The Septuagint

The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. It was commissioned by an Egyptian Pharaoh who wanted to promote learning. At the time (3rd century BC), Alexandria was a center of learning, and it would continue to be for several centuries. Alexandria also had a sizeable Jewish population, and so Pharaoh Ptolemy Philadelphus commissioned a Greek translation that commenced somewhere around 250 BC.
The story of the translation of the Septuagint is told by some famous people. Philo of Alexendria and Josephus, two famous Jewish writers from the time of Jesus, both tell the story I'm about to tell you. It's repeated by at least Justin Martyr (AD 150) as well as other early Christians.
As the story goes, the Pharaoh wanted an honest, excellent translation, so he sent to Israel to get their best scholars. Seventy-two scholars showed up to translate the Law of Moses, and he put them all in separate cells. Despite the separation, they produced 72 translations that were word-for-word the same.
I'm not telling you this story is true. I'm telling you a lot of people believed it, such as:
By the first century a lot of Jews, especially outside Jerusalem, were more Greek-speaking than Hebrew-speaking. Many of them, like Philo and Josephus, believed the story about the translation of the Septuagint, and thus they thought the Septuagint was an inspired translation. Many early Christians agreed.
By the time of Jesus all the Hebrew Scriptures (the whole Old Testament) had been translated into Greek, not just the Law of Moses, and churches, who were mostly Greek-speaking, used the Septuagint as their primary Bible, considering it inspired.
The term Septuagint means "the translation of the 70," and as a result it is also called the LXX (Roman numerals for 70).
Most of the quotations found in the New Testament are from the Septuagint rather than the Hebrew texts from which our modern English Bibles are translated. I found an awesome quote on the internet showing the agreement of scholars, Catholic and Protestant, about how much the Septuagint is quoted in the New Testament. (I'm using asterisks to help set off the quote.)
***Of the places where the New Testament quotes the Old, the great majority are from the Septuagint version. Protestant authors Archer and Chirichigno list 340 places where the New Testament cites the Septuagint but only 33 places where it cites from the Masoretic Text rather than the Septuagint (G. Archer and G. C. Chirichigno, Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament: A Complete Survey, 25-32).***
This paragraph is found on a Catholic web site (http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/in-which-passages-does- jesus-quote-the-septuagint-and-where-does-the-new-testament-al), and it is written by a scholar who graduated from a Franciscan university. Yet here he is able to appeal to Protestants to justify his statement that it is the Septuagint that is primarily quoted by the New Testament authors.
One notable example is Jesus rebuke of Pharasaic tradition. Part of the quote from Isaiah that he uses is "in vain do they worship me, teaching for commandments the traditions of men" (Mark 7:6-7). That passage is found only in the Septuagint of Isaiah 29:13.
THE LXX AND PROPHECY
The Christians proved so adept at using the prophecies in the Septuagint that Jewish leaders stopped using it and began claiming that it had errors. They switched to a Hebrew text and claimed that it was pure. In return, second century Christians began accusing Jews of changing Scripture to hide the prophecies of the Messiah because they predicted Jesus and his crucifixion too accurately.
The Jews managed to win at least one Christian over to that idea, but not until early in the fifth century (the 400's). Jerome made a Latin translation of the Scriptures in the early fifth century because a lot of the western Roman empire had been speaking Latin primaritly for a couple centuries.
That translation is called the Vulgate, and it managed to become the Bible of choice in the west.
The western empire, including Rome and north Africa fell to Barbarians later in the fifth century. The eastern empire, with a capital at Constantinople, continued for another thousand years, still speaking Greek and still using the Septuagint. To this day, it is still the Bible of most of the Orthodox branches of Christianity.
This article only brushes the surface of the history of the Septuagint, but I do want to cover one more thing.
Somewhere along the line, the Jews began a very careful campaign to ensure the accuracy of their Hebrew manuscripts. A group (or a family?) called the Masoretes began keeping strict rules when they copied manuscripts, even counting the number of characters on a page, making sure they were an exact match.
Nonetheless, the oldest Masoretic text we have comes from the 9th century. Thus, to scholars, when it comes to determining the most accurate text, there is a choice between a Greek translation of a Hebrew text dating to the couple centuries before the birth of our Lord or a Hebrew text that cannot be proved accurate until the 9th century. That's a tough choice.

It's a slow process, but more and more Protestants are moving to reading English translations of the Septuagint. The differences aren't great, but some are important. There are seven different chapters in the book of Jeremiah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls backed up the Septuagint version of that book. One other interesting thing is that the Septuagint of 2 Samuel clears up a difficulty concerning Saul's recognition of David when he volunteered to kill Goliath. 

humor from Will Rogers

Never Squat With Your Spurs On - Will Rogers

Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash in Alaska with bush pilot Wiley Post, was one of the greatest political country/cowboy sages this country has ever known.  Some of his sayings:

1.  Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2.  Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. 

3.  There are two theories to arguing with a woman ... Neither works.

4.  Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5.  Always drink upstream from the herd.

6.  If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7.  The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

8.  There are three kinds of men:

The ones that learn by reading;

The few who learn by observation;

The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

9.  Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10.  If you're ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

11.  Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

12.  After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.

He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral:  When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

First ~Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way.

I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.

And, finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.

An Obama Legacy? Probably not.

Sylvia Thompson is a black conservative writer whose aim is to counter the liberal spin on issues pertaining to race and culture.

Sylvia Thompson on Obama's "legacy"...  THIS IS WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY:

 

To the many gullible souls out there who truly think that Barack  Hussein Obama is "legacy building" in his all-out assault on America, I implore you to bow out of the conversation because you are not seeing clearly.

 

The term legacy carries positive connotations of something bequeath that is to the receiver's benefit. Everything that Barack Hussein Obama does is calculated to destroy America, which he despises. This man no more cares about legacy than he fears being properly prosecuted by the white political leaders whose responsibility it is to remove him from office.

 

I focus on white leaders, because whites are still in the majority and they fill the majority of political offices. If the majority of political operatives were of some other ethnicity, I would lodge my complaint against that group. Ethnicity is an issue only because Obama is half-black and he uses that fact to intimidate guilt-conflicted white people. Otherwise, he would have been impeached and likely in prison for treason by now.

 

Barack Hussein Obama's sole aim has been, since he first entered politics and continues as he winds down this presidency, the complete destruction of America as it was founded.

 

It is an insult to the intelligence of all Americans who must listen to elitist pundits on Fox news and elsewhere, and political drones in either party endeavor to make Obama's behavior fit a pattern of normalcy. Attributing his destructive policies to "legacy building" is either self-delusion on the part of the people who make that claim or cowardliness.

This is my take.

Obama's nuclear deal with Iran has nothing to do with legacy but rather to enable a Muslim nation to wage nuclear war with America and Israel the two nations that he most despises. Does anyone wonder why Russians praise Vladimir Putin despite what the rest of the world might think of him? Putin cares about his country, that's why.

 

Obama despises the American military because traditionally it has been a mainstay of America's strength, and our strength infuriates him.

Imposition of a polluting homosexual, anti-Christian agenda upon the military ranks destroys unit cohesion and literally terrorizes male members with the prospect of sodomy rape. Such rapes have increased since the forcing of open homosexuality in the ranks, against the will of a majority of members I might add. Couple that with an infiltration of women, for whom all standards of strength must be reduced, and Obama attains his goal of emasculating and demoralizing the forces.

 

He could not care less about a legacy of making the forces more diverse. Besides, President Truman diversified the military as much as it should be when he integrated it. Obama's objective is its destruction.

 

Obama reopened relations with Cuba because Cuba is Communist. Legacy is not his concern here either, but rather to scuttle America's attempts to keep Communist influence out of the Americas. That Cuba has major issues with human rights does not matter. Like his Marxist African father before him, he despises the West and all that it represents.

Obama lawlessly declares open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens, because he wants to overrun America with third-world people who bring little more than dependency with them. This tactic not only does not ensure a legacy, but rather it guarantees the eventual conversion of America itself into third-world status, if it is allowed to continue.

Bill Clinton started the travesty of increasing the numbers of third-world immigrants at the expense of culturally more suited immigrants from European and European-influenced nations, but Obama has taken the trend to lawless, destructive extremes. He is fully aware that many of these invaders have no intention of assimilating.

 

It is only the outcry of a majority of Americans that holds back this hateful invasion scheme, and Donald Trump's entry onto the political scene to oppose that scheme is a saving grace for our nation.

 

These are but a few instances of behavior that display the loathsome character of Barack Hussein Obama. And he is allowed to roam freely through the American landscape poisoning and polluting as he goes, sure in the realization that no one will stop him because he is "black."

 

The day that we no longer have to hear the prattle about his "legacy building" will not be soon enough for me.

 

Many, many Americans are thoroughly fed up with Barack Obama and the spineless crop of political leaders who ignore his criminality. It is yet unknown whether Republicans will ever garner the backbone to become a true opposition party and hold him accountable. Promising signs are the House conservatives' getting rid of establishment types John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker and Speaker hopeful, respectively, and Donald Trump's entry into the 2016 presidential race with enough money and testicular fortitude to tell the Establishment and the Left where to shove it.

 

Should these positive trends not continue and the 2016 election cycle yield no movement to counter all the harm that Barack Obama has done to this nation, I think there will be massive disruption. Those folks in the National Rifle Association ads currently running on television seem very serious to me, and that is a good thing.    

washing the cat in the washing machine

not sure why I just remembered this, but I used stay with my great grand mother on weekends when I was in elementary school.

then she died.

and then,  in jr. high I would often go and stay with my grandmother and her husband, George, on weekends.

George was her second husband, and he'd had a stroke and couldn't walk and was in a wheel chair.   She called him George.  My mom called him George.  So I did too.

He and I would play checkers for hours.  and hours.

Sometimes, I'd spend time with her in the living room listening to old big band sounds on her collection of records.    Or sometimes I spent time with George playing checkers or reading him his True Detective magazines.  Looking back, I just now realized that they didn't really spend time together, so I didn't either.  It was one or the other and me.

My grand mother, Momma Kathy, was a bit absent minded.  or ditsy.

They had an old front style washing machine.   Now front loaders are modern.  But in the 60's top loaders were modern and front loaders were old fashioned.

I remember that George and I were in the den playing checkers, next to the room where the washing machine was.  and we heard her slam the washer door closed, and start it and then she walked off.

A few moments later . . . .he and I looked at each other.   cuz we could hear this screaching,  gurgle, gurgle, eeeeowwww, screaching, gulp, gulp eeeeoowww, gurgle sound.  

And he yelled . . . .Katherine, you've got the damn cat in the washing machine!!!!! and then just went right back to making his next move.  

omg.  she came running in, and stopped it and opened the door, and I swear . .  .

I saw a flying cat for the first time in my life.  that cat came out of that washing machine like a bullet dragging clothes behind it.   dripping wet.   and tried to run off to the back porch room. But he kept falling down, and then get back up again. I guess he must have had at least a 2 or 3 dozen fast rotations in the time it took her to stop the machine.   plus the water pouring in. It must have made him very dizzy.  

this picture is NOT Butch, but I had to find one to remember what he looked like.

I was laughing so hard at the very-dizzy, wet cat, and George, who didn't like Butch the cat, just looked up like it was a perfectly normal occurrence and said "well.  one down.  eight to go." 

this has gotta rank as one of the funniest things I can remember ever seeing.  And for a 12 year old it was the most hilarious.  and it just randomly popped into my head now.

anyway . . I'm just teary eyed from laughing again so hard.   I had to tell someone.c

Ideas to liven up a dull Christian life group

Here are a few questions for life/lively group discussion that roll around in my mind.

How much of what you believe about God, Jesus, the Christian life is based on KNOWING or revelation to you from the Word  . . .either Logos or Rhema . . .? and how much of what you believe is because you were taught that from the pulpit, family, friends, etc?

If you are taught something from a leader in the church who has many initials after his name are you more likely to believe it as true?   Do you ever hear your own leader say something and think to yourself "mmmmm.  He's off base on that".    

If you think your leadership is "off base" do you feel the freedom to just go up to them and tell them you think they are in error?

How does your world view influence your Christianity view?

How much does your Christianity view influence your worlds view?

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most anxiety . .

what is your immediate level of anxiety at the thought of considering some that some/part/all/most of what you believe might be "not true"?

Is it faith shattering or faith building to question what you've been "taught" versus what you know/feel/sense in your heart?

Does God care if you're wrong about doctrine?

Does God care about doctrine?

What would/could you get a group of ten or 20 Christian friends to sit down with you and write a short "confession of faith" of what things you all collectively KNEW to be true.

Of all the sects/denominations in Christianity today, are you "in" your particular sect/denomination because

you have determined it is the most likely to be doctrine correct?

Martin Luther was a catholic priest.   How much of what he believed did he decide was just taught to him and incorrect?   He didn't seem to object to the idea of many doctrines of the Catholic church.   Just the idea of sanctification.   So was he in error?

When ML reached a point of deciding that much of what he believed was wrong . . .why did God choose him to be a singular voice to raise the 95 points instead of putting it on the minds of the leadership of the church?

What if ML had decided that he could not question points of his "faith" because it would be heresy and did he say to satan "get behind me"  when he first began to have idea he might have been in error?

How did ML know that it was not satan but the Holy Spirit directing him?

If the Catholic church then/now was in deception . . .and ML decided he had seen a revelation of truth and correction . . . how likely then could it be that something truthful could come out of any other organization

that the church today believed in error?   In other words, might a new revelation for the church today come from a Catholic priest or did the Catholic use up their one free "get of Jail free" card with ML?

And then of course . . .if ML was deceived why did he not know it before he did?   What was his illumination?

Does/would/might God still be in the business of illumination?

Am I/you/others open to the idea that illumination might come from a prophet of any source?  Or would we as "enlightened evangelical protestants . . only be receptive to a Word that came forth from another "enlightened evangelical protestant".   '

would the church today be open to the idea of a prophecy coming forth from a donkey for instance?   Why not perhaps me?  Or you reading this?  Is the church today open to the idea of some one person being a modern day Luther?   

Do we attend a fellowship because we believe it is doctrine pure?

And lastly, do you feel very uncomfortable inside of you right now considering these questions?

final note.   might not be a good idea to try and bring up ALL these points in one single night of life group?  :-)