Richard Rushden Ottley

The Septuagint and Early Judaism

"But, when Jerusalem had fallen, and Christianity was becoming a force which none could ignore, the Jews, conquered, dispossessed, and embittered, concentrated themselves upon anything national that remained to them. This cause alone might have set them against the Septuagint ; but beside this, as they knew, and were even now carefully analysing, their Scriptures in Hebrew, they were aware of the discrepancies between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, which was, moreover, often quoted against them by Christians. They were on the way to establish an officially received text ; and however the discrepancies had arisen, this, as we know, differed considerably from any Hebrew which the Septuagint might appear to represent. They thus passed to antagonism against the LXX., and when controversy arose, accusations were made, which faintly echo to this day, of texts purposely falsified. But, as the Hebrew could not be understood by most whom they hoped to reach, they found means to combat the Septuagint on its own ground."