The Hebrew term for the plant that is translated in a variety of ways in English, including “vine,” “gourd,” or simply “plant” or “bush” has a long history of controversial translations.
Law (2013, p. 170) quotes from one of the letters of Augustine (354-430 AD) who was a strong defender of the Ancient Greek Septuagint translation: “In Oea [ancient city in present-day Tripoli, Libya], a bishop read from Jerome’s translation of Jonah, and because of the strange new rendering he almost lost his congregation. The [Greek] Bible of the church had ‘gourd’ (kolokýnthi / κολοκύνθῃ) in Jonah 4:6, but Jerome had changed it to the Latin word for ‘ivy’ [hedera]. The congregation in attendance fumed upon hearing the new translation and accused it of being ‘Judaized.’ Jews were called in to explain the rendering, and they claimed that Jerome was wrong and the Septuagint was right all along. Whether this actually happened is irrelevant. Augustine has either reported a real event or has created a literary fiction, but either way he provides a window into the struggle of parting with the church’s Bible in favor of Jerome’s new translation.”
This divergence in opinion can be seen up to the present day. Older Catholic versions that are based one the Latin Vulgate (for instance the English Douay-Rheims or the translation by Knox) will use a word for a climbing plant such as “ivy” or “vine,” other translations use a large variety of translations, including the “safe” choice “plant.” In the UBS handbook Plants and Trees in the Bible, Koops (2012, p. 127) says: “The identity of Jonah’s qiqayon plant has been debated since the days of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. [Several scholars] advocate the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) as the qiqayon. But the King James Version’s ‘gourd’ has a long history, including its use in the Septuagint. The Vulgate translated qiqayon as hedera (‘ivy’) but that rendering has not had further botanical support. In 1955 an in-depth study of the literature going back as far as St. Jerome was made and its author votes hesitantly for the gourd (colocynth). Some scholars even suggest it could be an Assyrian word inserted in the story just to make it sound foreign, or even a made-up word.”
Genesis 4:7 is translated in the Ancient Greek Septuagint as follows: “If you offered it rightly, but did not divide it rightly, have you not sinned? Be at peace; he shall turn to you [footnote says: “literally: ‘his course shall be to you,’ an attempt at translating a Hebrew expression that seems to mean that ‘sin’s urge is toward you.”], and you should rule over him.” (Back-translation by Nicholas King, publ. 2014)
Law (2013, p. 46) suggests: “The Septuagint now suggests that Cain sinned because he did not divide the offering correctly.”
The Hebrew that is translated as “on the seventh day God finished the work” or similar in English is rendered in the Ancient Greek Septuagint translation as “on the sixth day God finished the work” (συνετέλεσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἕκτῃ τὰ ἔργα), “reflecting concern known elsewhere in Jewish traditions to resolve the apparent problem, recording in Genesis 2:2 that God finished his work but resting completely.” (Source: Law 2013, p. 46)
The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Shibboleth” and “Sibboleth” in English could not be transliterated as such in Ancient Greek because there was no character for the ʃ sound. So in the Greek Septuagint translation the first part of this verse reads (back-translated into English): “And they said to him, say ‘Stachys’: and he could not say it properly.” (Translation by Nicholas King, 2013)
Stachys (στάχυς) means “ear of corn,” which is one of the possible meanings of the Hebrew Shibboleth (שִׁבֹּ֜לֶת). Since the change in sound could not be spelled out in Ancient Greek, the translator chose to use a Greek term with the same meaning and then added “could not say it properly.”
In Modern Greek, the Hebrew terms could easily be represented with Σχίββωλεθ and Σίββωλεθ.
For “If the righteous are repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!” see 1 Peter 4:18.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “If the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the impious and the sinner appear.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For “My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights,” see Hebrews 12:5 and Hebrews 12:6.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “My son, do not belittle the Lord’s discipline nor break down when you are reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he punishes every son he accepts.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation,” see 1 Peter 2:9.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “a royal priesthood and a holy nation.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For “chosen people,” see 1 Peter 2:9.
Note that this quote in the New Testament is not taken from the Hebrew Bible but from the Greek Septuagint (LXX) which translates into English as “chosen race.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
