MT Text vs LXX

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Tue Feb 1 07:10:04 EST 2000


To: Grant Polle,

<< Why does the Septuagint differ from the Masoretic text in the ages given 
within the Genesis account particularly chapter 5? What evidence is there 
to give support to one over the other? Is the LXX wrong? MT wrong? Personal 
opinion? >>

If you have permission to ask this question, then I would assume that it 
would be a safe assumption that the rest of us have tacit permission to 
reply to your questions, yes?

The answer which most mainstream scholars would give is that they are both 
fictions, as is most (if not all) of Genesis (as is most, if not all of 
Hebrew scripture). But I would assume that a discussion of the historicity, 
or the lack of historicity of Hebrew scripture, to be off-topic for the 
B-Greek list, so I'll say no more on this subject. As to which fiction is 
earlier or more "authentic" than the other fiction, that's an interesting 
question, but not one where there is a lot of solid evidence. Although, I 
wouldn't be surprised if most scholars thought of the Hebrew text here as 
being more "authentic." One interesting point, although not about the list 
of descendants in Genesis chapter 5, but rather the continuation of the 
list in chapter 10, Luke clearly borrows his genealogy from the LXX and not 
from the MT (see: Luke 3:35-36 and Genesis 11:12 in both the MT and LXX).

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad 
degrees).




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