Longman and Dillard on the book of Samuel in the Septuagint and Masoretic Text

How different is the book of Samuel in the Septuagint compared to the Masoretic Text? Turns out, they are quite different indeed – and Louis at Baker Church Connection has been studying these differences with the help of Longman and Dillard’s An Introduction to the Old Testament.

There is a great discussion of this in An Introduction to the Old Testament by Tremper Longman III and Raymond Dillard from Zondervan. The following is taken from them along with the charts provided. 

“Scholars have long suspected that the Masoretic Text of Samuel, though comparatively intact, is nevertheless among the least well transmitted books of the Bible. At many places there are significant divergences from the Hebrew text that was used by the translators of the Septuagint, and when the writer of Chronicles quotes Samuel, he also often appears to follow a text of Samuel different from the Masoretic Text (MT). For generations scholars debated the merits of these variant readings. Was the Chronicler theologically editing the earlier text or following some independent source? Were the Septuagint translators incorporating their own theology, embellishing, or being careless—or were they carefully following a Hebrew text that differed from the MT?”

“With the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts and fragments, this debate was largely settled.” 

You can read the rest of the post here.