Uncovering Influences

Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord.  Hebrews 8:9

Uncovering Influences

I Did Not Care For Them – Yolanda has been pushing me to look at this problem for awhile now.  Here’s a quotation from the book of Jeremiah.  It’s the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament.  The author of Hebrews is trying to explain the nature of the new covenant.  To do so, he reaches back to the only Old Testament passage that clearly articulates the new covenant, found in Jeremiah 31.  But, when you go read the passage that this author is quoting, you’ll find something unsettling.  It doesn’t say the same thing.  So, how can the inspired author of Hebrews quote from the inspired prophet Jeremiah and not have the same words?  The answer reveals something about translations that we don’t typically have explained to us.  It’s the influence of the Septuagint (LXX).

If you read this phrase in Greek, you would see kego emelesa auton (I did not care for them).  This reading comes from the LXX, not the Hebrew Masoretic text.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, the untranslated Hebrew text reads, “although I was a husband to them.”  Now you see why this passage in Hebrews doesn’t look like the same passage in Jeremiah.  The author of Hebrews quoted the LXX, not the MT. 

That’s the technical explanation, but it really doesn’t solve the deeper theological problem.  Knowing how this passage ended up in the letter to the Hebrews doesn’t help us understand why the author of Hebrews would quote from a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture, especially when it looks like the two texts don’t say the same thing.  To answer that one, we have to dig a little deeper.

The Septuagint was the authorized translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek.  It was accomplished by many rabbis and was consider by many to have the same standing for religious purposes as the original Hebrew text.  It was used extensively throughout the Roman Empire wherever Jewish proselytes read the Old Testament.  In fact, nearly every New Testament author makes use of this Greek translation at some point or another.  But (and this is important), no Hebrew New Testament author would ever suggest that the LXX replaced the original Hebrew text.  They just used it because many of their readers were familiar with the Old Testament in its Greek translation. 

With that in mind, the reading of the LXX must always be interpreted through the original Hebrew text.  This passage is a prime example.  When we read “did not care for them,” we apply our contemporary cultural understanding of this phrase.  That makes us think that the verse says that God didn’t care about the disobedient Israelites.  In other words, we read this as though it is an expression of emotion (e.g. “I don’t like you.  I don’t care about you.”).  But once we see the original Hebrew, we realize that this is not an expression about emotional feelings.  It’s an expression about the status of relationships.  “I do not care for” means “I no longer have a relationship of protection and provision.”  And that is what is implied in the Hebrew statement about Israel rejecting God as the husband. 

What do we learn?  First, we discover that the New Testament use of the Old Testament is often influenced by the intervening Septuagint.  Second, we realize that if we are going to understand the meaning behind passages quoted in the New Testament, we must still go back to the Hebrew original.  And finally, we see that New Testament authors often used  commonly acknowledged sources that we are no longer familiar with.  They do not deliberately misquote (at least not in this case).  They just use what their readers would have at hand.  In a time when books were very rare, very expensive and treasured, they quoted what would be available in a local synagogue.  But if we want to know the meaning, we have to go back to the original and not rely on the intermediate text.

Now you get to go read your New Testament citations with the Hebrew Scriptures opened to the same page.  Have fun.

Topical Index:  Septuagint, LXX, Greek translation, kego emelesa auton