Septuagint: Nahum

By Scriptural Research Institute

The Book of Nahum is generally considered one of the oldest surviving books of the Hebrew Scriptures, with most scholars dating it to before the Torah was written, or at least heavily redacted in the time of King Josiah. Most scholars accept that Nahum was written by a prophet called Nahum between 663 and 656 BC, who was most likely from the town of Alqosh in northern Iraq, although some debate the location of his home town. His world was very different from the later Kingdom of Judea that emerged in the 2nd-century BC, as the Israelites of his time were still polytheistic, worshiping the Canaanite Elohim, as well as statues of Iaw (Masoretic Yahweh), the God the Jews and Samaritans would later worship.

By Nahum's time, Samaria had been conquered by the Assyrians, as had Egypt to the south, however the smaller Kingdom of Judah, located mostly in the modern Palestinian West Bank, had maintained its nominal independence. As he is reported to be from the town of Alqosh, in modern northern Iraq, his family must have been Samaritan. After the Assyrian Empire conquered the Samaritans in 720 BC, they dispersed the Samaritans throughout the empire in an attempt to assimilate them. The Kushites of modern Sudan, who the Greeks would later call Aethiopians, had ruled Egypt since 744 BC, however, were driven out of most of Egypt in 663 BC when the Assyrians sacked Thebes, called Amon in the Septuagint, and No Amon in the Masoretic Texts, ultimately derived from the Native Egyptian name Niwt-'imn, meaning, City of Amun. According to multiple ancient sources, Thebes was plundered by the Assyrians and virtually abandoned for years until the new Libyan dynasty took control of the region in 656 BC and began rebuilding.

Nahum's book is set during this era, after Thebes had been sacked, and presumably before rebuilding had begun. Some scholars debate this, suggesting that Nahum's life was decades later, as the Assyrian Empire was collapsing around 612 BC. This is mainly due to his prophecy that Ninevah would be devastated as Thebes had been, which did happen in 612 BC, however, that does not mean the prediction was not made decades earlier. Nahum's sentiment, that all empires eventually fall is a universal truth, and it is far more likely that he would have warned that Nineveh was going to end up like Thebes when that event was still fresh in everyone's mind than decades later when there was more obvious evidence the Assyrian Empire was collapsing. As such, the scholarly consensus is that he wrote the Book of Nahum between 663 and 656 BC.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scriptural Research Institute
• Release date: Aug 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989852484

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Copyright

WHILE EVERY PRECAUTION has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

SEPTUAGINT: NAHUM

Digital edition. September 12, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1-989852-48-4

The Septuagint was translated into Greek at the Library of Alexandria between 250 and 132 BC.

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2020, primarily from the Codex Vaticanus, although the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus were also used for reference. Additionally, the Leningrad Codex of the Masoretic Texts, and the Dead Sea Scrolls 4QXIIg and MurXII were used for comparative analysis.

The image used for the cover is ‘Ramesseum at Thebes, Egypt’ by Lockwood De Forest, painted in 1876.

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IN THE MID-3RD CENTURY BC, King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt ordered a translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures for the Library of Alexandria, which resulted in the creation of the Septuagint. The original version, published circa 250 BC, only included the Torah, or in Greek terms, the Pentateuch. The Torah is the five books traditionally credited to Moses, circa 1500 BC: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. According to Jewish tradition, the original Torah was lost when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple of Solomon and was later rewritten by Ezra the Scribe from memory during the Second Temple period. The life of Ezra the Scribe is estimated to have been between 480 and 440 BC, which is around the time that scholars generally believe the current form of the Torah was written.

Some scholars debate whether the Prophets Section was in the version published in 132 BC,