Numbers 19 — Hebrew and Greek compared
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Same 5 Similar 5 Different 5 Divergent 1 Disparate 6
Disparate in this chapter: 19:3, 19:4, 19:12, 19:13, 19:14, 19:20
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.
Preparation of the Water of Cleansing
19:1 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:1 YHWH spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
Greek · Saints priority
19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
19:2 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:2 This is the statute of the instruction that YHWH has commanded: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them bring you a red cow, sound and without defect, on which no yoke has been laid.
Greek · Saints priority
19:2 This is the provision of the law that the Lord has commanded: Speak to the sons of Israel, and let them bring you a red heifer, unblemished and without defect, on which no yoke has been laid.
Both require a red, unblemished female bovine never yoked; “heifer” reflects Greek damalis.
Rabbinic reception: Rashi treats the red-cow law as a divine statute whose authority does not depend on an explanation that answers its challengers. He also reads the required completeness as completeness of redness.
Source: Rashi, Numbers 19:2
19:3 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:3 You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.
Greek · Saints priority
19:3 You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and they shall take it outside the camp to a clean place and slaughter it before him.
Greek adds the requirement of a clean place for the slaughter. Hebrew's unnamed singular agents are rendered passively; Eleazar supervises.
19:4 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:4 Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.
Greek · Saints priority
19:4 Eleazar shall take some of its blood and sprinkle some of its blood seven times toward the front of the Tent of Testimony.
Greek omits the specified finger and the repeated priestly title; Meeting / Testimony also differs. The sevenfold sprinkling agrees.
19:5 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:5 The cow shall be burned before his eyes: its skin, flesh, and blood, together with its dung, shall be burned.
Greek · Saints priority
19:5 They shall burn it before him; its skin, flesh, and blood, together with its dung, shall be burned.
19:6 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material and throw them into the burning cow.
Greek · Saints priority
19:6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and they shall throw them into the burning heifer.
Hebrew continues with a singular priestly agent; Greek changes to plural “they” for throwing the materials.
Saints reception: The Epistle of Barnabas interprets the heifer as Christ and the wood in the rite through the cross. Its retelling includes details beyond Numbers; these remain part of its typology, not additions to either source text.
Source: Epistle of Barnabas 8
19:7 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:7 The priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Afterward he may enter the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
Greek · Saints priority
19:7 The priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Afterward he may enter the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
19:8 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:8 The one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he shall be unclean until evening.
Greek · Saints priority
19:8 The one who burns it shall wash his clothes and bathe his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.
Greek omits the two explicit references to water; washing and bathing remain.
19:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:9 A clean man shall gather the cow's ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel, for water for impurity; it is a purification offering.
Greek · Saints priority
19:9 A clean person shall gather the heifer's ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the congregation of the sons of Israel as water for sprinkling; it is a means of purification.
Water for impurity / water for sprinkling; Hebrew chatta't is sacrificial purification language, while Greek hagnisma names a purifying substance or rite. Both serve cleansing.
Apostolic reception: Hebrews explicitly recalls purification by a heifer’s ashes, then argues for the greater cleansing of conscience through Christ’s self-offering.
Source: Hebrews 9:13–14
19:10 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:10 The one who gathers the cow's ashes shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual statute for the sons of Israel and the resident alien living among them.
Greek · Saints priority
19:10 The one who gathers the heifer's ashes shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for the sons of Israel and the attached sojourners.
Both extend the rule beyond native Israelites. Greek prosēlytoi is rendered in its resident-community setting, without assuming every later conversion requirement.
Application of the Purification Law
19:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:11 Whoever touches a dead person, any human corpse, shall be unclean for seven days.
Greek · Saints priority
19:11 Whoever touches a dead person, any human being who has died, shall be unclean for seven days.
19:12 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:12 That person shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. If he does not purify himself on the third day, he shall not be clean on the seventh day.
Greek · Saints priority
19:12 That person shall be purified on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean. If he is not purified on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be clean.
Greek explicitly attaches both days to purification. Hebrew's clause division can present the seventh day as the resulting time of cleanness; verse 19 clarifies sprinkling on both days in both texts.
19:13 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:13 Whoever touches a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself defiles YHWH's Dwelling. That person shall be cut off from Israel. Because water for impurity was not dashed over him, he remains unclean; his uncleanness is still in him.
Greek · Saints priority
19:13 Whoever touches the dead body of a human being and is not purified defiles the Lord's tent. That person shall be wiped out from Israel. Because water for sprinkling was not sprinkled around him, he is unclean; his uncleanness is still in him.
Cut off / wiped out gives the penalty a different verbal force; Dwelling / tent and water-for-impurity / sprinkling also differ. Hebrew “cut off” does not by itself specify a human execution procedure.
19:14 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:14 This is the instruction: When a person dies in a tent, everyone who enters the tent and everything in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.
Greek · Saints priority
19:14 This is the law: If a person dies in a house, everyone who enters the house and everything in the house shall be unclean for seven days.
Tent / house changes the stated setting of corpse contamination.
19:15 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:15 Every open vessel without a tied covering upon it is unclean.
Greek · Saints priority
19:15 Every open vessel without a fastening tied upon it is unclean.
Both exclude securely closed vessels from this stated contamination rule.
19:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:16 Anyone who touches, in the open field, someone killed by a sword, a corpse, a human bone, or a grave shall be unclean for seven days.
Greek · Saints priority
19:16 Anyone who touches, on the open plain, one slain, a dead person, a human bone, or a tomb shall be unclean for seven days.
Hebrew specifies someone slain by a sword; Greek omits the weapon. Greek traumatias can mean a wounded person or one slain; this list of corpse impurity supports one slain. It does not establish a rule about contact with a living injured person.
19:17 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:17 For the unclean person they shall take some ashes from the burned purification offering, and fresh water shall be put over them in a vessel.
Greek · Saints priority
19:17 For the unclean person they shall take some ashes from what was burned for purification, and they shall pour living water over them into a vessel.
Hebrew mayim hayyim and Greek hydōr zōn both literally mean living water, here fresh water. Both combine water with the ashes; Greek explicitly describes pouring it.
19:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:18 A clean man shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, all the vessels, and the people who were there, and on whoever touched the bone, the slain person, the corpse, or the grave.
Greek · Saints priority
19:18 A clean man shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it around the house, the vessels, and the people who were there, and on whoever touched the human bone, the slain person, the dead person, or the tomb.
Tent / house differs, and Greek makes the bone explicitly human. The corpse-impurity context supports slain for Greek traumatias, as in 19:16; both concern human remains.
19:19 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:19 The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day, and purify him on the seventh day. He shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he shall be clean at evening.
Greek · Saints priority
19:19 The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. He shall be purified on the seventh day, wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he shall be unclean until evening.
Clean at evening / unclean until evening describes the same endpoint. Both explicitly require sprinkling on the third and seventh days.
19:20 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:20 A person who becomes unclean and does not purify himself shall be cut off from the assembly, because he has defiled YHWH's sanctuary. Water for impurity has not been dashed over him; he is unclean.
Greek · Saints priority
19:20 A person who is defiled and is not purified shall be destroyed from the congregation, because he has defiled the Lord's holy things. Water for sprinkling has not been sprinkled around him; he is unclean.
Cut off / destroyed and sanctuary / holy things change the wording of penalty and desecration, while both condemn refusal of purification.
19:21 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:21 This shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
Greek · Saints priority
19:21 This shall be a perpetual ordinance for you. The one who sprinkles the water for sprinkling shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for sprinkling shall be unclean until evening.
“For them” / “for you”; the water's designation also differs. Both distinguish the sprinkler's clothes-washing from the toucher's uncleanness until evening.
Rabbinic reception: Rashi reports the rabbinic interpretation that the carrier of a sufficient quantity of purification water becomes impure, while the actual sprinkler remains clean. This legal interpretation is distinguished from the verse’s surface wording.
Source: Rashi, Numbers 19:21
19:22 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
19:22 Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.
Greek · Saints priority
19:22 Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.
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Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.