[B-Greek] What Book -- Num 21:14

Ron Tavalin rtav at zionweb.org
Sun Feb 22 17:50:24 EST 2004


Hello All

In response to Bart Torbert's question, the OT makes reference to 
several works that are lost to us, including the "Book of the Wars of 
Jehovah" (Heb. sefer milchamah YHWH), "the book of the Upright" (Heb. 
sefer hayashar), etc. These lost extra-biblical works are sometimes 
cited as sources for phenomena reported in the Bible (see Josh 10:13, 
for instance).

As for your question regarding the "original LXX" supporting the 
reading of "Book of the Wars of Jehovah," the LXX is not the original 
text for Numbers or any other book of the OT as the LXX is a Greek 
translation of earlier Hebrew Scriptures, that is, the Hebrew/Aramaic 
Old Testament. So "original LXX" is a bit misleading, unless you are 
making reference to a particular ms. of the LXX, and then it is still 
misleading because we have no mss. of the LXX that can be considered as 
"first draft" translations. BTW, the LXX agrees with the Hebrew OT (MT) 
in Num. 21:14 in reference to the "Book of the Wars of YHWH."

Hope this helps.

Ron Tavalin
Adjunct Professor of Bible and Jewish Studies
Moody Bible Institute




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