Septuagint vs. Masoretic Text -- Why Two Old Testaments Matter for LDS Study

Most readers of the Bible assume there is one Old Testament. There are at least two, and their differences are not trivial. The Masoretic Text (MT) is the Hebrew text standardized by Jewish scholars called Masoretes between the sixth and tenth centuries AD, and it is the basis for the Old Testament in most English Bibles, including the King James Version. The Septuagint (LXX) is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, produced by Jewish scholars in Alexandria beginning around the third century BC. Both are ancient. Both are authoritative in their respective traditions. And in hundreds of places, they disagree.

The Septuagint was the Bible of the early Christian church. When Paul quotes scripture in his epistles, he is almost always quoting the LXX, not the Hebrew. When the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 10:5-7, "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me," he is quoting Psalm 40:6 -- but from the Septuagint, not from the Hebrew, which reads "mine ears hast thou opened" rather than "a body hast thou prepared me." The difference is significant: the LXX reading points directly to the Incarnation, to God preparing a physical body for Christ. The Hebrew reading points to obedient hearing. Both are theologically meaningful, but they say different things, and the New Testament author chose the Greek.

The most famous divergence between the LXX and the MT is Isaiah 7:14. The Masoretic Hebrew reads "almah," a word meaning "young woman" -- not specifically "virgin" but a woman of marriageable age. The Septuagint translates this as "parthenos," which unambiguously means "virgin." When Matthew 1:23 quotes this verse to explain Mary's conception of Jesus, he follows the Septuagint rendering. The theological stakes are obvious. If the original Hebrew meant only "young woman," then the LXX translators made an interpretive choice that the New Testament then built upon. If the LXX preserves an older or more accurate reading, then the MT may have narrowed the meaning. Latter-day Saint readers have an additional data point: the Book of Mormon quotes Isaiah extensively, and in 2 Nephi 17:14, the text reads "a virgin shall conceive," aligning with the LXX and the Matthean reading rather than the MT. This suggests that the brass plates carried by Lehi's family preserved a text tradition closer to the Septuagint on this point.

Psalm 22:16 presents another consequential difference. The Masoretic Text reads "ka'ari yadai veraglai" -- "like a lion, my hands and my feet" -- a phrase that is grammatically awkward and difficult to interpret. The Septuagint reads "oryxan cheiras mou kai podas mou" -- "they pierced my hands and my feet." The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the mid-twentieth century, include a Hebrew manuscript of this psalm that reads "ka'aru," a verb meaning "they dug" or "they pierced," supporting the Septuagint. The difference between "like a lion" and "they pierced" in a psalm that Christians have always read as messianic is enormous. The LXX reading describes crucifixion imagery centuries before crucifixion was a Roman practice. The MT reading obscures it. Whether the MT reflects a scribal error or a deliberate alteration is debated, but the Dead Sea Scroll evidence suggests the piercing reading is ancient and possibly original.

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 contains a divergence that touches the structure of ancient Israelite theology. The Masoretic Text reads that when the Most High divided the nations, He set their boundaries "according to the number of the children of Israel." The Septuagint reads "according to the number of the angels of God," and a Dead Sea Scroll fragment (4QDeut) reads "according to the number of the sons of God" -- bene elohim, the same phrase used in Job 1-2 for the divine council. The LXX and Qumran readings imply that each nation was assigned a divine being as its patron, while Israel was reserved for YHWH Himself. This reading supports the existence of a divine council -- a concept that is present in Psalm 82, in 1 Kings 22, and in Abraham 3-4 in Latter-day Saint scripture, where the "noble and great ones" participate in the creation. The MT reading, "children of Israel," flattens this cosmology and may reflect later monotheistic editing designed to remove references to other divine beings.

For Latter-day Saint readers, the existence of multiple text traditions is not threatening but illuminating. The eighth Article of Faith states, "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly." This acknowledgment that transmission and translation introduce variation is exactly what textual criticism demonstrates. The Septuagint, the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Joseph Smith Translation all represent different witnesses to what the original text said. They do not all agree, and they are not supposed to. Each witness preserves something, and each may have lost something. The JST, in particular, does not consistently follow either the LXX or the MT; in some passages it aligns with the Septuagint against the Hebrew, in others it introduces readings found in neither tradition, suggesting restoration of content that was lost from both.

The practical value of comparing these traditions is that it prevents the false certainty that comes from reading only one version. When a reader encounters a difficult or surprising passage in the KJV, checking the Septuagint often reveals that ancient readers struggled with the same passage and resolved it differently. When the LXX and the MT agree, we can be more confident in the reading. When they diverge, we have an opportunity to ask which reading makes better sense of the context, the theology, and the larger scriptural witness -- including the Restoration scriptures that sometimes weigh in on the question.

The Septuagint also preserves books and passages not found in the Masoretic Text at all, including expanded versions of Esther and Daniel, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Sirach. While Latter-day Saints do not canonize these texts, they provide valuable context for understanding the world in which the New Testament was written and the theological vocabulary that early Christians inherited. The word "resurrection" (anastasis), the concept of creation from nothing, and the language of divine wisdom personified all have roots in Septuagint literature that predates the New Testament.

Engaging with both text traditions does not require reading Hebrew and Greek fluently. It requires tools that place the traditions side by side and highlight where they diverge, so that readers can see the questions for themselves and bring their own spiritual discernment to bear. The scriptures have always been a living conversation, not a static document, and the LXX and MT are two of its oldest voices.