2

Translation as Transformation

Translating the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (The Septuagint)

300 BCE = 500 CE

Layer II explores the period from roughly 300 BCE to 500 CE, when the biblical text underwent its most dramatic and lasting changes. These centuries witnessed the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (the Septuagint), the emergence of Christianity’s Greek New Testament, the establishment of the Latin Vulgate, and the formalization of the Christian canon through councils and doctrinal debate. This era marks the beginning of translation as power—a process in which linguistic decisions shaped theology, ecclesiastical authority, and the meaning of the “Word” itself. As the biblical languages shifted from Hebrew to Greek and then to Latin, so too did the interpretive frameworks through which communities understood God, creation, and revelation.

1. The Septuagint and the Reframing of Hebrew Scripture

The Hellenistic Horizon

Layer II begins in the Hellenistic period, when the conquests of Alexander the Great spread Greek language and culture across the eastern Mediterranean. Greek became the lingua franca of administration, commerce, and philosophy. Jewish communities living outside Judea—especially in Alexandria—found themselves in a world where daily life took place in Greek, not Hebrew.

To survive and remain cohesive, these communities needed their sacred texts in the language they spoke. This need paved the way for one of the most consequential translations in religious history.

Alexandria as Cultural Crossroads

Alexandria was a center of scholarship, trade, and intellectual life. It also hosted a large Jewish community. Between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE, Jewish scholars began translating the Torah—and eventually much of the Hebrew Bible—into Koine Greek.

This translation became known as the Septuagint (LXX). For many Greek-speaking Jews, it functioned as their Bible. It allowed scripture to reach communities far from Judea, but it also moved the text into a new linguistic and cultural world.

Linguistic and Philosophical Shifts

The Septuagint reframed Hebrew ideas through Greek vocabulary and philosophical categories.

Key examples include:

  • The divine name rendered as “Lord” (Kyrios)
  • Hebrew sheol translated as Greek hades
  • Hebrew legal and ethical terms expressed using Greek judicial language

The Septuagint did more than translate; it reshaped ideas by embedding them within Hellenistic concepts.

A Scripture Made Portable

The Greek Bible became widely accessible across the Mediterranean. Yet as scripture became portable, it also grew further from Hebrew rhythm and meaning. Translation created both possibility and distance, expanding interpretation while altering the original linguistic world.

2. Christ in Greek: The New Testament World

Koine Greek as the Language of the Early Church

The earliest Christian writings were composed in Greek. Even when rooted in Hebrew or Aramaic ideas, they expressed themselves in Greek vocabulary and syntax. This reflects the linguistic reality of the Roman world and positioned Christianity within a Greco-Roman intellectual environment.

The Power of the Word Logos

The Gospel of John opens with a profound fusion of Hebrew theology and Greek philosophy: “In the beginning was the Logos.”

In Greek thought, logos means speech, reason, ordering principle, or divine rationality. This framing allowed early Christians to articulate Christ as both God’s spoken Word and the rational structure underlying creation.

Greek Grammar as Theology

Greek grammar enabled early Christian writers to articulate complex doctrines such as:

  • The Trinity
  • The nature of Christ
  • Essence (ousia) and person (hypostasis)

These theological distinctions depended on Greek terminology not native to Hebrew thought.

A Proliferation of Manuscripts

As Christianity spread, communities across the Mediterranean created diverse manuscript traditions. Variations across Greek texts later required ecclesiastical decisions to determine authoritative readings and standardize scripture.

3. Latin Christianity and the Rise of the Vulgate

The Shift to Latin

As Christianity expanded into the Western Roman Empire, Latin replaced Greek as the primary language of administration and liturgy. By the late 4th century CE, numerous Latin translations of scripture circulated, with significant variations.

To resolve these inconsistencies, Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome to produce a unified Latin Bible.

Jerome and the “Hebrew Truth”

Jerome consulted Hebrew manuscripts directly, often preferring Hebrew readings to those of the Greek Septuagint. His translation became the Latin Vulgate, the dominant Bible of Western Christianity for over a millennium.

Latin as an Instrument of Control

As Latin literacy declined among the general population, the Bible became accessible primarily through clergy. Interpretation became centralized, and access to scripture was mediated through the institutional Church.

4. Canon Formation and the Boundaries of Orthodoxy

Defining Scripture

The early Christian world produced many writings: gospels, letters, apocalypses, and theological treatises. Different communities used different collections.

Councils such as Hippo (393 CE) and Carthage (397 and 419 CE) worked to establish a stable canon. Choices often reflected linguistic lineage—books preserved in Greek shaped the Septuagint tradition; Hebrew-based texts influenced later Western canons.

Orthodoxy Through Language

Debates over Christ’s nature and the Trinity hinged on Greek terms. Doctrinal conflicts—such as those between Arian and Nicene positions—often turned on a single word or even a single letter.

Language became the dividing line between orthodoxy and heresy.

Translation as Authority

Control over which texts were translated, preserved, or suppressed became a mechanism of ecclesiastical power. Translation shaped Christian identity as much as doctrine.

5. Consequences of Layer II

Layer II shows that translation is central to the Bible’s development, not an afterthought.

Key outcomes of this period:

1. Translation creates theology
Greek and Latin vocabulary made possible new doctrinal frameworks.

2. Scripture becomes an instrument of authority
Control over languages shaped who could interpret scripture.

3. Canon emerges through linguistic traditions
Different communities developed different canons based on Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac sources.

4. Meaning becomes layered
Each translation introduced new interpretations, adding layers of meaning.

5. The early soundscape disappears further
The movement from Hebrew to Greek to Latin distanced scripture from its oral, vibrational origins.

Select Bibliography (Chicago Style)

Primary Sources – Septuagint (NETS), ed. Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright.
– Jerome, Vulgate.
– Early Christian writings (Athanasius, Origen, Augustine).

Secondary Sources Karen Jobes and Moisés Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint.
Timothy Michael Law, When God Spoke Greek.
Emmanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed.
Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd ed.
Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry.
William M. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book.