Septuagint
The Septuagint (Latin: septuaginta, “seventy”; abbreviated LXX) is the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, produced in Alexandria, Egypt, between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Far more than a translation, the LXX represents a moment of radical transmission — the point where the Hebraic spiritual tradition entered the Greek-speaking Mediterranean world and, through that contact, profoundly shaped Christianity, Gnosticism, and Western esotericism.
Origins and the Letter of Aristeas
The Letter of Aristeas (2nd century BCE) provides the founding legend: Ptolemy II Philadelphus commissioned 72 Jewish scholars (six from each tribe) to translate the Torah into Greek for the Library of Alexandria. The scholars, working independently, produced identical translations — a miracle testifying to divine authorship. The number 72 (≈70) gave the translation its name.
Textual Significance
Divergences from the Masoretic Text
The LXX differs significantly from the later Masoretic Text (MT) — the standardized Hebrew text compiled by the Masoretes (7th–10th centuries CE). The Dead_Sea_Scrolls confirmed that some LXX readings preserve genuinely older Hebrew readings, vindicating the Septuagint as more than a loose translation.
Canonical Differences
The LXX includes texts not found in the later Hebrew canon: Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Tobit, Judith, 1–4 Maccabees, Baruch, and additions to Daniel and Esther. These became the deuterocanonical books of Catholic and Orthodox Bibles — accepted by most of Christendom but rejected by Rabbinic Judaism and later Protestantism.
Esoteric Significance
The Septuagint is a critical node in this archive because:
- Bridge to Gnosticism: The LXX’s Greek rendering of key theological terms shaped Gnostic cosmology. The translation of ruach (spirit/wind) as pneuma, and dabar (word) alongside logos, provided the technical vocabulary for the Pleroma-Demiurge-Sophia system.
- Hermetic Synthesis: The Alexandrian milieu where the LXX was produced was the same intellectual ecosystem that generated the Corpus Hermeticum — making the LXX a node in the fusion of Hebrew, Egyptian, and Greek esoteric thought.
- Kabbalistic Implications: The gematric and letter-mystical dimensions of the Hebrew original are partially preserved, partially transformed in the Greek — creating new layers of interpretive possibility for Hermetic_Qabalah.
- Jewish Mythology Transmission: Many of the Septuagint’s unique texts (Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach) contain wisdom traditions that influenced later Kabbalistic and Merkabah speculations.
See Also
- Dead_Sea_Scrolls — the manuscript finds that validated many LXX readings
- Talmud — the Rabbinic compilation that defined the alternative Hebrew canon
- Christianity — the religion that adopted the LXX as its Old Testament
- Gnosticism — the movement whose vocabulary was shaped by LXX Greek
- Hermeticism — the Alexandrian tradition that co-evolved with the LXX milieu
- Gematria — the numerological method affected by translation between Hebrew and Greek
- Jewish_Mythology — the mythological traditions transmitted through LXX-unique texts
- Kabbalah — the mystical tradition whose texts the LXX partially preserves