Deuteronomy — Hebrew and Greek compared · 18–34
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
Deuteronomy 18–34
SAINTS TRANSLATION • REVISED V2
A parallel translation of all 467 verse pairs, with independent Hebrew and Greek renderings, five comparison classifications, and attributed Rabbinic and Saints reception.
Reading this revision
The Hebrew column follows BHS; the Greek column follows Rahlfs–Hanhart. Both main texts were checked throughout. Inherited NETS comparisons remain unverified research leads because that file was inaccessible for the final review. Earlier Hebrew evidence for Deuteronomy 32 is identified through named scholarly discussions. The full Göttingen apparatus was not directly collated.
Each row begins with the existing document’s common English verse reference. An additional BHS or LXX reference appears wherever the consulted edition uses another number. In 23:24–25, the Greek vineyard and grainfield verses are aligned by subject and their reversed source order is recorded.
Classification concerns the relationship between the two declared source readings. Reception explains how named Jewish and Christian authorities interpret them; it does not replace either source. The notes retain uncertainties and substantial differences without imposing a numerical quota.
The five classifications
Same · 67 Corresponding content and sense.
Similar · 93 Shared essentials; modest expressive differences. Different · 199 A meaningful difference in a particular detail. Divergent · 68 Material added, omitted, or rearranged.
Disparate · 40 A demonstrable major legal, ritual, theological, narrative, or cumulative difference within the complete literary unit; direct contradiction is not required.
The source record, numbering guide, textual-history notes and series terminology follow chapter 34. This is a completed running-text revision with the further apparatus work clearly delimited.
Translation Scope and Source Record
Declared editions
Hebrew: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), as displayed by the German Bible Society. All running text in chapters 18–34 was consulted. The Hebrew column follows that Masoretic text; this is not a full BHS apparatus collation. BHS online
Greek: Septuaginta, Alfred Rahlfs, second corrected edition by Robert Hanhart (2006), as displayed by the German Bible Society. All running text in chapters 18–34 was consulted. This is a critical edition and is the declared base for the Greek column. It is neither exclusive reliance on Swete nor a claim that one surviving codex is the entire Septuagint. Rahlfs–Hanhart online
Göttingen: John William Wevers, with Udo Quast, Deuteronomium, Septuaginta III/2 (first edition 1977; second edition 2006). This fuller, book-specific critical resource belongs in the project’s source hierarchy. Its complete Greek text and apparatus were not directly accessible for this revision, so the document does not claim exhaustive Göttingen verification. Göttingen publication catalogue
NETS access limit: The previous review reported selected comparisons through Melvin K. H. Peters’s NETS Deuteronomy. The official file could not be accessed for this final review, so those inherited reports remain research leads. The English columns were independently reviewed against the directly available BHS and Rahlfs–Hanhart main texts. NETS Deuteronomy, introduction and cited verses
Selected critical-edition comparisons
Research leads requiring renewed NETS access concern 30:13, 31:23, 32:8, and 33:7. The directly checked RH text has he shall make it heard to us, explicitly names Moses in the commission, has God’s angels, and has plural let them enter, respectively. These RH readings are retained. No fresh verification of NETS or its underlying apparatus is claimed. NETS, pp. 169–172
The complete Göttingen apparatus, including witness support and editorial reasoning for these readings, remains a publication-stage check. No agreement between Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, or other codices is asserted unless independently documented. A critical edition is a scholarly reconstruction from witnesses, not an ancient manuscript itself.
Earlier Hebrew evidence: Deuteronomy 32
32:8 — Jonathan Ben-Dov’s discussion identifies 4QDeut-j as evidence for the divine-sons reading. His published discussion was consulted; no fresh manuscript-image collation was performed. His explanation of theological revision is an argued historical interpretation, not something established by counting this document’s classifications. Jonathan Ben-Dov, “Are There Gods, Angels, and Demons in Deuteronomy?”
32:43 — Emanuel Tov’s published comparison presents 4QDeut-q with a heavenly summons, worship by divine beings, sons’ blood, repayment to haters, and cleansing of the people’s land. Its extent differs from both MT and the longer Greek. Tov argues that it preserves an earlier form. The evidence is used through his transcription and discussion; it is not described as a verbatim match to the entire Greek verse. Emanuel Tov, “Acclaim, O Nations – Deuteronomy 32:43” (2023)
These early Hebrew parallels matter: some differences visible in Greek are also found in Hebrew transmission. They cannot all be explained simply as Greek translators changing a medieval Hebrew text. The relationship of witnesses must be considered separately for each passage.
What the classifications measure
Each of the 467 aligned verse pairs receives one governing category. The notes explain the features supporting it; several features within one verse do not create several counted verses. A stronger category can include features described by a weaker one. No target count or preferred theological result determines the category.
Same — 67 verse pairs. Corresponding content and sense, allowing ordinary differences between languages. It does not mean identical wording.
Similar — 93 verse pairs. Shared essentials with modest changes of expression, idiom, emphasis, or grammatical presentation.
Different — 199 verse pairs. A meaningful change in a particular lexical, numerical, grammatical, descriptive, or referential detail.
Divergent — 68 verse pairs. Material added, omitted, or substantially rearranged, including a difference in expressed scope that does not warrant the stronger classification.
Disparate — 40 verse pairs. A demonstrable major difference in legal or ritual force, narrative assertion, theology, or cumulative meaning, assessed in the complete literary unit. Direct contradiction is not required. An isolated change of pronoun, agency, or image does not automatically establish this category; uncertainty remains explicit.
These are editorial descriptions of the selected edition pair. An observed difference may arise from translation technique, interpretation, a different Hebrew Vorlage, or transmission within either language. The label alone does not decide which explanation is correct or which reading is older. The Greek is not automatically earlier at every point, and the Masoretic reading is not automatically original at every point.
The comparison makes agreement and non-alignment visible. It does not assign a percentage of fidelity to any unnamed modern Bible. Evaluating a modern translation requires its precise edition, stated source policy, and a passage-by-passage audit. Some modern translations deliberately select readings from more than one witness; that practice should be documented rather than assumed to be accidental.
Numbering and alignment
The leading bold identifier follows the existing document’s common English chapter and verse numbering. Whenever the consulted source differs, an additional BHS or LXX reference appears in that translation cell. The following mapping describes these specific displays; other publications can divide verses differently.
Common 22:30 corresponds to BHS and LXX 23:1. Common 23:1–23 corresponds to BHS and LXX 23:2–24. The vineyard at common 23:24 is BHS 23:25 and LXX 23:26; the grainfield at common 23:25 is BHS 23:26 and LXX 23:25. These two Greek verses are therefore aligned by subject, with their actual source order disclosed.
Common 29:1 corresponds to BHS and LXX 28:69. Common 29:2–29 corresponds to their 29:1–28. Rabbinic citations may use that Hebrew chapter division; thus the note attached to common 29:29 cites Rashi on 29:28.
Translation and reception principles
Translate each source independently into literal-smooth English. Preserve meaningful repetitions, images, additions, omissions, changes of speaker, and genuine ambiguities. Natural English grammar may supply a copula or clarify an implied object, but commentary must carry explanatory expansions. Do not import Hebrew words into Greek or replace Greek with the wording of a later New Testament quotation.
Rabbinic Priority gives the Hebrew commentary an independently attributed Jewish voice. This revision includes Rashi, interpretations he reports, Ramban, Mishnah Gittin, Mishnah Yevamot, and Bava Metzia. Distinguish contextual interpretation, legal exposition, homily, and mystical reading. A named emissary is not automatically an authority; the particular author and work must support a claim.
Saints Priority gives the Greek commentary attributed apostolic and patristic reception. Here it includes Peter’s speech in Acts, the Gospel according to Matthew, Pauline letters, Hebrews, and John Chrysostom. The author of Hebrews is not identified as Paul. Quotation, allusion, typology, and moral application are distinguished; shared vocabulary by itself is insufficient evidence of a direct citation.
Thirty-seven reception entries occur across thirty-two verses. Sources are linked beside the relevant note. They illustrate selected readings rather than claim complete coverage or agreement within either religious tradition. Reception can illuminate a linguistically possible meaning, but it cannot authorize changing the selected source wording.
Headings preserve the book, chapter, major-pericope and minor-pericope hierarchy. Chapters are red, major pericopes purple, and minor pericopes bold. Pericopes follow coherent literary units; a short reading should be read in its surrounding argument. “The Twelve Curses” is revised to “The Covenant Curses” because the Greek includes an additional curse at 27:23.
Textual history and dates
The Greek Pentateuch arose within ancient Jewish translation activity conventionally dated to the third century BCE. That date concerns the translation tradition, not a complete surviving manuscript from 300 BCE. Medieval Masoretic codices likewise preserve much older Hebrew wording: the Leningrad Codex used by BHS dates to 1008 CE, but that is not the origin date of the Hebrew tradition. Earlier Hebrew witnesses must be evaluated individually. Göttingen Academy: Septuaginta project German Bible Society: BHS and its manuscript base
This final manuscript review compares every Greek reading unit and every Hebrew verse in chapters 18–34 and verifies the cited reception passages. Repeated words, personal beneficiaries, negation, and agents have been checked in their complete literary units. The full Göttingen apparatus, unavailable NETS comparisons, and systematic earlier-Hebrew manuscript collation remain outside the verified scope.
Independent Translation Framework
Vocabulary and recurring formulas
YHWH represents the Hebrew divine name; the Lord represents Greek kyrios. Recognizable English forms are used for the same persons and places, while genuinely different names remain distinct. Joshua remains Joshua when Iēsous identifies the son of Nun. The shared Greek name does not turn every occurrence into a reference to Jesus.
Use wife or husband in clear marital contexts, and child, boy, servant, slave, or household servant according to the actual relationship. Human enslavement is not softened into voluntary employment; devotion to God is not automatically a human property relationship. Preserve distinctions within lists of divinatory practices. Numbers are spelled out in the prose; identifiers and references use digits.
Retain leprosy by project preference while recognizing that the ancient category is not coextensive with the modern diagnosis. Render sacrifice, dedication and the destructive ban contextually. At 21:8, Be propitious to Your people preserves the personal appeal, while the bloodguilt shall be expiated for them preserves the passive subject and beneficiaries. Expiation also fits ritual cleansing of the land; the Hebrew is rendered independently. A shared sacrificial term alone does not establish identical theology across books.
Names such as wild ox and one-horned animal preserve the two lexical images without claiming secure modern zoological identification. Rare poetic expressions—including 32:5, 32:24, 32:36, 32:43 and 33:2, 33:25—retain explicit interpretive qualifications. Ancient disease names are not presented as retrospective medical diagnoses.
Weights, money and measures: series conventions
Keep the denomination or unit actually named by the source. The following reference conventions are carried forward for the series; not every item occurs in Deuteronomy 18–34. They are not a fixed exchange-rate table. Do not replace weights of silver with modern currencies or import a familiar New Testament coin into a Torah verse.
Talent / mina — retain the ancient unit and identify the local weight system when needed. Shekel / didrachm / stater — preserve each source’s denomination; do not assume universal equivalence. Half-shekel / drachma — likewise retain the source term. Gerah / obol — distinguish these fractions within their own systems. Lepton and denarius — preserve the coin name and explain its particular narrative context. Qesitah — retain uncertainty about its value.
Cubit, span, handbreadth, fingerbreadth and measuring reed remain named ancient measures. Hin and its fractions remain ancient capacities. Any modern approximation must state its basis and modern system; no exact gallon, litre or gram conversion is asserted by this general framework. In 22:19 and 22:29, the notes identify the Hebrew silver amount and Greek didrachm terminology rather than silently treating every ancient monetary unit as interchangeable.