The Septuagint and the New Testament

It is many times assumed that the first century Christians used the Septuagint (often referred to as LXX), and that the New Testament writers often quoted from the Septuagint; others claim that the Septuagint, as we know it, did not exist until after Christians had edited earlier Greek manuscripts to produce what we today know as the Septuagint. Thus, some claim that the LXX, in effect, in many instances quotes the New Testament writers, not the other way around.

Very few quotes of the Old Testament in the NT are “direct quotes,” but are what would today call “indirect quotes.” Likewise, many quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament are not worded exactly as we find them in the Septuagint. At any rate, the evidence that first century Christians used the Septuagint, or that the New Testament writers quoted from the Septuagint, is not as strong as many assume, and there are many Bible scholars that do not agree with the assumption that the New Testament writers quoted the Septuagint. 

Fragment Labeled 4Q119
Thought to be from an earlier
version of the LXX.

Nevertheless, there are a few small fragments of the Greek Old Testament that are thought to be from or before the first century BC of what many consider to be earlier versions of the Septuagint. However, none of these would have been called the Septuagint, since it appears that this term was not used to designate an alleged translation until after Jesus and the apostles died.  Although these fragments are often labeled as being Septuagint, what many do not realize is that scholars often present their hypotheses as being facts, and likewise, the theory that these manuscript fragments are from the LXX is stated as though fact. Actually, we do not know if these fragments were originally from an earlier version of the LXX or not. It is generally accepted that what is today called the Septuagint, was translated before Christ came. We do not know this to be a fact, but allowing this possibility, what we today call the Septuagint would still not be the same as that during the days of Jesus. Why not?

IF the Septuagint existed in the days of Jesus, we do not have any copy of such a translation, thus, we cannot compare what is presented in the New Testament quotes (or adaptive quotes) from the Old Testament with what may have existed in such a Septuagint translation. 

Some claim that since, according to their hypothesis, Jesus and the apostles quoted from the LXX, and that since in the LXX, the Holy Name has been changed to other words, Jesus' usage of the LXX shows that he approved of changing the Holy Name to other words. However, many of the OT Greek fragments do NOT change the Holy Name to other words, and IF those fragments are from an earlier version of the LXX (as is often claimed), and IF Jesus did quote from the LXX, he would still have used the Holy Name in such quotes. If Jesus did quote from the LXX, and the fragments are from an earlier version of the LXX, then we have no reason to think that Jesus did not pronounce the Holy Name if he read from the LXX. The idea that Jesus replaced the Holy Name with other words because he was quoting the LXX cannot be substantiated by the fragments we have.

See our site:
The Holy Name of God

Regardless, we cannot conclude that the New Testament writers quoted from the Septuagint. More than likely they did not. It seems more probable that often the Old Testament quotes in the New Testament were not “direct” quotes, as we are used to in our modern English, but were indirect, paraphrased quotes or quotes adapted to the context. Thus, we tend to partly agree with the theory that when Christians later revised the “Septuagint” into what we have today as the “Septuagint”, they often brought these quotes from the New Testament into the Septuagint, which many have assumed to have been quoted from the Septuagint. In other words, more than likely the Septuagint editors simply adopted quotes from the New Testament texts that they had, which would mean that the New Testament writers would not have been quoting the Septuagint, but rather that the Septuagint (as we have it) is quoting the New Testament writers. Nevertheless, the Septuagint as we have today is a Christian translation or a revision of earlier Greek translations, thus many refer to it as the "Christianized Septuagint." Jesus and the New Testament Bible writers definitely did not have the Septuagint that exists today.

Regarding existing manuscripts and fragments attributed to the Septuagint:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint_manuscripts

See also our resource page regarding the Septuagint