Septuagint quotations in the New Testament as witnesses to the development and the transmission of the Septuagint text (especially in regard of the quotations in the Synoptic Gospels and the so called Catholic Letters)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Siegfried Kreuzer
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389176457

The Septuagint as the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible basically originated in the 3rd and 2nd cent. B.C.E. However, in the 1st cent. B.C.E. and the 1st cent. C.E. there was a revisional process (in varying intensity) that formally adapted the original Septuagint (Old Greek) towards the Hebrew reference text (adaptation in word order, rendering of a Hebrew term by one and the same Greek word only, some specific vocabulary etc.). As the Old Greek had done, also these revised text forms of the Septuagint spread out in the Greek speaking Jewish diaspora. This means that in the time as the New Testament (basically the 1st cent. C.E.) originated, there were two versions of the Greek text of the Septuagint. This leads to the question, which form of the Septuagint was known to and used by the different authors for their quotations from the Old Testament/Septuagint. - So far, the new insights about the earliest development of the Septuagint text have not yet been taken into account; rather, differences within the Greek texts and agreements with the New Testament quotations were mainly explained and/or put aside as later cross influences.The goal of the project is to identify which reading of the Septuagint is taken up in a specific quotation in the New Testament and to which phase of the Septuagint it belongs. At the same time, these quotations become important witnesses to the early transmission of the Septuagint text (several centuries before the large codices and even older than most papyri). Methodologically it will be important to discern between variants within the Septuagint text and adaptations made by the New Testament authors. Investigations on the quotations in the Pauline letters and in later writings with the same quotations have shown that this is possible and that indeed the New Testament writings reflect the above mentioned development of the Septuagint text. The project is intended to expand this research to two important areas: The Synoptic Gospels (with their development and the differences between the tradition and the specific authors) and to the so called catholic epistles plus 1. Clemens (with their different types of scripture references). The placement of the quotations within the transmission history of the Septuagint will not only help for a better understanding of the quotations within the New Testament writings, but the quotations will prove themselves to be important witnesses to the earliest development and transmission history of the Septuagint.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants