The Septuagint is the Greek Old Testament that Jesus quoted, the apostles built on, and the church read for centuries. Read it free, in Greek beside two public-domain English translations.
… Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.
… Behold, the young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The Septuagint reads “virgin.” The Hebrew reads “young woman.” Matthew quotes the Greek.
Nearly every English Old Testament is translated from the Masoretic Text, the Hebrew edition Jewish scribes standardized centuries after Christ. The Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament that Jesus quoted, the apostles built on, and the church read for its first three hundred years, is treated as a footnote. It should be the other way around. Here is the record, in four parts.
Jews translated their scriptures into Greek around 250 BC and revered it: a yearly festival, a curse on altering a word, a claim of inspiration.
Read the record →Some of his recorded arguments only work in the Greek reading. “Have you never read: you have prepared praise?”
Read the record →When the New Testament says “it is written,” the text that follows is usually the Greek. Whole arguments rest on its wording.
Read the record →Irenaeus called it the work of God. When Jerome changed a single word, a whole congregation revolted.
Read the record →Flip each passage between the medieval Hebrew tradition and the Septuagint. The Greek side is quoted from the editions in the reader.
The Septuagint in Greek and two English translations, with the King James and the Jewish Masoretic text set beside them, so you can see exactly where the Greek and the Hebrew differ.
The first English translation of the Septuagint, made by the secretary of the Continental Congress.
Sir Lancelot Brenton’s translation, the standard English Septuagint for over a century, including the books the Hebrew canon lacks.
The original Greek, aligned verse by verse with the English so you can read them together.
Read in English; show the Greek beside any verse when you want it.
Set the Septuagint beside the King James and the Jewish Masoretic text, verse aligned, to see where Greek and Hebrew part ways.
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Open the reader and see the Greek beside two English translations. Free, every chapter, no sign-up.