The Greek Bible

1. What do we mean by the “Greek Bible”?

• Septuagint (LXX):
  The main Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, begun in Alexandria (3rd–2nd c. BCE). It started with the Torah and expanded to other books.

• Other Greek versions:

  • Aquila (2nd c. CE) → very literal Greek translation from Hebrew.

  • Symmachus (2nd c. CE) → smoother, idiomatic Greek.

  • Theodotion (2nd c. CE) → revised Greek version, used for Daniel in early Christianity.

  • Later Jewish revisions aimed to pull Greek texts closer to the proto-Masoretic Hebrew.

So already, “Greek Bible” was not one book, but several traditions.

2. In Jesus’ Time

• The Septuagint was the “Bible” of most Greek-speaking Jews in the Diaspora.

• But different communities had slightly different Greek texts.

• The Dead Sea Scrolls show that the Hebrew source texts behind the LXX sometimes differed significantly from the proto-Masoretic Hebrew.

This means the Greek Bible was not one fixed, uniform version.

3. Early Christianity and the Greek Bible

• The New Testament writers usually quoted the Septuagint, even when it didn’t exactly match the Hebrew.

• Early Christians treated the LXX as Scripture, which caused tension with Jewish communities (who increasingly emphasized the Hebrew text).

• By the 2nd–3rd centuries, there were attempts to standardize Greek texts. Origen (c. 250 CE) created the Hexapla, comparing Hebrew, LXX, and other Greek versions side by side.

The Church leaned toward the LXX as its “official” Old Testament.

4. Surviving Greek Manuscripts

• We do not have an “original Septuagint,” only later manuscripts.

• The most famous are large Christian codices (4th–5th centuries CE):

  • Codex Vaticanus (4th c.)

  • Codex Sinaiticus (4th c.)

  • Codex Alexandrinus (5th c.)

• These contain different forms of the Septuagint, plus additional books (Wisdom, Maccabees, etc.), showing there was still variation.

5. So… is there a “perfect” Greek Bible?

• No single perfect, fixed version.

• The Septuagint was fluid, with multiple editions, translations, and revisions.

• Christians preserved it (with variations), while Jews gradually abandoned it in favor of the Hebrew proto-MT and its Aramaic Targums.

• Today, scholars reconstruct the Septuagint using all the manuscript evidence, but what we have is a family of Greek texts, not one flawless Bible.

Summary

• In Jesus’ time, Greek-speaking Jews mainly used the Septuagint, but there were variations.

• Early Christians adopted the LXX, which became the Old Testament of the Church.

• Jewish communities later shifted away from Greek translations and emphasized Hebrew (Masoretic).

• No “perfect” Greek Bible ever existed — instead, there were different versions and revisions over centuries.