There Were Seventy Two and then There are Seventy Two

As we read our passage today (see previous post: Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20), we see that Jesus has increased his ministry force some six-fold.  Seventy two, fresh out of "Jesus Seminary", are being sent out to do field education in the surrounding communities, where the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few.   

What would the first readers of the Gospel of Luke seen when they read this passage?  Maybe the basis of the biggest controversy in the Hebrew faith since, well, Jesus himself?

Here’s the controversy.  Jesus’ Bible (our Old Testament) was written in Hebrew.  Hebrew is the language of the Hebrews, the Jews.  The text itself carried a level of importance that is reflected in the rules of how the Scriptures were copied (by hand).  But Hebrew is also giving way to Greek as the 'every day' spoken language, fading into the realm of ‘sacred language’, the language of religious activity, akin to Latin in the Roman Catholic church after the fall of the Roman Empire.  

Thus the controversy:  Some centuries before Jesus, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek at the request of the Ptolemaic kings in Egypt.  The work was done in Alexandria, the scholarly center of the world at that time.  And it is legendary.  Seventy two Jewish scholars (six from each of the twelve tribes of the Israelites), each working on their own, in isolation, over the course of seventy two days, were able to each produce a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, seventy two all told, which, when examined, all proved to be IDENTICAL.  Miracle of miracles.

To add to the legendary nature of the story, this synopsis is from Wikipedia, which summed it up much more eloquently than other sources.

The Greek version of the Hebrew Bible is called the Septuagint (which means “70”, so there is a whole other layer of legendary controversy over whether its “70” or “72”).  It is unfortunate that we do not have a clearly constructed theological notion of “close enough not to argue”.

The Septuagint caught on.  When Paul quotes from the Old Testament in his letters, he is using the Septuagint.  But there is ANOTHER issue at work here.   The Greek Old Testament contains more books translated from Hebrew to Greek than what we, in the church (at least our version), consider to be the inspired Hebrew canon of the Old Testament.  But that’s another post.

Seventy two and seventy two.  Jesus sends out seventy two.  But here’s the bit that caught my interest.  Some English versions say “seventy” and some versions say “seventy two”.  The ancient manuscripts of the New Testament are divided on the issue.  Again, we need the notion of “close enough not to argue”. 

 What does this have to do with anything?  Maybe nothing, but maybe something.  In our Wednesday Bible Study, it was the Septuagint that led us to discussing the possibility that giants survived the flood of Noah…yes, really.

So maybe this is just a curiosity worthy of a Bible Geek like yours truly.  Maybe there is something to be seen in the number “72”, because numerology (numbers chosen for their meaning) is a thing in the Bible.  Maybe its because I like…I cannot call it comparative literature, perhaps the study of ‘comparative rabbit holes’?

The bit that really seals it for me is that in the legend of the writing of the Septuagint, seventy two scholars all had the same translation, word for word.  In our gospel story, Luke records that all seventy two came back to Jesus with the same reaction, “The seventy two returned with JOY.”

Peace

pastor pete