[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Originally Posted by M Paul

Greek speaking Christians used a translation of the OT made in the mid-third century B.C.

If such a full translation circulated at such an early time, then why did Josephus indicate the need to translate the history scripture books ? (Or write Antiquities, which he took as the alternative choice.)

Originally Posted by M Paul

the Septuagint...contains the Apocrypha.

There is no standard in the early Greek texts.

Originally Posted by M Paul

from the earliest times, Greek speaking Jews regarded the LXX as having the same status as the original Hebrew.

Very untrue, in ancient times and today. And this cuts in multiple directions. e.g. There is a quote in the Talmud about how it was a dark day when the Greek was translated. Also there are Jewish indications of deliberately mistranslating the Greek OT, as we know was also done by alexandrian 'Christian' scribes, e.g. Psalm 14.

Originally Posted by M Paul

The Christians also accepted the translation as inspired.,,

Jerome essentially straightened this out when he rejected the Greek OT as his base (too corrupt) and, living in Bethlehem and using the library in Caesarea and studying with Jews he translated the Tanach directly from Hebrew to Latin.

For his excellent stance on this Jerome got flak from Augustine and others. It is one reason why I believe King James Bible folks should be careful just painting Jerome only negatively.

None of this relates to your mistaken idea that the Protestant canon is based on original languages only.

Shalom,
Steven