- Joined
- Oct 19, 2020
- Posts
- 2,987
- Reaction
- 1,289
- Points
- 1,006
SEPTUAGINT (LXX)
The Septuagint (LXX) is the oldest, complete document that bears similarities to the Pentateuch understood to be written around the 3rd century BC. And according to another document, The Letters of Aristeas, Ptolemy II invited 72 Hebrew translators to translate the original Hebrew texts to Greek. But some scholars believe that the Letter of Aristeas is pseudepigraphal or fictitous. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
If we consider the strong parallels of the LXX to the the works of Plato, particularly on how he envisions a theocratic form of government, it makes total sense for the writer(s) of the Letters of Aristeas to make these falsified claims; one is to legitimize the LXX as a mere translation Hebrew document, implying that there is a history before LXX that links the Jews to the gods, just like some Greek claims to be descendants of gods, making the writen myth a potent mobilizer for conquest; and two, to promote Judaism as an identity to whom certain lands a given by the gods, Isreal. A similar practice was used by the Greek to conquer Cyrene.
This will make more sense as we go on. But for now, let us dive further into how much the writers of the LXX is inspired by Plato's books.
Critical readers tend to have questions about this story, which were likely answered with intellectual satisfaction. It will be surprising how easy to answer this by using Plato's works and other contemporary Greek ideas cited in his works..
1. Why involve a serpent? In Plato's book Statesmen, Socrates used the analogy of conversation with animals. This Idea was probably borrowed by the LXX writers, but the literary structure was from Plato's Protagoras, when he recycled Hesiod's myth of Prometheus. See there must be an "enabler figure" on this myth, because "fire" - a symbol of technological knowledge - was kept by the gods. So a higher being was needed to perform the theft, which is Prometheus. But in the Bible, man was perfectly capable to perform sin without the serpent. The serpent seems to be merely an accidental homage of the inspiration from Prometheus myth.
2. Why the woman? To continue the myth of Prometheus, the gods punished Prometheus horribly. But for men, he gave them a horrible gift - a woman. [Note the misogyny] She was given to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, and Zeus gave her a jar which she is forbidden to open. Which she will later open out of her burning curiosity imbued also by Zeus, as a result, unleashing evil to mankind but also and as she rushed to closed it trapped "hope" inside the jar.
3. Why "knowledge of good and evil"? Given the two parts of Hesiods myth, it seems that fire (technological knowledge) and evil - from both myths - is combined into one idea to interweave the two stories into one. And they are combined perfectly into a duality, capturing what each of them symbolizes into one - "knowledge of good and evil".
(Sources for Prometheus and Pandora: You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.)
THE CONCLUSIONS
Now, despite being very different stories, it has another very important parallel. The purpose of the writing - the conclusion - for both story, is to provide an explanation for human mortality, and suffering; and to declare that humans should go into some sort of stockholm syndrome, praising the entity that gave them this awful fate. That is a very specific state of mind to be a coincidence, to be honest.
The Septuagint (LXX) is the oldest, complete document that bears similarities to the Pentateuch understood to be written around the 3rd century BC. And according to another document, The Letters of Aristeas, Ptolemy II invited 72 Hebrew translators to translate the original Hebrew texts to Greek. But some scholars believe that the Letter of Aristeas is pseudepigraphal or fictitous. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
If we consider the strong parallels of the LXX to the the works of Plato, particularly on how he envisions a theocratic form of government, it makes total sense for the writer(s) of the Letters of Aristeas to make these falsified claims; one is to legitimize the LXX as a mere translation Hebrew document, implying that there is a history before LXX that links the Jews to the gods, just like some Greek claims to be descendants of gods, making the writen myth a potent mobilizer for conquest; and two, to promote Judaism as an identity to whom certain lands a given by the gods, Isreal. A similar practice was used by the Greek to conquer Cyrene.
This will make more sense as we go on. But for now, let us dive further into how much the writers of the LXX is inspired by Plato's books.
THE ORIGINAL SIN AND EVE
To summarize Genesis' 3 accounts on this events, the serpent convinces or "tricks" the woman into eating the fruit of "knowledge of good and evil". Then she later also convinces Adam to do it too. You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.Critical readers tend to have questions about this story, which were likely answered with intellectual satisfaction. It will be surprising how easy to answer this by using Plato's works and other contemporary Greek ideas cited in his works..
1. Why involve a serpent? In Plato's book Statesmen, Socrates used the analogy of conversation with animals. This Idea was probably borrowed by the LXX writers, but the literary structure was from Plato's Protagoras, when he recycled Hesiod's myth of Prometheus. See there must be an "enabler figure" on this myth, because "fire" - a symbol of technological knowledge - was kept by the gods. So a higher being was needed to perform the theft, which is Prometheus. But in the Bible, man was perfectly capable to perform sin without the serpent. The serpent seems to be merely an accidental homage of the inspiration from Prometheus myth.
2. Why the woman? To continue the myth of Prometheus, the gods punished Prometheus horribly. But for men, he gave them a horrible gift - a woman. [Note the misogyny] She was given to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, and Zeus gave her a jar which she is forbidden to open. Which she will later open out of her burning curiosity imbued also by Zeus, as a result, unleashing evil to mankind but also and as she rushed to closed it trapped "hope" inside the jar.
3. Why "knowledge of good and evil"? Given the two parts of Hesiods myth, it seems that fire (technological knowledge) and evil - from both myths - is combined into one idea to interweave the two stories into one. And they are combined perfectly into a duality, capturing what each of them symbolizes into one - "knowledge of good and evil".
(Sources for Prometheus and Pandora: You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.)
THE CONCLUSIONS
Now, despite being very different stories, it has another very important parallel. The purpose of the writing - the conclusion - for both story, is to provide an explanation for human mortality, and suffering; and to declare that humans should go into some sort of stockholm syndrome, praising the entity that gave them this awful fate. That is a very specific state of mind to be a coincidence, to be honest.