Reception of the Septuagint in the early church

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to portray the reception of the Septuagint in the early Church. Firstly, the synagogue view of the translation is provided, from the reports in which the origin of the translation is enthusiastically discussed, to the rejection of the Septuagint. A particular emphasis is placed on theological argumentation attempting to prove the divine inspiration of the translation of the Seventy. In this process, the prominent figures are: Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Pseudo-Justin, Epiphanius of Salamis, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom and Augustine. The paper deals with two textual disputes over the authenticity of the Septuagint text as the legitimate successor of the original Hebrew consonant text. Textual deviations were often a reason for such confrontations. The first dispute is between Julius Africanus and Origen. Within it, Origen clarifies textual issues of certain Old Testament books. Jerome and Augustine took part in the second dispute. Jerome leaned more towards the Hebrew truth (Hebraica Veritas), while Augustine put more stock into the translation of the Seventy. These confrontations clearly reflect the status of the Septuagint in the early Church. Finally, a concise review of the further status of the Septuagint in the Western and Eastern Churches is provided.