Deuteronomy 21 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 2 Similar 5 Different 10 Divergent 1 Disparate 5
Disparate in this chapter: 21:4, 21:6, 21:12, 21:13, 21:14
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
Atonement for an Unsolved Murder
21:1 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:1 If someone is found slain in the land YHWH your God is giving you to possess, lying in the field, and it is not known who struck him,
Greek · Saints priority
21:1 If someone is found slain in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, lying in the open country, and no one knows who struck him,
Text: Greek τραυματίας denotes the slain person in this bloodguilt ritual, corresponding to Hebrew חלל. LSJ, τραυματίας II, explicitly cites Deuteronomy 21:1 for this corpse sense. The word’s wounded-person sense in other settings does not establish a living victim here. Greek expresses the unknown assailant with an indefinite plural; Hebrew uses an impersonal passive.
21:2 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distances to the cities around the slain person.
Greek · Saints priority
21:2 your council of elders and judges shall go out and measure the distances to the cities around the slain person.
Text: Greek presents the elders as a council; the measurement procedure agrees.
21:3 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:3 The elders of the city nearest the slain person shall take a heifer from the herd that has never been worked and has never pulled a yoke.
Greek · Saints priority
21:3 The council of elders of the city nearest the slain person shall take a heifer from the herd that has never been worked and has never pulled a yoke.
Text: Both explicitly say a heifer from the cattle. The earlier note incorrectly treated from the herd as a Greek addition.
21:4 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:4 The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a perennial streambed that has not been cultivated or sown, and there in the streambed they shall break the heifer’s neck.
Greek · Saints priority
21:4 The council of elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a rough ravine that has not been cultivated or sown, and they shall cut the heifer’s sinews in the ravine.
Text: Hebrew prescribes breaking the neck; Greek neurokopeō describes cutting sinews, commonly hamstringing. The draft concealed this ritual difference. Hebrew naḥal etan is disputed: perennial streambed is adopted here; a rugged valley is another construal.
21:5 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:5 The priests, the sons of Levi, shall approach, for YHWH your God chose them to minister to Him and bless in YHWH’s name. Every dispute and every injury shall be decided by their word.
Greek · Saints priority
21:5 The Levitical priests shall approach, for the Lord your God chose them to stand before Him and bless in His name. Every dispute and every injury shall be decided by their word.
Text: Greek describes standing before God where Hebrew describes ministering, and uses His name instead of repeating YHWH. Injury renders terms that can also denote an affliction or lesion; the legal range is not certain.
21:6 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:6 All the elders of that city nearest the slain person shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the streambed,
Greek · Saints priority
21:6 The entire council of elders of that city nearest the slain person shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer whose sinews were cut in the ravine,
Text: Greek adds the head as the location over which the hands are washed and repeats the distinct sinew-cutting action. Hebrew has neck-breaking and no explicit head in the washing instruction.
21:7 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:7 and declare: Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it.
Greek · Saints priority
21:7 and declare: Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see it.
Text: The declaration of nonparticipation and lack of eyewitness knowledge agrees.
21:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:8 Grant atonement to Your people Israel, whom You redeemed, YHWH, and do not lay the guilt of innocent bloodshed upon Your people Israel. Then the bloodguilt shall be atoned for them.
Greek · Saints priority
21:8 Be propitious to Your people Israel, whom You redeemed, Lord, from the land of Egypt, so that there may be no the guilt of innocent bloodshed among Your people Israel. Then the bloodguilt shall be expiated for them.
Text: Greek adds redemption from the land of Egypt. Be propitious renders ἵλεως γενοῦ, the appeal for divine favor; the concluding ἐξιλασθήσεται has bloodguilt as its passive subject and the people as beneficiaries, hence the bloodguilt shall be expiated for them. Hebrew independently asks for atonement and that responsibility for innocent bloodshed not be laid on the people. The English distinctions do not impose a single atonement theory.
21:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:9 Thus you shall purge the guilt of innocent bloodshed from among you when you do what is right in YHWH’s eyes.
Greek · Saints priority
21:9 You shall remove the guilt of innocent bloodshed from among yourselves if you do what is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
Text: Greek adds good and your God, and expresses right as pleasing. Both connect the ritual with the community’s responsibility.
Female Captives
21:10 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:10 When you go out to war against your enemies, YHWH your God hands them over to you, and you take their captives,
Greek · Saints priority
21:10 If you go out to war against your enemies, the Lord your God hands them over to you, and you plunder their spoil,
Text: Hebrew explicitly names taking captives; Greek describes taking spoil, within which the following verse includes a captive woman. The former Greek captivity formula was not the selected reading.
21:11 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:11 and you see among the captives a woman beautiful in appearance, desire her, and take her for yourself as a wife,
Greek · Saints priority
21:11 and you see among the spoil a woman beautiful in appearance, set your mind on her, and take her for yourself as a wife,
Text: Greek continues the spoil vocabulary and describes setting one’s mind on the woman; Hebrew names captivity and desire. Both place her in a coercive wartime setting.
21:12 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:12 bring her into your house. She shall shave her head and attend to her nails.
Greek · Saints priority
21:12 bring her into your house. You shall shave her head and trim her nails.
Text: Hebrew makes the woman the subject of the grooming actions; Greek makes the captor the subject. Hebrew literally do her nails permits competing interpretations; Greek explicitly specifies trimming.
The draft concealed both distinctions.
21:13 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:13 She shall remove her captive clothing, remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother for a full month. Afterward you may go in to her and become her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Greek · Saints priority
21:13 You shall remove her captive clothing. She shall remain in your house and mourn her father and mother for a full month. Afterward you may go in to her and live with her as husband, and she shall be your wife.
Text: The clothing’s removal is performed by the woman in Hebrew and by the captor in Greek. Greek then uses marital cohabitation language. Neither column adds the woman’s consent, which the ancient provision does not state.
21:14 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:14 If you no longer desire her, release her to go where she wishes. You must not sell her for silver or treat her as a slave, because you have humiliated her.
Greek · Saints priority
21:14 If you no longer want her, send her away free. She must not be sold for silver, and you must not treat her with contempt, because you have humiliated her.
Text: Hebrew prohibits enslaving or exploiting her; Greek prohibits disregarding or repudiating her contemptuously. Both expressly prohibit sale and require release.
Humiliated retains the force of the coercive sexual setting.
The Right of the Firstborn
21:15 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and both bear him sons, but the firstborn son belongs to the hated wife,
Greek · Saints priority
21:15 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and both bear him children, but the firstborn son belongs to the hated wife,
Text: Both retain the loved/hated contrast; it may express relative preference, but it is not softened in only one column. Hebrew explicitly names sons where Greek initially leaves the offspring implicit.
21:16 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:16 then when he gives his sons their inheritance from what he owns, he may not treat the loved wife’s son as firstborn in preference to the hated wife’s son, who is the firstborn.
Greek · Saints priority
21:16 then when he gives his sons their inheritance from his belongings, he may not grant firstborn status to the loved wife’s son while overlooking the hated wife’s son, who is the firstborn.
Text: Greek makes the overlooking of the actual firstborn explicit. Both prohibit transferring the birthright because of preference for the other wife.
21:17 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:17 Instead, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the hated wife’s son, by giving him a double share of all he owns, for he is the beginning of his strength; the firstborn’s right belongs to him.
Greek · Saints priority
21:17 Instead, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the hated wife’s son, by giving him a double share of all he owns, for he is the first of his children; the birthright belongs to him.
Text: Greek replaces the image beginning of his strength with first of his children. The double share and birthright agree.
A Rebellious Son
21:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, and they discipline him but he still will not listen,
Greek · Saints priority
21:18 If someone has a disobedient and provocative son who will not obey his father or mother, and they discipline him but he still will not listen,
Text: Greek names disobedience and provocation; Hebrew stubbornness and rebellion. Both require continued refusal after discipline.
21:19 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to his city’s elders, to the gate of his town.
Greek · Saints priority
21:19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to his city’s council of elders, to the gate of his town.
Text: Greek presents the elders as a council; the parents’ action and civic location agree.
21:20 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:20 They shall tell his city’s elders: This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.
Greek · Saints priority
21:20 They shall tell the men of their city: This son of ours disobeys and provokes us. He will not obey us; he carouses and drinks to excess.
Text: Hebrew addresses the elders; Greek addresses the city’s men and describes carousing and drunkenness through verbs. Both have already brought the son before the elders in verse 19. The wider stated audience does not establish a different court or removal of the elders’ role.
21:21 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death. Purge the evil from among you; all Israel shall hear and fear.
Greek · Saints priority
21:21 The men of his city shall stone him to death. Remove the evil person from among yourselves; the rest shall hear and fear.
Text: Greek explicitly names the person removed, replaces all Israel with the rest, and lacks all before the city’s men. Both impose the same execution after the parental accusation. These details do not establish a different offense or sanction.
A Man Hanged on a Tree
21:22 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:22 If someone has committed an offense deserving death, is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
Greek · Saints priority
21:22 If someone has committed an offense deserving a death sentence, dies, and you hang him on a tree,
Text: Hebrew explicitly says he is put to death; Greek says he dies. Both place the hanging after the death clause and do not specify crucifixion as the execution method.
21:23 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
21:23 do not leave his corpse on the tree overnight. Bury him that same day, for a hanged person is under God’s curse. Do not defile the land YHWH your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Greek · Saints priority
21:23 his body shall not remain on the tree overnight. Bury him that same day, for everyone hanging on a tree is cursed by God. Do not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment.
Text: Greek explicitly says everyone hanging on a tree and names God as the agent of cursing. Hebrew’s generic a hanged person also has general force; the curse-of-God expression can mean a divine curse, as rendered here, or an affront to God. The adopted readings correspond in the curse and prompt-burial requirement, while the alternative Hebrew construal differs. Later applications remain separately attributed.
Rabbinic: Rashi understands exposure of the corpse as dishonoring the divine King whose image humanity bears. Rashi, Deut. 21:23
Saints: Paul applies the hanging curse to Christ’s redemptive death, connecting it with Abraham’s blessing for the nations. Galatians 3:13–14
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.