years and begot Shelah. But Genesis 11.12 in the LXX, the Septuagint says, Since we covered Canaan in our last message, today we’re going to focus on the difference in age here. This is not a subtle difference. Notice the Septuagint says Arphaxad was 135 years old when he begat his son, compared to the Masoretic, which says he was only 35 years old. That’s a 100-year difference. Considering the fact that almost no one lives to 100 today, that’s a long period of time. And by the way, take note before we continue that this difference here between the texts is exactly 100 years. I think there’s a reason for it being precisely 100 years. Skipping to Genesis 11, 14, we read, Shella lived 30 years and begot Eber. And this same verse in the LXX says, and Shella lived 130 years and fathered Eber. Again, the Septuagint adds exactly 100 years to the age when Shelah fathered his son. Same thing with Genesis 11, 16. Eber lived 34 years and begot Peleg. And Eber lived 134 years and fathered Peleg. An extra 100 years again. And then the same thing with Genesis 11, 18 with Peleg and Reu. Peleg lived 30 years and begot Reu. And Peleg lived 130 years and fathered Reu. And again in Genesis 11, 20 with Reu and Sirach. Reu lived 32 years and begot Sirach. And Ryu lived 132 years and fathered Sirug. And then one more time in verse 22 with Sirug and Nahor. Sirug lived 30 years and begot Nahor. And Sirug lived 130 years and begot Nahor. Six times in a row in Shem’s genealogy, we have a difference of exactly 100 years. Something is amiss, right? Well, grab your Indiana Jones fedora. We are about to get our first clue. In verse 24 of Genesis 11, we have another difference in age, but this time it’s not 100 years. Genesis 11, 24 says, Nahor lived 29 years and begot Terah, and Nahor lived 79 years and begot Terah. So we still have a discrepancy here, but this time it’s only 50 years instead of the 100 years that we were accustomed to in the previous six men in this genealogy. Now, thanks to Tom Berger, who some of you know, for pointing out to me why this is a significant clue as to which genealogy contains the correct ages. Because again, these both can’t be right. Either the numbers in the Masoretic are correct or the numbers in the Septuagint are correct, unless you’re arguing that they’re both wrong, which nobody does. Now, before I tell you what the clue is here, I need to quickly mention that in the academic literature on the genealogies of Genesis 5 and Genesis 11, there are two competing hypotheses. The first is called the inflation hypothesis, which says that the smaller numbers that we see in the Hebrew were inflated in the Septuagint, meaning they were increased when the Hebrew was translated into Greek. Here’s a graphical visual to make sense of this. The inflation hypothesis says that the numbers on the left, the smaller numbers, which we see in the Masoretic text, are the original begetting ages, and that they were increased from what they originally were in the Hebrew to the greater ages in the Greek Septuagint, which are on the right. That’s the inflation hypothesis. The second hypothesis, as you could probably figure out, is called the deflation hypothesis, which says that the larger numbers that we see in the Greek Septuagint of Genesis were reduced in the Masoretic Hebrew text, which our English Old Testaments are based on. And here’s a graphical representation of the deflation hypothesis, which states that the larger numbers on the left, which we see in the Septuagint, that those are actually the original begetting ages, and that they were reduced from what they originally were in the Septuagint, and that the Septuagint’s underlying Hebrew text to the smaller ages which we see in the Masoretic. So the original numbers are found in the Septuagint and the underlying Hebrew text which the Septuagint was translated from and were reduced in the Masoretic. And so you have the inflation hypothesis on the left, you have the deflation hypothesis on the right. Make sense? Alright, getting back to Genesis 11.24. Nahor lived 29 years and begot Terah versus Nahor lived 79 years and fathered Terah. Here is why the difference between 29 years and 79 years between the Masoretic and the Septuagint gives us an important clue. If the inflation hypothesis is right, meaning years were added to the smaller numbers, then then why not add 100 years to Nahor’s 29 years and make Nahor 129 years in the Septuagint? That would follow the same pattern, right? That would be exactly like what happened with the first six individuals who went from 35, 30, 34 years old, etc. to 135, 130, 134 years old. To follow that pattern, just make Nahor 129 years old. But that’s not what we see here. Instead, Genesis 11.24 in the Septuagint only adds 50 years to Nahor’s age, making him 79 years old. This makes perfect sense in the deflation hypothesis, which says that the ages were reduced from the larger numbers. If you wanted to reduce the ages of these men by a hundred years each, you would have no issue until you got to Nahor, as all of the previous men all lived longer than a hundred years before begetting a specific son. And so when you get to Nahor, who was 79 years old when he begot Terah, since you cannot subtract 100 years from his age, you subtract half of 100, or 50 years from his age, bringing it down to 29 years. Now, I am taking something incredibly complex… And I’m simplifying it so that everyone can understand and follow. Hopefully that’s been the case so far. By the way, I even want my own kids who are sitting right here in the front row to understand this and be able to follow. But you guys won’t have to take the quiz like they will afterward. But something you need to realize, which we don’t have time to cover and it makes it way too complicated, is that these seven differences that we just looked at are not the only age differences between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. There are many more age differences back in Genesis chapter 5. We haven’t even looked at Genesis 5. And there are even more age differences in this chapter, Genesis 11, that we have not covered. And so, just these seven men alone represent a difference of 650 years. If six men differ by 100 years and one by 50 years, that’s a 650-year difference just right there. Now, is that significant? Is that worth talking about? I’m going to say absolutely. Absolutely. As someone who calls himself a young earth creationist, you better know something like this is going to grab my attention immediately. You see, if the earth is only about 6,000 years old, according to the chronologies in the Masoretic Text, Just this one single difference of 650 years from seven men in Genesis 11, that represents an 11% increase in the age of the earth. Just those seven men. And if it turns out that the other differences in Genesis chapter 5 and the rest in Genesis 11 are indeed accurate in the Septuagint and not in our English Old Testaments, which are based on the Masoretic Texts, we are looking at closer to a 25% increase in the age of the earth. So this is something we need to take a very careful look at because being off by 25%, that’s a big deal. And that’s a big deal in any area of life, not just the age of the earth, right? If you sell something to someone, say your car, for an agreed upon amount, Are you going to be okay if they pay you 25% less than what you agreed upon? What if your paycheck is 25% less than what you are owed for the time that you worked? What if someone borrowed money from you and they only pay you back 75%? 25% is very significant. And as you will see, it affects a lot of things here, both biblically and even scientifically. Now, in order for all of this to make sense, we need to have a quick discussion on what are known as external witnesses. In the world of textual criticism, the term external witness refers basically to two things. First, a manuscript. And second, those who talked about what they read in the manuscripts that they had at that time. Okay? That’s really important. Even if we no longer have a manuscript that existed at a particular time, not all hope is lost. Because we have the writings which reference the manuscripts that existed at that time. That’s cool, right? And so, in this discussion, since we’re going all the way back to Genesis, which is the story of the origins of the world, we’re going to have to look at external witnesses that go way back. And so, let’s go before Christ. Let’s start B.C. If you want to say BCE, that’s fine too. I personally think before Christ’s era is a bit redundant. But I’ll leave that up to you. So how many external witnesses do we have of the ages of Arphaxad to Nahor BC? Before Christ. The answer is five. We have five external witnesses before Christ to the ages of Arphaxad to Nahor. That’s stunning. Alright, so we’re going to again look at just these men in Shem’s genealogy. Now the first two of the five are the Septuagint and the Septuagint’s Vorlaga. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard that word, I’ll explain it in a second. The Septuagint is an external witness because it is a translation of a Hebrew text. That makes it an external witness itself. And the Septuagint’s Vorlagah is that Hebrew text. So that’s two external witnesses right off the bat. When you’re reading academic works… They like to use scholarly and technical words. And I think, sadly, a lot of people start to read these academic works. And when they see these words that they don’t understand, they just stop reading. And so they don’t read academic papers because they don’t understand the words. My advice to you is I would encourage you to just look up the words. They seem scary. But once you look them up and you see the definition, it’s actually really easy to understand. Vorlage, which you’re going to find in all of these academic papers, that’s just a German word. And in the space of textual criticism, it just means the text that they used to create the new text. That’s it. That’s what a vorlaga is. So sometimes the vorlaga was just a copy of the text that they’re copying. It’s just a verbatim copy. But other times it would be a translation like the Septuagint, which was translated from Hebrew to Greek. So the Septuagint vorlaga just means the Hebrew text that they used when they originally translated the Pentateuch into Greek. All right, so this represents the first two external witnesses, the Septuagint itself and the Vorlagah, the Hebrew text they translated into Greek. Number three. Number three is Demetrius of Alexander, better known as Demetrius the Chronographer. Now, he was a Jewish historian. He was from the 3rd century B.C., and the numbers he uses in his works are only consistent with the longer chronology found in the Septuagint. Very important. Number four is this guy named Eupolemus. Eupolemus was also a Jewish historian, but he was of the 2nd century B.C., But he was also a high-ranking Jerusalem official. Why is this important? As a high-ranking Jerusalem official, he would have never used a Greek chronology that was at odds with the Hebrew texts that he had access to in his position. And check this out. Demetrius and Eupolemus… had the exact same creation date of 5307 BC. And that’s only workable with the longer chronology of the Septuagint. Finally, number five. You may have heard of this one. This is the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Samaritan Pentateuch. This is a Hebrew text. It’s believed to go all the way back to the 2nd century BC. And as the name implies, the Samaritan Pentateuch is only the first five books of the Bible. first five books of Moses, and the Hebrew Samaritan Pentateuch has the exact same older begetting ages as the Septuagint from Arphaxad to Nahor. The exact same. So, I believe that those five witnesses that I just mentioned are the only external witnesses of the begetting ages of these men And all five of those witnesses testify to the longer chronology. To be abundantly clear, we have not a single BC witness, not a single one, of the shorter numbers we find in the Masoretic text. The same numbers that you read in your English Bibles today. Alright, let’s now move to to the turn of the millennium, AD, and focus on the first century, a very important century in Christian history, of course. We have just one external witness from this time period, someone we are all very familiar with, Flavius Josephus. Now Josephus, as we know, was another Jewish historian. He was born in Jerusalem in 37 AD, And he is known for his works on first century Judaism and early Christianity. He’s actually very important to our faith. Now, in one of his works, which is called The Antiquities of the Jews, he has this…
SPEAKER 01 :
Stop the tape, stop the tape. Hey, this is Dominic Enyart. If you want the rest, you’re going to have to get that at enyart.shop. That’s E-N-Y-A-R-T dot S-H-O-P, enyart.shop. And you will have to sign up for the Bob Enyart sermons. This was a Will Duffy sermon, but the Will Duffy sermons are included in those Bob Enyart sermon, in the Bob Enyart sermon library. So you do not want to miss that. All of Bob Enyart’s sermons are there. All of Will Duffy’s sermons are there. All of my sermons are there at enyart.shop, E-N-Y-A-R-T.S-H-O-P. May God bless you guys.
