In very ancient times, it seems some anonymous rabbis felt that they needed to take some liberties with the sacred texts, mostly —it appears– out of embarrassment. For example, in the Book of Judges, we are told that the children of Dan fell into idolatry (Judges 18:30-31). This is what the Septuagint says:
And the children of Dan set up the graven image for themselves; and Jonathan, the son of Gerson, the son of Manasses, he and his son were priests to the tribe of Dan till the time of the carrying away of the nation. And they set up for themselves the graven image which Michaias made, all the days that the House of God was in Selom.
This, essentially, is what the Masoretic says also. The only problem here is that Gerson was not the son of Manasses. He was the son of the Prophet Moses! How embarrassing! The grandson of Israel’s most prominent prophet fell into idolatry! This is what author Charles D. Provan (Christian News, May 7, 2007) writes:
…The rabbis themselves wrote that they deliberately changed some 10 passages. Among the most definite is Judges 18:30 where the rabbis admit they changed the text from Moses to Manasseh in order to protect Moses!
The teachers of Israel felt this fall on the part of the Prophet’s grandson would cast reproach on the reputation of the great Moses, so they changed the name. The translators of the Septuagint inherited this variant in the text they were given, and so they faithfully rendered this ancient rabbinical redaction into Greek.
So, two cheers to the translators of the Septuagint for their fidelity to the text they received.
4
In the Gospel of St. Matthew, we read the following prophetic passage:
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, and take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON. (Matt. 2:12-15)
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