Yet another Septuagint manuscript using the divine name found

by slimboyfat 38 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  slimboyfat

  Larry Hurtado mentioned on his blog that yet another early manuscript of the Septuagint has been found that uses the divine name instead of Lord (kurios), this time representing the divine name with ancient Hebrew letters (YHWH) in what is the earliest extant copy of the Psalms in Greek. Hurtado argues that the use of the definite article before the divine name indicates that the manuscript relies on earlier copies that used Lord (kurios), but the fact remains that all the earliest copies of the Septuagint that have survived use some form of the divine name and none use Lord (kurios) as a substitute. That's about ten out of ten for manuscripts of the Septuagint earlier than mid-second century C.E so far.

  http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/new-oxyrhynchus-manuscripts/
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  TheOldHippie

  Didn't want your message to go uncommented, so I just .......... wrote one ............

  :-)
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  Satanus

  I was waiting for your comment, brother oldhippie;)

  S
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  Jeffro

  the fact remains that all the earliest copies of the Septuagint that have survived use some form of the divine name

  So...?
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  Phizzy

  The earliest N.T writer was Paul, we do not have a copy of the Sep. that is contemporaneous with his writing or the later Canonical writers do we ? am I right??

  (Not sure)

  If so, we can but assume that the copies read and quoted from by Paul and others contained a form of the divine name, not simply "Lord".

  If this assumption is correct it still does not of course prove that when read aloud the "Name" was uttered, it could still be that in reading aloud, and silently, a word for "Lord" was read, in common with what seems to be the practice of the Jews at the time, and for some years before this.

  As far as I can see, none of the evidence supports 100% the claims made by the WT that the Name was used by early Christians.
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  DeWandelaar

  Well... the Septuagint is still just a (greek) translation of the Old Testament... and therefore is not proof that the Tetragrammaton was used in the New Testament or something.

  The WT$ has implanted the "name" in the New Testament based on one or two scriptures that were quoted of the Old Testament. However... they are NOT being consequent with translating Kurios. When Jesus for example is using a parallel and uses Kurios for "Lord" they do NOT translate it with the "name". You see? They are only cherrypicking when it fits their doctrine
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  jwfacts

  What conclusion are you drawing? That the Jews started adding YHWH back to the Septuagint to distance themselves from Christians? Christians were not using YHWH and using Lord instead, so Jews would want to make it clear they were not worshipping the same Lord.
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  Satanus

  That simply goes w the trend of the time. Judaism started out in polythiesm. They needed a name to differentiate their god from the others. As monotheism became more firmly established in judaism, the need for a name became obsolete, the name redundent. Christianity was fully montheistic, from its start, ergo, no name needed for god.

  S
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  slimboyfat

  My conclusion? I think there is a fair chance the JWs are right that the substitution of YHWH/IAO with kurios was a Christian innovation dating to the second century CE.

  The arguments in favour of kurious in the early Septuagint seem pretty tenuous, and as more and more manuscripts are found they all contain forms of the divine name rather than substitution.
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  Phizzy

  Would the copyists of the Septuagint in the 2nd Century have had the mandate to do that ? would the copyists have necessarily been christian ?