From Ex 36 to Ex 40 the Greek text and the Hebrew text are not in the same order

David Ames

From Ex 36 to Ex 40 the Greek text and the Hebrew text are not in the same order

How do we explain the vast differences between the Hebrew text and the Greek text in Ex 36 to Ex 40?

Scrolls were made of animal hides stitched together. At some point a scroll fell apart in more then one place. In most of the story one can examine the story line and figure out what happened when. But did the walls get reported first or the Holy Garments? No way to tell a thousand years latter. So the scribes did the best they could and picked one to be listed first. There seems to have been three sheets lost.

Sort the excel file by ABC to get the LXX verses in KJV order
or sort by FEG to get the KJV in LXX order. File name ex-read-xxx.xls

There were 435 years between when the LXX was first translated into Greek and when the Jews, after the fall of the Temple, fixed the Hebrew version (285 BC to 150 AB). (Note that the KJV was published in 1611. Add 435 years and we get 2046. We have another 28 years to go as of 2018.) And nobody noticed?

Taking 3 days I tried matching verses – there were a few where individual verses are not in order but mostly it looks like the lists of things that were needed are just in different orders.

Ex 36 – 40 in LXX order
The KJV goes
36:1 – 36:7 39:1 – 39:31 36:8 – 36:34
38:12 – 38:23 37:1 – 37:29 38:01 – 38:31
39:32 – 39:43 40:01 – 40:38
With 16 verses where there is no corresponding verse in the KJV

Ex 36 – 40 in KJV order
The LXX goes
36:1 – 36:7 37:1 – 37:4 37:7 – 37:9
37:5 – 37:6 38:1 -38:27 37:10 – 37:21
39:01 – 39:10 36:8 – 36:38 39:11 – 39:23
40:1 – 40:38
With 55 verses where there is no corresponding verse in the LXX

Note on “no corresponding verse” – there is one section – Ex 37:19 to 38:3 in KJV order where there are 2 verses not in the KJV followed by 12 verses not in the LXX followed by 5 verses not in the KJV

A more experienced scholar might be able to reduce the size of that block to 4 not in the LXX – Matching the existing verses between versions. Or if a translator that know Hebrew and Greek was trying to match verses from the original text and not from English Translations. Translator’s word choice kills my research (sometimes)

5415.Ex Read xxx.xls  

The English text is only listed for the first few verses  

The sheet show Chapter, Verse and sub verse to cover "extra" verses.

MJ. Smith

Just a quick observation: the text comparison tool handles the difference in text sequence; the multi-resource view is not as "smart".