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Aquilas Greek Version of the Hebrew Bible

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Aquilas Greek Version of the Hebrew Bible AQUILA ’ S GREE K VER SION O F T H E HEBREW BIBLE B Y T H E R E V B A M A M . A B H . R A S , 0 0 R abbi of th e L eed s O ld H ebrew C ongregation printeb bQ S P O T T I SW O O D E B A L L A N T Y N E CO , . L T D . 1 E -S T R E E T S U A R E L O D N W Q , N O N , E . C . 4 A Q U I L A ’ S V E R S I O N A N D T H E LA TER GREEK TRA NSLA TIONS OF THE HEBREW BIBLE — r MY di stinguished predecessor in this course M . H . St . John — Thackeray has explained the origin and value o f the Greek ! translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint . The question at once suggests itself : How did it h appen that a need was felt for anoth er Greek translation such as that of Aquila ! Who wanted it ! Wh y was it made ! y The answer is that the need was partly practical , partl o f theological . In various sections the Byzantine Empire , during the centuries which preceded the great Arab conquests , s Greek was the language u ed by Jews in daily life . First among - the requirements of that life was public worship . Greek speaking one - Jews were not of mind , any more than English speaking o f Jews are nowadays , as to the use the vernacular in Synagogue . Bu t in the earlier age there were many who felt themselves insufficiently acquainted with Hebrew to understand the original Bible without the aid of a translation . It must be clearly borne in mind that there was never a question of reading the weekly nl u lesson in Greek o y . The disp te was between those who wished l to read from the Scro l in Hebrew alone , and those who equally wi shed to read the Hebrew Scroll , but together with a Greek translation . Perhaps the situation w ill be made clearest by reference to an actual historical incident which occurred in the reign of the n m r m 527 t o 565 Byzanti e E peror Justinian, who ruled f o . During his tenancy of the throne , there came to an active stage the I struggle between the sections that have described , between those Jewish communities which desired to read the Bible in nl in Hebrew o y, and those who were anxious to read it Greek . His as well The parties applied to the Emperor . Christia n majesty very promptly and properly took advantage of the oppor This lecture was d elivered as part of a L ondon U niversity E xten sion Course on ran s at on s of th e H ebre T h e C our T l i w Bible . se was h eld at o nbee H a London durin th e ter ess on of 19 8 T y ll , , g Win S i 1 . 2 t u nit . y thrust upon him A plague on both your houses , he ff . ou e said in e ect Read the Bible , all Of y , in a Christian sens , ” ’ v . a oid your Rabbinic traditions Indeed, the Emperor s decre e declares in set phrases that the Jews were on no account to follow up the reading of the Bible with their cherished Midrashic homilies . Before we attend to a sentenc e in the decree which concerns ou r S r is present ubject more nea ly, it hard to refrain from c om ment ing on the stupidity o f Jews bringing their internal quarrels U before an external tribunal . nhappily, in their subsequent t h . history , Jews were not infrequently guilty of e same folly s i A painful instance occurred some even centuries after Justin an . s 1204 fl t Maimonide died in , and a bitter con ic broke out between and the friends foes of his metaphysical opinions . His foes of accused him of seeking to overthrow the authority the Talmud . d t of m Accordingly, that zealous a voca e the Talmud , Solo on of d Montpellier , in order , as he imagine , to rescue the Rabbinical ' of n tradition from the heresies Maimo ides , induced the Domini ’ cans to burn the latter s works . The Dominicans gleefully consented . Very few years elapsed before they burned the Talmud also ’ u t ini s s an 553 . Let us , however , return to J decree of the year n As we have see , he exhorted all the Jews to read the Bible in “ t o a Christian sense , and he went on to remark that , those who wished to use a Greek translation , he recommended the ’ of Septuagint , but permitted the employment Aquila s Version . ’ N o w i , apart from reveal ng the popularity of Aquila s Version nearly four centuries after it was made , the decree answers the e questions with which we started . W see the practical grounds o f we the Jewish desire for a Greek Version , and see the theological ' ’ In a s th e obj ections to the Septuagint . Justini n age Septuagint ‘ was clearly regarded as a Christian work . Quite apart from the fact that the Septuagint , excellent as it was on the whole , was in many places inaccurate , from the scholarly point of view, there is no ‘ doubt that a feeling of theological antagonism to was the Septu agint had long prevailed among the Jews . This certainly the case already in the second century when Aquila fl ou rished . The Septuagint , it is true , was originally made by of Jews for Jews , but it was adopted as the inspired Bible the ih - Church . It is freely quoted the New Testament, and it con t ained certain renderings which became Objectionable to Jewish sentiment because of the use made O f them in sectarian contro u versies . Here and there a ct al Christian interpolations had 3 apparently been made into some copies Of the text of the u O ne of m Sept agint . the ost famous of these additions was 96t h . inserted into the Psalm Justin Martyr , who was almost l of a contemporary of Aqui a , quotes the tenth verse that Psalm in a very remarkable form . In the Hebrew text it runs ” J Say among the nations the Lord reigneth . ustin quotes “ the sentence in the form : Say among the nations the Lord hath reigned from the Cross . Another example is even more u curio s . Both Justin Martyr and Irenaeus quote , as coming c ma b e from the Hebrew Scriptures , a sentence in Greek whi h y translate d as follows : He came down to preach h is salvation — a b unto Israel , that he might save them verse obviously capa le of a Christological interpretation . Both the Church Fathers named actually make such a use of it . Irenaeus quotes it from Isaiah , Justin from Jeremiah . Now , not only is there no such u s verse in the Hebrew Bible as known to , but there is no such vers e in any of the known copies of the Septuagint itself ! It must have been an addition made in certain copies of the Sept u a Y et gint by Christian apologists . so confident were both Justin and Irenaeus of the authenticity of their versions , that instead of recognising that their copies of the Septuagint contained a nl i spurious interpolation , they ster y accused the Jews of hav ng their c O i s deliberately removed the whole sentence from p e . ’ of In Philo s age , the Jews Egypt regarded the Septuagint with a reverence , as Dr . Swete puts it , scarcely less than that which belonged to the original Hebrew . W e can hardly wonder ’ that within a century of Philo s death the Jewish attitude towards the Septuagint had entirely changed . For that century was the one which saw the birth and early growth o f the Christian Chu rch its one which adopted the Septuagint as very own , as its and O o f only Bible . Henceforward , all opies the Septuagint were in made by Christians , mostly the same manuscripts as contain . not of the New Testament It was till the age De Rossi, in the u ~ sixteenth cent ry, that Jewish scholars again interested them in selves the Septuagint , and even then their motive was literary rather than religious . At all events , enough has been said to show that the Jews of the second century had sufficient ground for desiring a fresh version . Some were in favour of a mere of . revision the Septuagint Others refused to tinker, preferring a new vessel . It was a gigantic task , but Aquila was found equal to it . ot of inte But this is n all . Without any question rpolati on t inter retati on here was a question of p . There were phrases in 4 i the Septuag nt which Jews came to dislike . Two instances of . th e this must suffice The first instance is general , second par t i l n h i t s cu ar . C r s o The general i stance concerns the word , which G merely comes from a reek verb meaning to anoint , and thus " corresponds to the Hebrew verb 1! s which has th e same sense . ' The Greek word Christos , like the , Hebrew equivalent fi WD l ” ( Messiah) , litera ly denotes anointed .
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