Introduction to the Babylonian Exile and the Septuagint

1. Introduction to the Babylonian Exileand the Septuagint The History behind why the 7 book difference in the Protestant and Catholic versions of the Bible : • 586/587 B.C.E. - Babylonians invade Israel and send the Israelites to Babylon beginning the “Babylonian Exile”. 50 years of captivity. • Israelite captives were not allowed to: • Practice their Jewish faith • Could not teach their children the faith • Could not tell the stories of their faith and history • Danger was that the stories and history would be lost.

2. Rabbis begin to secretly write the stories down so they wont be lost. • Lots of writings start to emerge. Eventually an “official list” is agreed upon. • In Alexandria, Egypt there is a community of Greek speaking Jews. (These Jews speak and read Greek, not Hebrew.) • These Greek speaking Jews hear about these “writings” now being used in Israel for prayer and worship. • They want these writings so they can share in the prayer and worship. • The Jews in Israel send the Greek speaking Jews in Egypt all the writings in their official list plus some writings that did not make the list.

3. 3rd Century C.E. The Greek speaking Jews in Alexandria, Egypt received the writings and translated them into Greek - because they didn’t understand Hebrew. • They translated not only the writings from the official list but also all the other writings sent to them. • When they finished translating all the writings, the Greek speaking Jews found that they liked some of the writings the Jews in Israel chose not to include in their official list of books or writings. • The Greek speaking Jews found 7 writings they felt should be included: • 1 Maccabees • Tobit • Wisdom of Solomon • 2 Maccabees • Baruch • Judith • Sirach

4. The Greek Translation of the Hebrew writings (bible) is called: • The Septuagint • From the Latin word “septuaginta” meaning “70 (seventy)” • 70 (72?) Greek scholars translated 70 copies of the Hebrew writings and when they finished they found they had 70 EXACT, word for word translations.

5. The Near East at the time of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity was a Greek world, dominated by Greek culture and thinking. • The emerging Christian movement chose to attach it’s New Testament accounts of Jesus and all the other writings to the Greek translation of the “Old Testament” because it was written in Greek. • As the early Christian church grew into the Catholic Church it was using the Greek translation of the Old Testament with the 7 extra books. • When Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church in the 16th Century, he chose to use the original Hebrew translation which did not include the 7 books the Greeks chose to include.

6. Who is this? Born 1929- Died 1968 Born 1485 – Died 1546