Augustine: the Septuagint (LXX) and Hebrew Bible and Greek other versions

from Gerard O'Daly's 2020 (2nd edition) of

Augustine's City of God: A Reader's guide

Book 18 of De Civitate Dei 

In Book 18 #42, Augustine mentions the

conquests of Alexander the Great but does

not consider his rule to rank with the great

empires, because it did not last.  The 

mention of Alexander is a prelude to 

Augustine's account of the Septuagint 

translation (LXX) in one of the Hellenistic

kingdoms that great out of Alexander's

conquests, the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt.

The miraculous translation of the 70 / seventy

two translators, working independently and

yet producing an identical version, down to

word-order, is a guarantee of its inspired

nature (Book 18 #42).  Augustine knows of

other translation of the Hebrew scriptures

into Greek, but he stresses the derivation

of Latin versions from the LXX, with the 

recent exception of Jerome.  Despite expert

praise for Jerome's version and scholarly

qualms about the absolute accuracy of the

LXX, Augustine stresses the superiority of

the latter.  If there is disagreement between

the LXX and other versions, then we must

at least concede that there is "prophetic

depth" in the former.  The very fact that the

LXX is not a slavishly literal translation is

a sign that it is inspired:  the same Spirit

that spoke through the prophets influences

the translator, conveying identical meanings

in different ways.  The practice of biblical

critics not to correct the Gk. Version from the

Hebrew, but to add from the Hebrew a

translation of what is missing in the Greek

and mark it in the manuscripts by an asterisk

just as a horizontal stroke marks passages

lacking in the Hebrew but found in LXX), 

shows that their respect for the LXX version.

These marks have been carried over into Latin

translations.  The same principle of inspiration 

is applied to explain these divergences.  The

Spirit simply wished to communicate some

things in one medium, some in another:

the LXX translators are the equal of the

prophets, and some of their words carry

a unique message (Book 18 #43).  The

discrepancy between the Hebrew & Greek

versions of Jonah 3:4, where the Hebrew

has it that Nineveh will be destroyed in 40 

days and the LXX says 3 days, is a case in

point.  Jonah must have said what stands in

the Hebrew text.  But the alternative version

points symbolically to the three days of

Christ's sojourn in hell before his resurrection,

just as do the three days which Jonah spent in 

the whale (Hebrew word great fish ).  The

number 40 has also a symbolic value:  it

refers to the number of days Christ spent

with his disciples after the resurrection and

before the ascension.  These discrepancies

compliment one another symbolically,

and keep readers on their toes, ever alert for

prophetic depths in the text (Book 18 #44).