Transcript: Episode 0100
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WEBVTT 00:00:37.392 --> 00:00:39.712Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.712 --> 00:00:40.752 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.752 --> 00:00:41.832 Mahler. 00:00:41.832 --> 00:00:44.532 And I'm still Woe. 00:00:44.532 --> 00:00:48.212 Today's Stone Choir is episode 100. 00:00:48.212 --> 00:00:55.592 This in many ways will be the culmination of everything that we've been doing for the last couple of years. 00:00:55.592 --> 00:01:01.752 This is the first of a four, probably five-part series on the Septuagint. 00:01:02.472 --> 00:01:14.592 And if you happen to have been sent this episode as the first one you should listen to, I'm going to ask you to stop right here and go back and listen to the previous episode, number 99, that we did called the Context Window. 00:01:14.592 --> 00:01:29.172 The episode that we recorded a couple of weeks ago, episode 99, is effectively my introduction to this episode, wherein we lay out some of the premises for the approach that we're going to take as we make this argument. 00:01:29.172 --> 00:01:36.992 And while the content of that episode is not Septuagint specific, it is very much specific to how we think, how we process things. 00:01:36.992 --> 00:01:55.152 Basically, the point I make in that episode that Corey and I make is that we're going to cover so much ground here over the next few episodes as we explain what the Septuagint is and is not, what scripture is and is not, and what we as a church have been doing versus what we should have been doing. 00:01:55.152 --> 00:01:58.692 There's going to be so much ground that we cover that no one can possibly keep it all in your head. 00:01:59.352 --> 00:02:01.132 And that's not because anybody's stupid. 00:02:01.132 --> 00:02:02.452 I can't keep it all in my head. 00:02:02.452 --> 00:02:04.032 We've been working on this for 16 months. 00:02:04.032 --> 00:02:13.992 I've probably spent close to a thousand hours, at least 800 hours of study and preparation and just getting ready to be able to explain this stuff. 00:02:13.992 --> 00:02:15.952 I don't say that to impress anyone. 00:02:15.952 --> 00:02:22.012 It's just that what we're going to present is a timely condensed version of the amount of stuff that there is to say about these things. 00:02:22.012 --> 00:02:28.292 And so it's perfectly fine that you're not going to be able to keep it all straight as we're delivering it to you orally. 00:02:29.052 --> 00:02:40.312 The purpose of the last episode 99, what I'm going to reiterate here, is one of the crucial things that you need to do as you're listening to this and the subsequent episodes on the Septuagint. 00:02:40.312 --> 00:02:54.232 As we're going along, as you're listening, every time you hear us say something that makes you mad or confused because you heard something somewhere else, and we can't possibly be right because some other guy said something. 00:02:54.232 --> 00:02:55.532 That's fine. 00:02:55.532 --> 00:02:56.352 Please pause. 00:02:56.812 --> 00:02:58.632 I do sincerely mean this. 00:02:58.632 --> 00:03:07.992 Pause playback, get out a pen and paper, or fire up notes or whatever on your computer, and jot down a note to yourself to remember exactly what bothers you. 00:03:07.992 --> 00:03:19.012 Whatever it is that we're not accounting for, whatever it is that we've just said that contradicts what you know to be absolutely true, write it down, and then to the best of your ability, put it out of your mind. 00:03:19.012 --> 00:03:22.572 I say both of these things in parallel because we don't want to brainwash you. 00:03:22.572 --> 00:03:23.712 We're not trying to trick anybody. 00:03:24.392 --> 00:03:38.052 But if you get wound up 10 minutes into the episode because you were positive that we have to be wrong because of something that you heard some guy say once or something that you've studied a lot, and so we have to be wrong. 00:03:38.052 --> 00:03:39.272 Okay, that's fine. 00:03:39.272 --> 00:03:40.812 We can be wrong later. 00:03:40.812 --> 00:03:45.632 Write down the reasons that we're wrong, and then let us make the rest of the argument. 00:03:45.632 --> 00:03:46.752 That's the only plea. 00:03:46.752 --> 00:03:48.592 Not for anyone to just believe what we say. 00:03:48.592 --> 00:03:50.992 I don't want you to believe what we say as we always tell people. 00:03:51.372 --> 00:03:56.312 If you believe anything, his own just automatically believe what some idiot podcaster tells you. 00:03:56.312 --> 00:03:57.872 This stuff is history. 00:03:57.872 --> 00:04:06.712 The structure of these four episodes are going to be, the first one is going to cover essentially from the time of Abraham. 00:04:06.712 --> 00:04:10.232 We'll see how far we get into the post-temple history. 00:04:10.232 --> 00:04:12.632 Probably do at least the first century. 00:04:12.632 --> 00:04:16.472 We may get all the way through the creation of the Maserati text itself. 00:04:16.472 --> 00:04:18.172 We'll split that up for time as things go. 00:04:18.952 --> 00:04:28.972 The second historical episode that we're going to be doing of the four is going to cover essentially wherever we stop in this one, probably somewhere around the creation of the Maserati text up through today. 00:04:28.972 --> 00:04:35.952 But most of it is going to be focused on the years from 1000 to 1500-1600 AD. 00:04:35.952 --> 00:04:39.072 Because that's the history that we think of when we're thinking about the church. 00:04:39.072 --> 00:04:48.912 Whether you're Roman Catholic or you're some flavor Protestant or you're Lutheran, you say you're not a Protestant at all, you're some magical third thing, or you're Eastern Orthodox if you're still listening. 00:04:48.912 --> 00:04:52.812 All of us have vested interests coming out of the second millennium. 00:04:52.812 --> 00:05:06.552 All these decisions that have been made and we have books written down by men that we revere and that we've trusted, we're going to say some things that make it necessary to conclude that somewhere along the way all those guys made one or more mistakes. 00:05:06.552 --> 00:05:11.232 So you're going to get mad when we say something, I don't care who you are, you're going to get mad at something we say. 00:05:11.232 --> 00:05:11.932 Good. 00:05:11.932 --> 00:05:17.892 Write it down and then just to the best of your ability, put it out of your mind so that we can make the rest of the argument. 00:05:17.892 --> 00:05:27.032 Then once we're done making the argument, I want you to go back to your notes and see, hopefully, one of two things will have happened in most cases for whatever you wrote down. 00:05:27.032 --> 00:05:39.032 Either we'll have addressed your concerns directly by demonstrating what the error was, where the confusion was, or we will have demonstrated the thing that you were objecting to turns out not to even be relevant. 00:05:39.032 --> 00:05:41.312 In a lot of cases, that's probably going to be the case as well. 00:05:42.092 --> 00:05:45.932 And then there'll be some things that you just flat out think were wrong or tart or whatever. 00:05:45.932 --> 00:05:46.972 That's fine. 00:05:46.972 --> 00:05:47.772 You'll have your notes. 00:05:47.772 --> 00:05:48.732 You're not going to forget. 00:05:48.732 --> 00:05:53.712 We're going to be going for probably at least 12 hours over the next few episodes. 00:05:53.712 --> 00:05:55.952 So you can't possibly fit that all in your mind. 00:05:55.952 --> 00:06:02.452 Please take notes when you get mad so that you don't have to stay mad to hang on to whatever objection you have. 00:06:02.452 --> 00:06:06.472 It's always really easy to cling to your point when you're fired up about it. 00:06:06.472 --> 00:06:10.192 Get fired up momentarily and then write it down, set it aside and let us cook. 00:06:10.752 --> 00:06:11.292 Then we're done. 00:06:11.292 --> 00:06:13.912 If it's garbage, you don't have to just send the plate back. 00:06:13.912 --> 00:06:15.192 That's fine. 00:06:15.192 --> 00:06:25.232 But if you get mad five minutes in, you're not going to hear anything we say and it's going to be a waste of our time and more importantly to you, a waste of your time to have listened. 00:06:25.232 --> 00:06:32.492 The very simple essential point that we're going to be laying out over these four episodes is this. 00:06:32.492 --> 00:06:38.172 The Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, is the scripture of Jesus. 00:06:38.692 --> 00:06:41.052 It is the scripture of the apostles. 00:06:41.052 --> 00:06:43.832 It is the scripture of the early church. 00:06:43.832 --> 00:06:47.452 This is trivially demonstrable from history. 00:06:47.452 --> 00:06:59.712 It's not what most of us have been taught because we have been raised in the effectively the 21st century mode of thought where everything has to come from and through the Jews. 00:06:59.712 --> 00:07:09.652 And so a lot of what we're going to be talking about is going to be withdrawing what we think we know about Christianity away from that frame. 00:07:09.652 --> 00:07:11.292 The first two episodes will be historical. 00:07:11.292 --> 00:07:27.412 The second two episodes, the third is going to be entirely about the Old Testament itself, showing the places where the Septuagint and what is typically called the Maseratic text, it's effectively the only Hebrew source that we have today. 00:07:28.172 --> 00:07:33.332 There's basically a single copy that's used as the basis for virtually every Bible. 00:07:33.832 --> 00:07:37.392 That's a thousand years old, that's one thousand, not three thousand. 00:07:37.392 --> 00:07:49.112 So we're going to devote an entire episode just contrasting what is in the third and fourth century copies of the Greek Old Testament with the 10th century Hebrew Old Testament. 00:07:49.112 --> 00:07:51.112 We'll show all the examples, or not all. 00:07:51.112 --> 00:07:59.792 As we learn through this, it's not like there's just three or four proof texts that are Christological in nature where something was changed, and maybe it was a little bit better. 00:07:59.792 --> 00:08:16.412 Even in the cases where virtually every Bible you've ever looked at is going to have been based on the Masoretic text on the Hebrew, they will still prefer the Septuagint rendering, which is to say they'll ignore what the Hebrew says, and they'll use the Septuagint rendering in English because it's Christian. 00:08:16.412 --> 00:08:21.032 The only way to make the Old Testament Christian in a couple of places is to ignore what's in the Hebrew Bible. 00:08:21.032 --> 00:08:24.572 That's in your Bible today, and we'll show some of those examples. 00:08:24.572 --> 00:08:40.132 Then the fourth episode is going to be entirely about the New Testament, where we will demonstrate that virtually every quotation of the Old Testament of what Jesus and the apostles call scripture, what they call breathed out by God is the Septuagint. 00:08:40.132 --> 00:08:52.072 Either it's in no way, shape or form different than the Hebrew, or it is exclusively derived from the Greek Septuagint text and cannot possibly be a direct quotation of the Hebrew. 00:08:52.072 --> 00:08:58.352 And so in that fourth episode, we'll demonstrate clearly that their thesis statement is undeniable true. 00:08:58.352 --> 00:09:00.732 The Septuagint was the only Bible they had. 00:09:00.732 --> 00:09:02.752 They hadn't written the New Testament yet. 00:09:02.752 --> 00:09:07.832 So whenever they talked about scripture, they were exclusively talking about the Greek Old Testament. 00:09:07.832 --> 00:09:19.352 And so the basic point of all of this, all this time we're going to spend is that if the Septuagint was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles in the early church, it must be the Bible of every Christian and every time and place. 00:09:19.352 --> 00:09:22.432 So we're going to go through the history to explain why we lost track of that. 00:09:22.432 --> 00:09:24.192 How did that cease to be? 00:09:24.192 --> 00:09:28.952 Because it's undeniably true that that's not the case anymore, very few people believe that. 00:09:28.952 --> 00:09:32.652 And most people are already angry that we're even saying that because that's crazy. 00:09:32.652 --> 00:09:37.192 That's, you know, Luther said this and Calvin said that and Pope whatever said the other thing. 00:09:37.192 --> 00:09:38.432 That can't be true. 00:09:38.432 --> 00:10:10.872 So we're going to lay out in this episode and the next one, the history of how we got here because if you don't understand the history of the story of the creation of the Septuagint in a context where Hebrew had been exterminated by God and then the abandonment of the Greek Septuagint by the church over the course of many centuries, you want to understand what happened in the second millennium when the Reformation era and the church is leading up to that effectively Rome in the East. 00:10:11.352 --> 00:10:20.232 What were they doing that led to the point that when the Reformation came about, they just completely rejected the Septuagint and said, okay, we're Hebrew only from here on out. 00:10:20.232 --> 00:10:26.852 That was a radical change during the Reformation and we're going to tackle that head on because that's going to anger everybody. 00:10:26.852 --> 00:10:30.292 So we have to deal with that pretty much in its own episode. 00:10:30.292 --> 00:10:38.472 The last point that I want to make that's crucial as you are listening to this, God has miraculously preserved his word throughout all time. 00:10:39.212 --> 00:10:42.212 This is true, regardless of what Bible you have in your house. 00:10:42.212 --> 00:10:47.972 There are some Bible translations that are so bad, they would make me weep like they shouldn't exist. 00:10:47.972 --> 00:11:00.852 And yet, if that's the only Bible that you have in your house, that's for every soul you have access to, God will work through that even in its befuddled state to create and preserve faith. 00:11:00.852 --> 00:11:04.612 This is the miraculous nature of God's word. 00:11:04.612 --> 00:11:06.892 God's word itself is efficacious. 00:11:07.872 --> 00:11:14.472 We've said in the past, particularly in the Reformation episode, we have a very remarkably acumenical audience. 00:11:14.472 --> 00:11:19.772 We have Roman Catholics, all manner of Protestants, even a few Eastern Orthodox still sticking around. 00:11:19.772 --> 00:11:41.632 The one thing that all of our listeners have in common, despite all the historical deviations and in some cases, radical doctrinal differences, the one thing anyone listening who's not a hate listener agrees with is that scripture is breathed out by God and scripture judges whose doctrine is true and whose doctrine is false. 00:11:41.632 --> 00:11:50.452 And so, when we have disagreements about doctrine, at least in principle, it's not going to be on the basis of, I don't care what God says, I'm going to do what I want. 00:11:50.452 --> 00:11:54.572 Even if, you know, when we're arguing, we would say, well, that's effectively what you're doing. 00:11:54.572 --> 00:11:58.592 At most, one of us is right about those doctrinal quibbles. 00:11:58.592 --> 00:12:07.812 One of the things I want to make clear about this Septuagint episode, everything that we're saying here would be true and necessary, even if the Greek and the Hebrew were identical. 00:12:07.812 --> 00:12:15.432 If the only thing that had happened was a perfect word-for-word translation from one language to another, that would be sufficient. 00:12:15.432 --> 00:12:22.412 We would still be bound by God to use the Greek because it's what Jesus and the apostles received and it's what the early church accepted. 00:12:22.412 --> 00:12:23.472 That's not the case. 00:12:23.472 --> 00:12:25.172 It's in fact much worse than that. 00:12:25.172 --> 00:12:30.952 But we're not looking at this from the perspective of picking and choosing which text we prefer. 00:12:30.952 --> 00:12:32.572 That's a danger that we all have. 00:12:32.572 --> 00:12:39.572 And it just meant we're gonna define what a translation is and is not for the purposes of this argument. 00:12:39.572 --> 00:12:46.532 But we are not saying, oh, well, I like this Greek version better, so I think that's a better Bible. 00:12:46.532 --> 00:12:52.572 Our argument for the Greek is explicitly and strictly limited to the historical context. 00:12:52.572 --> 00:12:55.932 And the New Testament itself attests to what we are saying. 00:12:55.932 --> 00:13:07.772 The New Testament attests and proves that the Septuagint is the Bible of Jesus and the Apostles, and history proves that the Early Church never thought otherwise until the fourth century, the late fourth century. 00:13:07.772 --> 00:13:10.912 It was never even a question that anyone would look anywhere else. 00:13:10.912 --> 00:13:14.192 So that's going to be a big part of the historical revelation today. 00:13:14.192 --> 00:13:17.212 It's not revelation in the sense that it's new information. 00:13:17.212 --> 00:13:21.112 It's just things most people haven't heard, but it's all history. 00:13:21.112 --> 00:13:24.132 When we are giving our opinions about stuff, it's going to be very clear it's our opinion. 00:13:24.792 --> 00:13:32.492 We're dealing almost exclusively in facts here, but your Bible is not going to meet some of the tests that we're laying out. 00:13:32.492 --> 00:13:33.572 That's okay. 00:13:33.572 --> 00:13:36.612 I don't have any Septuagint-based Bibles in my house. 00:13:36.612 --> 00:13:38.752 I'm not the least bit worried about it. 00:13:38.752 --> 00:13:43.392 When I read the Bible, including when I read the Old Testament, if I'm just reading, I'll just read. 00:13:43.392 --> 00:13:52.512 Lately, I tend to read the Septuagint more online, mostly out of curiosity to see if I'm going to pick up on differences, but also it's just God's Word. 00:13:52.512 --> 00:13:59.652 As I said, and I want to reiterate this, I don't want anyone to get angry at their Bibles and say, my Bible's crap because it's not Septuagint. 00:13:59.652 --> 00:14:03.312 God willing, in a few years, we're going to have a new translation. 00:14:03.312 --> 00:14:06.912 By we, I mean the church, I mean Christianity at large. 00:14:06.912 --> 00:14:09.972 There's not going to be a Stone Choir translation of anything. 00:14:09.972 --> 00:14:16.032 And part because so many people hate us, it'd be completely tainted and everyone would think we're trying to create some form of cult. 00:14:16.032 --> 00:14:21.632 That's something that James White and some others are very adamantly pushing now to defame us. 00:14:22.232 --> 00:14:27.652 So for that reason, even though there wouldn't be anything wrong with us being involved, we would not. 00:14:27.652 --> 00:14:38.852 I think if we do a fifth episode of this, it's going to specifically lay out what we think the rules need to be for a faithful Greek only translation of scripture because it's clear that we need a new one. 00:14:38.852 --> 00:14:48.112 If for no other reason, incidentally, then one of the earliest episodes that we did on paywalling God, we made the point that a copyright encumbered Bible is wicked per se. 00:14:48.112 --> 00:14:54.992 You cannot paywall God and say, you have to give me money before I'll give you God's word in a language you can speak. 00:14:54.992 --> 00:14:57.432 Translations today are just that. 00:14:57.432 --> 00:15:00.712 It's translated in the vernacular so that you can understand it. 00:15:00.712 --> 00:15:05.192 So we simply need a new proper normal English. 00:15:05.192 --> 00:15:07.872 I won't say modern because that's such a tainted word. 00:15:07.872 --> 00:15:21.212 But a book that is free from anachronisms and strange words that no one knows, something you can hand to any fluent English reader and they can read it just without any help, without any oral tradition whatsoever. 00:15:21.312 --> 00:15:23.892 It's going to be a big part of this story. 00:15:23.892 --> 00:15:25.412 That doesn't exist today. 00:15:25.412 --> 00:15:31.892 The out of copyright Bibles, all of them have some issues, even apart from the fact that they're not based on the Septuagint. 00:15:31.892 --> 00:15:34.492 The exception of Brenton's has its archaic language. 00:15:34.492 --> 00:15:38.772 Brenton's is basically the King James except based on the Septuagint mostly. 00:15:38.772 --> 00:15:41.272 So there are no good Septuagint options either. 00:15:41.272 --> 00:15:46.112 There's not going to be a link in the show notes to say well, here's the exact Bible you need to buy and it's going to solve all these problems. 00:15:47.072 --> 00:15:51.632 The Bible that we would say yes, this is the one we would recommend, everyone doesn't exist yet. 00:15:51.632 --> 00:16:00.272 In the second episode of listener feedback that we did some time ago now, we spent the first hour talking about our approach to, what Bible should I read? 00:16:00.272 --> 00:16:18.252 And none of that advice has changed, except that we'll be saying, hopefully in a few years there's going to be a Septuagint based Bible with both the Old and New Testaments re-translated from all the Greek, that will not have the problems that exist in many of the modern translations. 00:16:18.252 --> 00:16:22.592 But that's not going to be a Stone Choir project, someone else will have to take that on. 00:16:22.592 --> 00:16:26.492 Hopefully with our blessing, I would love to see something we would actually be happy with. 00:16:26.492 --> 00:16:36.252 But I think that by the end of this series, a great many of you are going to realize that that needs to exist, and yet it doesn't exist today and that's okay. 00:16:36.252 --> 00:16:47.512 If you die, God forbid or God willing, and God permitting, before a new Septuagint translation exists, you're going to go to heaven with a version you have that's based on the Masoretic text. 00:16:47.512 --> 00:16:57.912 Keep saying that as we go throughout this, because none of this should undermine our faith in what we have, but we should yearn for that which God intended to transmit to us. 00:16:57.912 --> 00:17:03.772 If there's a better version, we're going to be talking about versions here, we have to be very careful. 00:17:03.772 --> 00:17:08.132 None of this is about pursuing what fickle tastes people have. 00:17:08.592 --> 00:17:18.072 As I said, it's not about trying to find some version that I like better or that you would prefer because it makes some point that you want to make. 00:17:18.072 --> 00:17:27.732 I frequently find that when I want to make points from the Old Testament, when I go to the Septuagint, probably in about a third of cases, the point that I thought I could make just kind of vanishes. 00:17:27.732 --> 00:17:32.572 It's not some huge point, but some small theological point that I thought was going to be there. 00:17:32.572 --> 00:17:33.692 I just find it's not there. 00:17:33.692 --> 00:17:35.352 I find something else. 00:17:35.352 --> 00:17:36.592 And it's not a cause for concern. 00:17:36.692 --> 00:17:40.552 It's just the fact that, okay, we're dealing with something different. 00:17:40.552 --> 00:17:53.592 Over the next few weeks, we're going to be talking about why the Septuagint is different from any other translation you've ever heard of, why the early church first used it and then later abandoned it. 00:17:53.592 --> 00:17:57.292 And then by the Reformation, why did we completely reject it? 00:17:57.292 --> 00:17:59.552 What was the basis for those decisions? 00:18:00.852 --> 00:18:03.792 And one last point that I want to reiterate from the previous episode. 00:18:05.112 --> 00:18:11.332 When we say that these men in history made mistakes, we are not calling them stupid, we are not calling them faithless. 00:18:11.332 --> 00:18:13.972 As I said in that episode, they were smart guys. 00:18:13.972 --> 00:18:15.932 They were incredibly good at what they were doing. 00:18:15.932 --> 00:18:19.132 They were trying to be faithful overwhelmingly. 00:18:19.132 --> 00:18:24.292 No one's going to devote his life to translation and all these things unless he truly cares. 00:18:24.292 --> 00:18:32.012 Even if we have disagreements about doctrine, I can't fault the faithfulness, especially for those men like Tyndale who went to their deaths fighting for this stuff. 00:18:33.012 --> 00:18:33.912 They were not fools. 00:18:33.912 --> 00:18:36.292 They were not faithless. 00:18:36.292 --> 00:18:56.752 What we're going to lay out, and the reason for the episode that we did recently on the context window is that if early on in this story of the Septuagint, there was a decision that went one way instead of the other in the church, and that decision has knock-on effects a thousand years later, those men who are subject to the knock-on effects are going to go in a different direction. 00:18:56.752 --> 00:18:59.592 And that's precisely what we see as we look through the entire history. 00:19:00.252 --> 00:19:13.152 When we start looking at Christian engagement and then disengagement with the Septuagint, what we see is long planted decisions, very seemingly minor decisions, that later on had profound effects. 00:19:13.152 --> 00:19:15.172 But at the time, it didn't seem like a big deal. 00:19:15.172 --> 00:19:26.272 And yet it's only in the fullness of time that you realize, wow, that one small detail that was a thousand, fifteen hundred years before some other detail actually made all the difference. 00:19:26.272 --> 00:19:35.192 Because when the guy who was trying to do his very best made his decision, and he didn't question that given from however long ago, his decision was influenced by that. 00:19:35.192 --> 00:19:36.872 And that's what all this is about. 00:19:36.872 --> 00:19:38.572 What are our influences? 00:19:38.572 --> 00:19:41.192 Are they going to be the scripture that Jesus quoted? 00:19:41.192 --> 00:19:43.312 Or are they going to be something else? 00:19:44.972 --> 00:19:55.792 So when we use the word translation in this context, we want to make sure that you understand specifically what it is we mean by translation, what a translation is. 00:19:56.632 --> 00:20:06.132 Undoubtedly, most of you listening, probably all of you listening, have books on your shelves that are translations from some other language. 00:20:06.132 --> 00:20:14.572 Whatever it happens to be, I have a number on my shelves, I have some diglots, which is multiple languages, one being a translation of the other. 00:20:14.572 --> 00:20:20.632 That is a different thing from what we mean when we say that the Septuagint is a translation. 00:20:21.812 --> 00:20:23.992 This is for a number of reasons. 00:20:25.252 --> 00:20:32.292 One, we are going to contend, as the Church has long believed, that the Septuagint is inspired. 00:20:32.292 --> 00:20:38.052 There is a difference between an inspired translation and a mere translation. 00:20:38.052 --> 00:20:42.272 I have, for instance, a translation of Gerta on my shelves. 00:20:42.272 --> 00:20:43.792 That's not inspired. 00:20:44.852 --> 00:20:47.952 It may very well be accurate, and it is indeed accurate. 00:20:47.952 --> 00:20:55.832 It is true to the underlying, the original German text, but it is not the same as being inspired. 00:20:55.832 --> 00:21:04.292 When we are dealing with the Septuagint, what we are dealing with is a translation of God's Word that is inspired by God. 00:21:04.292 --> 00:21:06.372 It is entirely faithful. 00:21:06.372 --> 00:21:09.332 It is God's Word. 00:21:09.332 --> 00:21:11.832 That is ultimately the point that we're making. 00:21:11.832 --> 00:21:15.732 The Septuagint is the Old Testament. 00:21:15.732 --> 00:21:18.732 In fact, we will be making the point the Masoretic is not. 00:21:19.592 --> 00:21:37.232 And so that's what we mean when we say translation, because there is an older text to which we no longer have access, that God used at some point in the past to help with the transmission of his Word, notably not just that written text. 00:21:37.232 --> 00:21:40.692 The oral tradition that accompanied it was also necessary. 00:21:40.692 --> 00:21:43.232 I'll get into that more in a minute here. 00:21:43.232 --> 00:21:45.592 But that existed in the past. 00:21:45.592 --> 00:21:46.992 We do not have it. 00:21:46.992 --> 00:21:48.172 It no longer exists. 00:21:48.972 --> 00:21:55.672 God caused his Word to be translated into the Greek, and that is what he has preserved. 00:21:55.672 --> 00:21:57.012 That is his Word. 00:21:57.012 --> 00:22:04.212 He promised to preserve his Word, and he did so, but he did so in the Greek. 00:22:04.212 --> 00:22:15.732 A few preliminary points before we get into the history proper, just to frame things and give you a sort of foundation upon which to build the rest of the content in these episodes, particularly the first two. 00:22:17.612 --> 00:22:22.512 There are a number of different systems that you can use for writing a language. 00:22:22.512 --> 00:22:23.772 We are speaking English. 00:22:23.772 --> 00:22:27.452 We are accustomed to an alphabet in which we use letters. 00:22:27.452 --> 00:22:30.212 The letters do not really have any meaning. 00:22:30.212 --> 00:22:44.292 They are symbols that represent things when they are connected to each other, except for obviously in the instance of words that comprise one letter, a, i, things like that. 00:22:45.832 --> 00:22:48.512 That's not the case for all languages. 00:22:48.512 --> 00:22:56.532 So, for instance, you have Chinese, in which the character actually means a word or it means a concept. 00:22:56.532 --> 00:23:03.752 The same thing is true for Japanese, although Japanese also has symbols that represent syllables instead of concepts. 00:23:03.752 --> 00:23:06.512 We are talking about logograms and syllabograms. 00:23:07.752 --> 00:23:11.212 Hebrew uses what is called an abjad. 00:23:11.212 --> 00:23:22.252 An abjad, unlike our alphabet or certain other systems of writing, is a writing system that writes down only consonants. 00:23:22.252 --> 00:23:24.792 The vowels are not included. 00:23:24.792 --> 00:23:32.752 Now that may not seem that important until you start thinking about how much of our language is comprised of vowels. 00:23:33.432 --> 00:23:35.152 This varies across languages. 00:23:35.152 --> 00:23:38.612 English is 40-ish percent vowel. 00:23:38.612 --> 00:23:41.352 German is slightly less than that. 00:23:41.352 --> 00:23:43.192 Some languages are significantly more. 00:23:43.192 --> 00:23:45.412 Hawaiian, for instance. 00:23:45.412 --> 00:23:49.592 Hebrew is somewhere between 30 and 40 percent vowel. 00:23:49.592 --> 00:24:06.152 Now that, of course, is modern Hebrew, which is close enough for our purposes when talking about consonants and vowels, notably not when talking about mutual intelligibility, but when talking about consonant versus vowel ratio, it's close enough. 00:24:06.152 --> 00:24:14.332 If you take away 30 to 40 percent of a language, how comprehensible does that language remain? 00:24:14.332 --> 00:24:17.032 The answer is not very. 00:24:17.032 --> 00:24:24.632 The answer is certainly not sufficient for the Word of God, from which nothing will be lost. 00:24:24.632 --> 00:24:26.812 God promised that it will be preserved. 00:24:27.992 --> 00:24:37.612