The Christianized Septuagint

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The term "Christianized Septuagint" refers to the early Christian adoption, preservation, and selective adaptation of the Septuagint (LXX)—the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible—as their official scriptural canon. 

While the Septuagint was originally a Jewish translation created for Greek-speaking Jews in the 3rd century BCE, it became so central to the early Church that the Jewish community eventually distanced itself from the text in favor of the Masoretic Text. 

The process of "Christianizing" the Septuagint involved several shifts in how the text was viewed and used:

Early Christians attributed the Septuagint's creation as being a miraculous inspiration, expanding its legend to justify the inclusion of books like Wisdom of Solomon and the Additions to Daniel, which were not part of the later Jewish canon.

Christians prioritized specific translations within the Septuagint that supported Christian doctrines. For example, the use of parthenos ("virgin") in Isaiah 7:14 was used to support the virgin birth of Jesus, a point of significant controversy with Jewish scholars.

In the 4th century CE, Christian scholars like Lucian of Antioch produced specific "recensions" (edited versions) to refine the Greek style for liturgical use in churches.

The use of terms like ego eimi (I am) in the Christianized LXX was claimed by the apostacized Christians to be Jesus' claims of being God Almighty in the New Testament, although the Christianized LXX rendered the short version in Exodus 3:14 as ὁ ὢν (the being), rather than ἐγώ εἰμι (I am). 

Some often use the Christianized LXX as if it were actually the Jewish Greek translation. In other words, some appear to think that we still have a Jewish Septuagint translation, and present the Christianized LXX as being the Jewish LXX. Actually, there is no known, complete "non-Christianized" Jewish Greek translation of the entire Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) that has survived as a single corpus. We do have a few fragments that are often attributed to a Jewish Septuagint found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The hypothesis is that the Septuagint (LXX) was produced by Hellenistic Jews but was transmitted, edited, and preserved almost exclusively by early Christians, who interpolated it. 

Only the Torah (Pentateuch) was officially translated in the early Alexandrian period. Other books were added later, but there was no single "Jewish" final edition that escaped Christian modification.

Surviving manuscripts are 4th-century or later Christian codices that contain books not in the Hebrew canon (deuterocanonical books) and often show Christian theological influence.

It is generally believed that after AD 70 CE, there was a loss of popularity of the LXX in Judaism; Jews used other Greek translations that were closer to the proto-Masoretic text, such as the 2nd-century translation by Aquila of Sinope, though these survive only in fragments.

There have been some researchers who have attempted to reconstruct the "Old Greek" (the Jewish original) using critical editions like the Göttingen Septuagint or Rahlfs-Hanhart, which claim to attempt to peel away Christian layers. Some apparently mistake these as being the original Jewish LXX.

Nevertheless, while the origins of the LXX are Jewish, the entire surviving corpus has been influenced by Christian transmission. 

One can find much more about the Septuagint through the links provided on our page: The Septuagint.