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What version of the Old Testament did Jesus and the apostles have?
The Septuagint (LXX) is a translation into Greek of the Hebrew scriptures, made by Jewish scholars 1-2 centuries before Christ; that is, it is not a translation made by Christians. Why did they make this translation? Because the Jews in the Greek-speaking eastern portion of the Roman Empire no longer understood or read Hebrew. They put the scriptures in the language of the people. But LXX differers in places from the Masoretic text currently in use by the Jews, including the number of books!
Re Best Answer. There is the witness of the Orthodox Church, which from the beginning used the Septuagint as its Old Testament -- and uses it to this very day. https://www.septuagint.bible/
7 Answers
- UserLv 74 years agoFavorite Answer
Well...
likely they did not own anything like a complete copy.
Aramaic translations of Torah have been found in synagogues in the region, and so it may be that they had access to Aramaic translations.
The "lingua franca" of the region was Koine Greek, so possibly they had access to the Septuagint.
In the Bible itself, we see several quotes from the Old Testament
- most quotes most closely resemble the Greek Septuagint
- but several more closely resemble the Masoretic (Hebrew) text
and to further complicate the matter, it turns out that several Hebrew texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls have passages (including some of those quoted in the New Testament) that more closely match the Septuagint than they do the Masoretic Text.
SO:
A - We don't know for sure
B - But Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic versions were available in that region during that period
C - And my unprofessional opinion is that Aramaic is most likely for the less educated among them (given that was probably their native language) and that Greek was the most likely for the more educated among them (for example, Paul, who seems to have been fluent in Greek, and possibly also John and others).
- Anonymous4 years ago
As children they MEMORIZED the whole thing in schools, or with parents.
Muslims TODAY!!...MEMORIZE the Qur'an!!
They did it perfectly
- ?Lv 74 years ago
Jesus didn't need it. He wrote it through Scribes and Prophets !! And neither did the Apostles, Since Jesus was The New Covenant !!
- TerryLv 54 years ago
They had the Hebrew scripture which we call the Old testament which was in Hebrew and they also had what is called the "Greek Septugaint", which is the Hebrew OT translated into Greek.
- yesmarLv 74 years ago
They were familiar with the Septuagint, the same books we have today in the OT.