Appendix 84

THE SEPTUAGINT VERSION OF JEREMIAH

   The Septuagint translation of Jeremiah differs both in matter and form from the Massoretic Hebrew Text.  It is a Paraphrase rather than a Version, and an Exposition rather than a Translation.  It is not therefore to be regarded as representing an independent Hebrew Text, but as a paraphrase, often abbreviated, and often inaccurate.  No Hebrew MS ever seen corresponds with a text from which the Septuagint professes to have been derived. 

   It omits about one-eighth of the Hebrew text, or about 2,700 words; while the changes manifest the carelessness and arbitrariness of the translator or translators.  Indeed, the Hebrew language does not seem to have been understood, or its meaning apprehended: for, when the sense of a word could not be understood, it was summarily transliterated in Greek characters.

   It is needless therefore to treat it seriously, or to set out in any tables wherein such differences consist.