The Hebrew in Judges 12:6 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 the phrase “Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger,” see Matthew 21:16.
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 “Out of mouths of infants and nurslings you furnished praise for yourself, for the sake of your enemies, to put down enemy and avenger.'” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For the phrase “you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers,” see Hebrews 1:7.
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 “He who makes spirits his messengers, and flaming fire his ministers.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For the phrases “See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: ‘One who trusts will not panic,'” see Romans 9:33 at al.
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 “See, I will lay for the foundations of Sion a precious, choice stone, a highly valued cornerstone for its foundations, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
For the phrase “a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth,” see Hebrews 12:15.
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 root growing up with gall and bitterness.” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
“In the whaling community of the Inupiat in northern Alaska, the whale is all but revered and respected as one of God’s creatures which bring life and sustenance. I was recently with our Inupiatun Bible Translation Team, working on the Book of Jonah. In popular culture, as we all know, the ‘big fish’ in this tale is often equated with what we know as the whale; Sunday school curriculum teaches it; art recreates it; collective memory recalls it. Therefore, they wanted an illustration of a white whale in their publication of the Book of Jonah.
“As a biblical scholar, I know this is erroneous and irresponsible. A biblical scholar assumes a ‘big fish’ is simply to be taken as a ‘big fish.’ The identity of this fish is not necessary to understand the tale: that God provided it is the point. As a Bible translator, hopefully a culturally sensitive one, however, I was quickly reminded in that moment that this Inupiatun community ‘needed’ that ‘Jonah’s big fish’ to be nothing other than a whale.
“This made the tale of Jonah even more meaningful because they ‘read’ the source of God’s deliverance of Jonah as the same source of God’s provision of food and sustenance to them.”
In the majority of Arabic translations, hut (حوت) or “whale” is used. This could be due to the influence of the Quran that uses hut (حُوت) in its story of Jonah (Yunus) or to the influence of the Ancient GreekSeptuagint which uses kítos (κῆτος). Kítos could either mean “sea-monster” or “whale.” (Source: Sameh Hanna)
The term for “dolphin” in Turkish is yunus baliğı — “Jonah’s fish” or simply yunus (“Jonah”). (The term used in the Turkish translation of Jonah, however, is büyük balık or “big fish.”)
For the phrase “that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate,” see Romans 15:21.
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 “those who were not informed about
him shall see and those who did not hear shall understand” (Translation by NETS — for the Greek version see the title’s tooltip)
The Hebrew in Genesis 2:2 that is translated as “on the seventh day God finished the work” or similar in English is rendered in the Ancient GreekSeptuagint 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)
