12 May 2021

The Missing Bones of the Septuagint

The Missing Bones of the Septuagint. REV.05.12.21

In the course of research for The Hidden Bones Apocalypse I realized that the key phrase defining the work was not to be found in  any literal way in the Greek translation. Having completed the manuscript of The Hidden Bones in January I decided to look more closely at the Septuagint to verify that earlier conclusion. The result of that effort is detailed in the paper linked above.

My early conclusion was correct in its essential element but it was not fully accurate.

I initially concluded that the entire phrase b’etsem ha’yom ha’zeh was missing from the Hebrew text used by the Septuagint translators. I now understand that it is only the b’etsem element, or perhaps just etsem that is actually missing. The Hebrew text must have included some reference to “a day”, or a yom, in the cases studied.

The analysis detailed in the paper confirms the essential conclusion that the “bone” element of the Hebrew was not present in the text used to create the Greek translation.