The Septuagint Restored
What Was Removed from Your Bible
The books below exist in both the Septuagint and the Masoretic text, but with dramatically different content. Entire prayers, chapters, and references to God were shortened or removed in the Hebrew tradition that modern translations follow.
6
Books Affected
+296
Verses in LXX
+52
More God References
Esther
The MT removes God entirely from the Book of Esther.
zero in MT
in LXX
removed in MT
Daniel
Three major sections removed: the Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon.
(LXX vs MT)
in LXX
removed in MT
Jeremiah
The MT adds ~2,700 words and rearranges the entire structure.
(LXX vs MT)
Job
The LXX Job is roughly 1/6 shorter with significant differences in the speeches.
(LXX vs MT)
removed in MT
Proverbs
Significant rearrangement and unique LXX proverbs not found in MT.
(LXX vs MT)
in LXX
1 Samuel
David and Goliath: the LXX tells a shorter, more coherent story.
(LXX vs MT)
The work of restoration has only begun. It is the duty of Christian scholarship over the next century to produce faithful new translations directly from the Septuagint and to honestly revisit why the Masoretic text was adopted as the foundation of Protestant Bibles in the first place. The apostles quoted the Septuagint. The early Church read the Septuagint. The question is not whether we should return to it, but why we ever left.