The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
It is often abbreviated LXX,
a name that remembers the story of seventy translators.
This was the Bible many Jews of the dispersion could read,
and it is the form of the Old Testament most often heard in the New Testament’s quotations.
It is a version of Scripture, not a rival canon and not a second gospel.
After Alexander’s conquests, Greek became the common language of much of the eastern world. Jewish communities outside the land needed the Law and the Prophets in that tongue. The work began with the Torah in Alexandria and grew until the whole Hebrew Bible, and some later books, circulated in Greek.
The New Testament writers, preaching to Greek-speaking hearers, frequently quote the Old Testament in wording that matches the Septuagint. When Matthew says that the virgin shall conceive, when the church in Acts reads Isaiah, when Hebrews argues from the Psalms, the Greek text is often close at hand.
That does not make the Septuagint older than Moses. It means God used this translation to carry His word among the nations.
Some copies of the Septuagint also contained books later called Apocrypha. The presence of those books in a Greek collection is part of the history of the text. It is not, by itself, the Lord’s verdict on the canon.
The apostles still treat the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings as the oracles of God, and they preach Christ from them.
- The Septuagint is the Old Testament in Greek, made for Jews who no longer lived only in Hebrew.
- New Testament authors often quote Scripture in a form that agrees with this translation.
- A translation can be the ordinary Bible of a people without ceasing to be a translation.
- Some Septuagint manuscripts include additional books; that is a fact of transmission, not a new Sinai.
- Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, whether those words were heard in Hebrew or in Greek.
- Comparing Hebrew and Greek can help a reader see how the early church heard the promises.
- The rule remains: to the teaching and to the testimony.
- Greek Old Testament – The Scriptures of Israel rendered into the common language of the age.
- Alexandria – The traditional place where the Law was first translated.
- LXX – The familiar abbreviation, from the story of about seventy translators.
- New Testament Use – Many citations of the Old Testament follow Greek wording.
- Wider Collections – Some copies also carried later Jewish books now called Apocrypha.
- Bridge to the Nations – A prepared path for preaching Christ from the Scriptures in Greek.
- Not a Replacement – The Hebrew oracles remain the fountain; the Septuagint is a witness to how they were read.
- Acts 2:5-11 – Jews from every nation under heaven hear the mighty works of God in their own tongues—the world in which a Greek Bible already served the dispersion.
- Acts 8:30-35 – The Ethiopian official is reading Isaiah; Philip begins from that Scripture and preaches Jesus.
- Acts 13:27, 32-34 – Those in Jerusalem fulfilled the voices of the prophets read every Sabbath; Paul announces the promise fulfilled in Jesus and quotes the Scriptures.
- Acts 17:2-3 – Paul reasons from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise.
- Matthew 1:22-23 – “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.’” (wording that follows the Greek of Isaiah 7:14)
- Isaiah 7:14 – The prophetic promise of the child called Immanuel.
- Luke 4:17-21 – Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
- Hebrews 1:6-9 – The argument from the Psalms and the Prophets as the church heard them in Greek.
- Romans 3:1-2 – “Then what advantage has the Jew?… To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”
- 2 Timothy 3:15-17 – The sacred writings make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus; all Scripture is breathed out by God.
- John 5:39 – “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”
- Luke 24:44-47 – Everything written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled; repentance and forgiveness are to be proclaimed to all nations.
- Isaiah 8:20 – “To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
- Nehemiah 8:8 – “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.”
- Acts 15:15-17 – James cites the prophets concerning the nations, in wording close to the Greek of Amos.
- Amos 9:11-12 – The restored booth of David and the nations called by the Lord’s name.
- Romans 15:8-12 – Christ confirms the promises given to the patriarchs, that the Gentiles might glorify God; the nations are called to hope in Him.
- Psalm 19:7 – “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”
- 2 Peter 1:20-21 – Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Septuagint is the Old Testament in the language of the nations.
God used it. The apostles quoted it. The church heard the promises in it.
That does not make every book bound with it equal to Moses.
It does mean that the Lord prepared a road for the gospel in the common speech of the world.
Search the Scriptures. They bear witness about Christ.
Whether you meet a verse first in Hebrew or in Greek, take it to the teaching and to the testimony.
If it does not agree with that word, it has no dawn.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.