Manuscript Evidence
The Septuagint: Prophecies Translated Before Christ
30-second summary
Centuries before Jesus, Alexandrian Jews translated Israel's scriptures into Greek. A papyrus of Deuteronomy fixes the Torah's Greek text to about 150 BC, and a dated prologue to Sirach (132 BC) confirms the Prophets were already circulating in Greek too, corroborated further by the Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets scroll from the turn of the era. This was Jewish work, composed generations before Christianity existed.
Scripture
And Philip running thither, heard him reading the prophet Isaias. And he said: Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest? Who said: And how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
adcurrens autem Philippus audivit illum legentem Esaiam prophetam et dixit putasne intellegis quae legis qui ait et quomodo possum si non aliquis ostenderit mihi rogavitque Philippum ut ascenderet et sederet secum
The Claim
The Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek at Alexandria beginning around 250 BC and was fixed in written form within a century or so, as shown by a surviving Deuteronomy papyrus from the mid-2nd century BC. A Greek Prophets corpus also existed by 132 BC, and a Jewish revision of the Greek Minor Prophets survives physically from the century spanning 50 BC-AD 50. Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was a Jewish project, well underway generations before Christianity existed.
- Corroboration
- The Torah's early Greek translation is attested by the Letter of Aristeas (composed by mainstream dating in the 3rd or early 2nd century BC) and by the physical papyrus fragment Rylands 458 (Deuteronomy, paleographically dated to the mid-2nd century BC). A Greek Prophets corpus existing by 132 BC is attested by the dated prologue of the Greek Sirach. Physical evidence of a Prophets book in Greek from the turn of the era comes from the Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets scroll (8ḤevXIIgr, c. 50 BC-AD 50), a Jewish scribal product preserving the divine name in paleo-Hebrew script.
- Discovered
- Papyrus Rylands 458 (Deuteronomy fragment) discovered in Egypt, acquired 1917, edited by C. H. Roberts, 1936; Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXIIgr) discovered in the Nahal Hever caves, Israel, 1952, published by Emanuel Tov, 1990
- Current location
- John Rylands Library, Manchester, England (Papyrus Rylands 458); Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem (8ḤevXIIgr); Sirach prologue preserved in Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint
Why this level?
The claim rests on independent physical and textual anchors, not a single strand of testimony. Papyrus Rylands 458, a fragment of Deuteronomy paleographically dated to the mid-2nd century BC, is physical proof the Greek Torah was already circulating in Egypt roughly a century and a half before Christ. Independently, the Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXIIgr) — a different manuscript, from a different find-site, dated by different means to the century spanning 50 BC-AD 50 — shows Greek translation of the Prophets underway among Jewish scribes at the threshold of the Christian era. A third, independent witness, the dated prologue to the Greek Sirach (132 BC), states plainly that the Law, the Prophets, and the other ancestral writings were already available and read in Greek by that date. These three witnesses come from different genres, different find-spots, and different dating methods, and none depends on the others or on the Bible for its authority. Together they corroborate, above a single-source level, that Greek translation of Israel's scriptures was a mature Jewish undertaking well before Christianity existed.
Dig deeper
A translation project generations older than Christianity
Long before the apostles wrote a word, the Jewish community of Alexandria translated Israel's scriptures into Greek. This is not a claim resting on later legend — it survives on papyrus and in a dated eyewitness prologue, composed and copied entirely within Judaism, with no Christian hand involved.
The Torah, fixed in writing by 150 BC
Papyrus Rylands 458, a fragment of Deuteronomy held today at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, is paleographically dated to the mid-2nd century BC. It shows the Greek Pentateuch already circulating on Egyptian papyrus roughly a century and a half before Christ. The Letter of Aristeas, composed by mainstream dating in the 3rd or early 2nd century BC, preserves the community's own memory of that undertaking: a royally sponsored translation of the Torah at Alexandria under Ptolemy II. Between the papyrus and the letter, the Torah's early Greek translation is about as well anchored as an ancient literary event gets.
The Prophets followed close behind
Ben Sira's grandson, translating his grandfather's wisdom book into Greek, tells us plainly in his prologue — dated to 132 BC by his own reference to "the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Euergetes" — that he found "the Law, the Prophets, and the other books of our ancestors" already available and read in Greek. A physical Greek Prophets manuscript from the same general period survives too: the Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXIIgr), containing Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah, dated to roughly 50 BC–AD 50. Its scribes wrote the divine name in paleo-Hebrew script, a hallmark of Jewish rather than Christian copying — direct physical confirmation that Greek translation of the Prophets was Jewish work, already underway at the threshold of the Christian era.
Scripture the apostles could hand someone
Acts 8:27-31 shows this translation already doing its work in the mission field: a Greek-speaking Ethiopian official reads Isaiah aloud from a scroll, and Philip is able to open a conversation about it immediately — the ordinary, practical result of a Bible that had already been rendered into the common language of the Mediterranean world. The Septuagint went on to become the Old Testament read and quoted throughout the New Testament and the early Church, and it remains the Old Testament of the Orthodox Church to this day.
Keep digging
Citations
- Scripture
Acts 8:30-31
Supports: The Ethiopian eunuch was reading the prophet Isaiah, in a text Philip could immediately discuss with him — consistent with the eunuch reading the widely-used Greek Septuagint version of Isaiah.
- Scripture
Acts 8:30-31 (Clementine Vulgate)
Acts 8:30-31
Supports: Latin Vulgate wording of the scene confirms the eunuch was reading Isaiah aloud from a scroll before Philip joined him.
- Academic
Letter of Aristeas, a Hellenistic Jewish work generally dated by scholars to the 3rd or early 2nd century BC
Supports: A Hellenistic Jewish document treats the Greek translation of the Torah at Alexandria under Ptolemy II as an established fact, showing that translation of the Torah predates Christianity by well over a century.
- Archeological
Papyrus Rylands 458 (Deuteronomy 23-28 fragments)
Supports: A surviving papyrus fragment of Deuteronomy in Greek, paleographically dated to the mid-2nd century BC, shows the Greek Pentateuch already circulating on papyrus in Egypt long before Christ — physical proof of the Greek Torah's early date.
- Academic
Book of Sirach - translator's prologue
Prologue to the Greek translation of Sirach, c. 132 BC
Supports: Ben Sira's grandson, writing a dated first-person prologue after arriving in Egypt around 132 BC, states that the Law, the Prophets, and other ancestral books were already available and read in Greek translation by that date.
- Archeological
Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from Nahal Hever (8ḤevXIIgr)
8ḤevXIIgr, a Jewish revision of the Greek Twelve Minor Prophets, dated c. 50 BC-AD 50
Supports: A physical Greek manuscript of part of the Prophets (Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah), preserving the divine name in paleo-Hebrew script as Jewish scribal practice did, confirms that Greek translation of the Prophets was underway among Jews before or at the very start of the Christian era.
- Academic
Wikipedia summary of Septuagint usage in the New Testament
Supports: Confirms the Septuagint was a major source for the Apostles' quotations of the Jewish scriptures and became the Old Testament of the early Church.