About the ROG Biblical Interlinear

Updated on March 7, 2026

This Interlinear Bible contains:

The entire New Testament in Greek-Romanian interlinear format
Old Testament: 18 books fully translated:
- Ruth, Esther, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
💠🙏 Isaiah: complete -- Sept 15, 2025 ✅
Old Testament: 10113 verses out of 23145 (43.6941%)
Bible: 18070 verses out of 31102 (58.0992%)
apart from these 10113 verses, all the others come from the Dumitru Cornilescu translation (1924); these verses will be progressively replaced as the translation work advances.
this is version 1.18, since it contains the entire NT, plus 18 books of the OT
what's new in this version:
- all proper names in the New Testament now have an entry in the Strong's Dictionary
- all proper names in the Old Testament that appear in the NT now have an entry in the Strong's Dictionary
- in the Old Testament, for certain proper names, we have started using the numbers from the Hebrew Strong's Dictionary
- 97 new verses have been added

Table of contents: what information you can find in this preface:

About this translation
Source of the Greek text
Extended Strong's numbers
The text of Scripture: the New Testament
The text of Scripture: the Old Testament
1. The OT in Greek
2. The OT in Hebrew and the Masoretic Text
The OT - a divine gift
1. TM is the version closer to the truth
2. SEP is the version closer to the truth
Version history

About this translation

The source of our translation is the Bible in the Greek language: the New Testament, and the Septuagint for the Old Testament.

God has blessed our people, granting them, throughout the centuries, many translations of the Bible into the Romanian language.
The present translation is deeply indebted to, and draws fully on, the renderings of the Bible made by all those who came before, and strives to honor them --, as these old and beautiful Romanian words put it. For this reason, our work must be viewed only as a small complement to the translations that already exist.

This Greek-Romanian interlinear comes to the aid of any soul who wishes to draw near to the Greek text of the Bible, in order to deepen their gaze and their search of faith in the Word of the Lord.

The present text is, and will remain for some time, a work in progress, at least until the whole Bible has been completely translated. Read, therefore, a provisional text, one that is continuously completed, adapted, harmonized, and corrected, as the work advances.

This interlinear translation was made:

word for word, following the Greek text of the NT and of the Septuagint established by Charles Van der Pool (see here)
using the excellent dictionaries of ancient Greek that the modern age has at its disposal
using the grammatical characterization of the Greek words of the NT and the Septuagint
using the Explanatory Dictionaries of the Romanian language
following, verse by verse, as needed, the existing translations in Romanian, English, and French;
for the OT, apart from our reference text, the following are used, as needed:
1. the Greek text of the Septuagint established by Alfred Rahlfs (1935)
2. the current text of the Greek Orthodox Bible
3. also, the Masoretic Text was consulted on various occasions

We also specify that, in the Greek text of this interlinear:

the breathing marks of Classical Greek are not used
not all the accents of Classical Greek are used
the iota subscript is not used

We ask those familiar with Classical Greek to forgive us for these shortcomings. This Greek-Romanian Interlinear can be found in its entirety on the website: Bibla Apostolică (bibliaapostolica.ro)
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A request to the reader

Translating from the Bible's original languages is a difficult undertaking; for this reason we ask the reader to be patient with our work, and to understand clearly that the present text is not intended as a translation in itself, but is only a proposal and an attempt at translation. Because this translation is presented as an interlinear, it will be easy for the reader to check, for themselves, each of the words we have used, and in this way to bring to light and avoid whatever errors or clumsiness may be ours.

Likewise, any mistakes or inaccuracies you come across are my own; I invite the reader, and kindly ask them, to point them out to me (marian.ciuca@gmail.com).
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Zero knowledge of the Greek language!

You are reading a Bible in the Romanian language: to read and benefit from this interlinear, the reader does not need any knowledge of ancient Greek.

Ancient Greek: a warning and an encouragement

Warning The Greek language in which the NT was written is a great lesson in humility for us, the readers of modern times.

Although our age enjoys an extraordinary accumulation of knowledge, still, when we try to draw near to the ancient Greek language, we are dismayed to discover how complex it is, and what elaborate and rigorous thinking people had, 2000 years ago, at the time the New Testament was written.

Encouragement The technological advances of the 21st century, however, come to our aid, placing at our disposal powerful tools for exploring the text of the Scriptures in their original languages.
The application you are using, and this Greek-Romanian interlinear that you are reading, are a wonderful gift that the Godhead gives to the modern reader.
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What is an Interlinear Bible?

Instead of explanations, let us use Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the Bible:

εν

αρχή

εποίησεν

θεός

ουρανόν

και

την

γην

If we do not know the Greek language, there is no way at all for us to explore this writing!

Everything changes, however, if, under each Greek word, we have the corresponding translation into Romanian:

εν	αρχή	εποίησεν	ο	θεός	ουρανόν	και	την	γην
La	început	a făcut		Dumnezeu	cerul	și		pământul.

What a luminous idea!
Now, the first line, which is in Greek, is explained by the second, which is in our own language.

In simple terms, we already learn, from Gen 1:1, our first lesson in ancient Greek:

that the Greek en (εν), is the Romanian în ("in")
that the Greek arche (αρχή) is the Romanian început ("beginning"); being the root of the words archaic, archetype, archangel, archaeology...
that the Greek teos (θεός), is the Romanian Dumnezeu ("God")
that the Greek uranos (ουρανόν), is the Romanian cerul ("the sky/heaven"), also meaning, in Romanian, simply sky
that the Greek ghe (γην) is the Romanian pământ ("earth"); ghe (γην) is the root of gheorgeos (γεωργός), which means farmer; we now understand where the first name George comes from, and what it means!

In Gen 1:1, the Greek line nevertheless remains somewhat inaccessible, because although the Romanian translation is available, still, not knowing Greek, we would have to turn to a Greek dictionary in order to examine the words of Scripture more closely. Wouldn't this be necessary and useful?

Our interlinear, however, also places the Greek dictionary at your disposal, by adding a third line:

1722	746	4160	3588	2316	3772	2532	3588	1093
εν	αρχή	εποίησεν	ο	θεός	ουρανόν	και	την	γην
La	început	a făcut		Dumnezeu	cerul	și		pământul.

How can we look up the Greek εν in the dictionary? To simplify matters, biblical Greek dictionaries, use, for each word, a unique number, so that, for εν, you would look up 1722. Above every Greek word, we now have its dictionary entry! You will see how, in this interlinear, to open the dictionary, it is enough to touch the blue number with your finger.

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The word map

Often, in the Greek language, word order differs from that of Romanian. Let us consider an example. In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, the apostles Peter and John are ordered by the Sanhedrin to no longer speak about the Name of Jesus. The apostles' immediate answer is: For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. (v. 20). Here is this verse in the interlinear:

ου	δυνάμεθα	γαρ	ημείς	α	είδομεν	και	ηκούσαμεν	μη	λαλείν
Nu	putem ca	căci	noi	ce	am văzut	și	am auzit	să nu	vorbim

We notice that, read straight through, the beginning of the verse makes no sense: Not we-can for we what we-have-seen...
The interlinear comes to our aid, using a word map: whenever the word order of the target language is different from that of Greek, the text is enclosed within square brackets, each word being preceded by an order number, which indicates the order in which the words must be read; look now at our verse, clarified by the word map:

ου	δυνάμεθα	γαρ	ημείς	α	είδομεν	και	ηκούσαμεν	μη	λαλείν
[3 nu	4 putem ca	1 Căci	2 noi]	ce	am văzut	și	am auzit	să nu	vorbim

Explanation: for [căci] is preceded by 1: for is read first; we [noi] is preceded by 2: we is read second; not [nu] is preceded by 3: not is read third; can [putem ca] is preceded by 4: can is read fourth.

Incomplete word map
Sometimes, the word map will be minimalistic: we will indicate only the first sequence, all other words found between '[' and ']' being read normally, the way they would be read in the target language. To give an example of an incomplete word map, let us take Acts 4:20 itself (the verse just presented), which we take up again, using this time an incomplete map:

ου	δυνάμεθα	γαρ	ημείς	α	είδομεν	και	ηκούσαμεν	μη	λαλείν
[nu	putem ca	1 Căci	2 noi]	ce	am văzut	și	am auzit	să nu	vorbim

This time we indicated only the first two words (1 for, 2 we), all the others found between '[' and ']' being read in their normal order.

This is the great idea behind an interlinear:

writing line by line, having one line in Greek, one line in Romanian, and one line for the dictionary
having, uniquely for each Greek word
- its translation into the Romanian language
- its dictionary entry

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Greek words joined together -- groups of Greek words

In Philippians 1:21, the apostle Paul makes this beautiful confession: For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
In Greek, however, the first two words of this verse are reversed, which is why a word map is needed:

1473	1063	3588	2198	5547	2532	3588	599	2771
εμοί	γαρ	το	ζην	χριστός	και	το	αποθανείν	κέρδος
[2 Pentru mine	1 căci]		a trăi	este Hristos,	și		a muri,	un câștig.

To avoid the word map, however, we joined the first two Greek words together (keeping their original order), while translating them in the order proper to the Romanian language

1473-1063	3588	2198	5547	2532	3588	599	2771
εμοί γαρ	το	ζην	χριστός	και	το	αποθανείν	κέρδος
Căci pentru mine		a trăi	este Hristos,	și		a muri,	un câștig.

Here, then, we made a departure from the rigor of the interlinear, leaving it to the reader to sort out the individual words for themselves.
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Added words

Sometimes, in translating, we added words that do not correspond to any Greek word in the text; these added Romanian words appear in italics.
For example, in the original, Revelation 22:21 reads:

5485	3588	2962	*	3326	3956	3588	39	281
χάρις	του	κυρίου	Ιησού	μετά	πάντων	των	αγίων	αμήν
Harul		Domnului	Isus	cu	toți		sfinții.	Amin.

We considered it fitting, however, to add may it be before with, the new text being:

5485	3588	2962	*	3326	3956	3588	39	281
χάρις	του	κυρίου	Ιησού	μετά	πάντων	των	αγίων	αμήν
Harul		Domnului	Isus	să fie cu	toți		sfinții.	Amin.

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Literal translation

This translation is not a comfortable one, free of difficulties; therefore, the reader will often need to read the context carefully, more than once, in order to "decipher" the text.

The present translation is a literal one, and we will present 5 important points on this subject.

1. Word for word after the Greek

The Greek text is translated, in the interlinear, word for word after the Greek text; this greatly reduces the translator's freedom:

to introduce words beyond those of the original text
to change the order of the words.

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2. As few added words as possible

We have deliberately avoided, as much as possible, adding extra words -- Romanian words that do not appear in the Greek text, words that are therefore not the direct translation of any word in the Greek text; for this reason, in some places the translation is terse, or even unintelligible; we would however draw the reader's attention to the fact that we are dealing with the Word of God, which is holy and perfect; the translator therefore has a duty to respect the original text of Scripture, and to refrain, as far as possible, from altering it by adding words; moreover, quite often, the text of Scripture is unintelligible only at first glance, God's Spirit being able to enlighten, through prayer, the believing reader.
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3. Preserving the idioms of the Greek language

An idiom is an expression or construction characteristic of a given language, which cannot be translated word for word into Romanian.

And yet, in our translation, we have tried, as much as we could, to preserve the expressions and constructions characteristic of the Greek language, which cannot be translated word for word into Romanian. We will give a few examples.

1. Greek: to have in the belly - Romanian: to be pregnant
In Matthew 1:23, this expression occurs. Here is the first part of this verse, in the Cornilescu version:

Iată, fecioara va fi însărcinată, va naște un fiu, ...

In the interlinear, however, we have:

ιδού	η	παρθένος	εν	γαστρί	έξει	και	τέξεται	υιόν
Iată		fecioara	în	burtă	va avea prunc,	și	va da naștere	unui Fiu

2. Greek: to draw one's head back as a sign of refusal - Romanian: to shake one's head from side to side, as a sign of refusal
This expression is used in Nehemiah 9:17, in the Septuagint. Here is the first part of this verse in the Anania version, in which the OT is translated after the Septuagint:

Nici nu le-a fost aminte să asculte, și nici că și-au adus aminte că pentru ei ai săvârșit minuni ...”.

In the interlinear, however, the first part of this verse reads as follows:

και	ανένευσαν	του	εισακούσαι	και	ουκ	εμνήσθησαν	των	θαυμασίων	σου
Și	au refuzat dând din cap		să asculte,	și	nu	și-au amintit		minunile	Tale

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4. Difficult word order

In many places, we did not add a word map, so as not to overload the translation. This is why, sometimes, the Romanian word order is "forced," being left to follow the Greek text in a somewhat unnatural way.
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5. Absence of quotation marks

Modern Bibles use quotation marks to set off a speaker's words.
The interlinear does not use quotation marks:

the reader is therefore invited to identify, on their own, exactly when a speaker has finished speaking, and where the words of the one answering them begin.
instead: in this interlinear, whenever a speaker takes the floor, we place a comma and start with a capital letter.

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Greek dictionary

Encouragement Even if the reader has no access to a dictionary, let us not forget that we are reading an interlinear: under every Greek word, you will find its Romanian translation!

The Greek spoken today in Greece is different from the ancient Greek of the New Testament. History teaches us that ancient Greek died out after the year 300, evolving into what linguists call medieval Greek, which in turn, after 1453, gave rise to modern Greek, the Greek spoken today in Greece.

The Greek language in which the New Testament was written is therefore a dead language; that is why today you will not find any speaker of ancient Greek, only readers and translators.

A Hellenist is a specialist in the ancient Greek language. Who could be more of a specialist in ancient Greek than Hellenists? A Hellenist reads and translates ancient Greek always keeping the ancient Greek dictionary and the grammar handbook close at hand. Even the most diligent practice of this language does not result in reading it freely, the way we would read Romanian, without a dictionary and without grammar books.
What is therefore normal for Hellenists is all the more natural for the ordinary Christian reader. This is why access to the dictionary is essential.

How can we look up the words of the New Testament in the Greek dictionary? Christians had a brilliant idea: in 1890, the American Christian theologian James Strong published the Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, which history came to call the Strong's Concordance.

What made Strong's achievement so brilliant? Well, he assigned a unique number to every Greek word in the New Testament, and to every Hebrew word in the Old Testament! Between 1858 and 1890, James Strong, together with more than 100 collaborators, worked at numbering all the words in the Bible:

the New Testament in Greek: every word
the Old Testament in Hebrew: every word

To understand this better, let us consider the following words in the Romanian language: mamă, mama, mame, mamele, mamei, mamelor (Romanian for "mother," in its different grammatical forms); Strong regarded these as being one and the same word, namely the word mamă ("mother"), and considered all the others as belonging to the same group; that is why Strong assigned the noun mamă the number 1, let us say. Moving on to the word masă ("table"): masă, masa, mese, mesele, mesei, meselor (Romanian for "table," in its different grammatical forms); Strong assigned masă the number 2, let us say. Further still, for the verb a mânca ("to eat"), taking into account all of its possible conjugations, we would end up with a very large number of words: (eu) mănânc, mănânci, mănâncă, mâncați, (eu) mâncam, (tu) mâncai, (eu) mâncasem, voi mâncaserăm, (eu) am mâncat, (eu) voi mânca, (various conjugated Romanian forms of "to eat") ....etc; Strong assigned a mânca the number 3, let us say. And so on! -- We draw the reader's attention to the fact that this is only an example: Strong himself worked with the Greek words of the New Testament.

This is how, for instance, for εν, you would look up 1722. As we have already seen, in this interlinear, above each Greek word, we now have its dictionary entry!

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Strong's numbers

Strong's dictionaries are available in the Romanian language only on the internet. We ask the reader's forgiveness, and warn them that in this application, for now, the Strong's dictionary is in English. Strong's dictionaries in the Romanian language can be found here:

As we have already seen, entry into the dictionary is made using the Strong's number: it is enough to touch, with your finger, the number found beneath the Greek word.

Proper names in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, proper names, that is, the names of people and places, receive special treatment in the ROG Bible:

at present, most proper names have no dictionary entry: Strong's numbers are missing, being replaced by an asterisk * -- why do these proper names have no Strong's numbers? For the Old Testament, Strong dealt only with the Hebrew text, not at all with the text of the Septuagint; that is why a great many Greek words of the Septuagint were never assigned a number! Even today, in 2025, the proper names of the Septuagint still have no assigned number; for this reason, rather than "inventing" numbers myself, I chose to use the numbers from the Hebrew text; for the time being, however, in the ROG Bible, only a small part have been supplied with the Hebrew Strong's numbers
all the OT proper names that occur in the New Testament are now identified with their Strong's number

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The canon

The present Interlinear Bible contains only the canonical books of the Christian Bible.
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Division into chapters and verses

So as not to add extra difficulty for the reader, in this interlinear, the division into chapters and verses is that of the Cornilescu version.

What is this about? In some books of the OT, the Septuagint divides the chapters differently than the Masoretic Text does. This is the case, for example, with the Book of Psalms, where there is a shift between the psalms of the Septuagint and those of the Masoretic Text.
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Notes

The notes in this interlinear appear in green under the word rog and ro, and are of two kinds:

rog for notes concerning the Greek text
ro for notes concerning the Romanian translation

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Cross-references

In some of this interlinear's notes you will find cross-references: these are functional; it is enough to touch a cross-reference with your finger, to navigate directly to the place indicated; also, the application you are using (MySword) allows you to navigate forward and backward, either using the phone's "back" button, or the application's navigation arrows.
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Titles

Before certain passages, you will sometimes find a title. The titles of this interlinear have only informational value, and are not always the most successful.
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How to search for a Greek word in the Interlinear

After touching/clicking the Strong's number above the word you are looking for, use the search button located in the top-right corner of the window. back

Abbreviations - list of Bibles consulted

Bibles in the Romanian language:

BA – the Bartolomeu Anania Version; 2001
BB – the Blaj Bible, 1795, translated by Samuil Micu, also known as Manuil Klein
BBUC – the Bucharest Bible, 1688
BOR - the Romanian Orthodox Synodal Bible
DC – Dumitru Cornilescu
DCL – Dumitru Cornilescu Literal
GBV – GBV Publishing House, Bucharest, 2001

Bibles in Greek:

ABP - Apostolic Bible Polyglot, Greek text established by Charles Van der Pool
CP - the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, 1518
CV - Codex Vaticanus, between 325-350, original online and re-transcribed edition
BOG - the Greek Orthodox Bible
BOS - the Old Testament in Greek, Lambert Bos, 1709
LXXR - the Septuagint, Greek text established by Alfred Rahlfs, 1935

Other Bibles:

BR – English translation of the Septuagint, Sir Lancelot Brenton, 1844
DE – Darby English, after the Masoretic Text
DF - Darby French, after the Masoretic Text
LXXFR – French translation of the Septuagint, La Septante, translated by Pierre Giguet, 1865

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Source of the Greek text of this Greek - Romanian Interlinear

The entire Greek text of the Bible in the Greek language, Old and New Testament, of the present translation, was established by Charles Van der Pool; see the Apostolic Bible Polyglot website.

The critical study of the original manuscripts, and their comparison, is a very difficult undertaking, and costly in terms of time. The priority of our work was the interlinear translation, which is why we used the text made available by Charles Van der Pool.

We quote here Charles Van der Pool, regarding the way in which the Greek text was established:
The original text of the Old Testament (Septuagint) was established from the following three versions: the Complutensian Polyglot 1518, the Aldine 1519, and the Sixtine (Codex Vaticanus). The Hebrew text was consulted at times. The text of the New Testament was established from the Complutensian Polyglot 1518 and the Aldine 1519. These texts were compared, and wherever differences existed, the variant found in two sources was chosen, thus following the principle of the "majority text." The order of the books, and the division into chapters and verses, follow the Complutensian Polyglot text.
The original quotation - original English quotation:
The original Old Testament (Septuaginta) text was derived from the 1518 Complutensian Polyglot, the 1519 Aldine, and the Sixtine versions. At times the Hebrew text was consulted. The New Testament text was acquired from the 1518 Complutensian Polyglot and 1519 Aldine. A comparison was made between these texts, and when there were variant readings, generally the weight of two identical sources took precedence over the one variant source, thus following a majority text format. The book, chapter and verse order followed that of the Complutensian Polyglot.

Charles Van der Pool recorded a 9-minute video, in which he speaks about this subject; we invite the reader to watch this video (in English): The Greek text of the Apostolic Bible Polyglot.

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Extended Strong's numbers

We need to make another important observation: James Strong numbered the Greek words of the New Testament. Yet, when we open the Greek text of the Septuagint, we find words (in Greek!) that do not appear in the New Testament, and which, for this reason, have no Strong's number. There are approximately 3741 Greek words in the Septuagint that do not appear in the New Testament; that is why these words do not appear in the Strong's Dictionary either. This great gap was filled by Charles Van der Pool!

Our venerable brother in Christ continued Strong's work: more than 100 years after Strong, Charles Van der Pool numbered all the words of the Septuagint that did not appear in the NT. The new numbers were named by their author extended Strong's numbers, taking the form GXXXX.XX.XX -- the decimal points being used to distinguish the new numbers.

Charles Van der Pool worked for more than 30 years developing these numbers, writing a Dictionary and a Concordance, and producing the actual Greek-English interlinear translation of the entire Bible in the Greek language. This considerable labor must be respected, and justly compensated. On the Apostolic Bible Polyglot website you can find the following two works, each costing $4.95:

the Lexical Concordance of the Bible in the Greek language (Septuagint and New Testament); for each word, this concordance gives the complete list of the verses that contain it
the Dictionary of all the words occurring in the whole Greek Bible. This dictionary is called: the Analytical Lexicon of the Apostolic Bible Polyglot

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The text of Scripture: the New Testament

God breathed out the text of the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, and the text of the New Testament in the Greek language. Greek is the original language of the New Testament.

The personal words of the Lord Jesus are given to us in Greek; (with the exception of the few words and expressions preserved for us in Aramaic)
The unveiling of the life of the Son of God, in the four Gospels, is given to us in Greek.
Likewise, in Greek are recorded for us the deeds that, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit accomplishes through the apostles and disciples, among the Jews and among the nations, evangelizing and building up the assemblies.
The Christian revelation of God's plan and mysteries is given to us in the Epistles, in the Greek language.
The Lord Jesus dictates, in the Greek language, to the apostle John, the seven Epistles that He addresses to the Assemblies, in Revelation,
as well as the entire prophetic revelation, down to the very last verse of the Bible: Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων. Ἀμήν. - The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen. -- Rev 22:21.

Reflecting on the divinity of the writings of the New Testament, every Christian comes to understand that they need to draw near to this Holy Book written in the Greek language, in order to examine, as far as possible, the very source of divine inspiration.

A question does arise, however: why did God breathe out the New Testament in Greek? Was not the Old Testament inspired in the Hebrew language? Why did God decide on this change of language? The answer is given to us by the Son of God Himself: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life -- John 3:16.

At the time when the Lord Jesus spoke these words, the Roman Empire had already grown very large, and controlled immense territories, stretching from the western edge of present-day Europe (England), to the far east, beyond present-day Turkey; the Roman Empire also held sway over all the regions around the Mediterranean Sea: not only Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, but also Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and the whole of North Africa, as far as the Atlantic Ocean: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco (all these being the regions so named nowadays). Throughout this immense empire, the language of common use was Greek, just as English is the language of common use in our own day.

The Greek language had been spoken in the Mediterranean basin for several hundred years already, so that, as the Roman Empire spread, Greek became the "binding" language of this extraordinary amalgam of peoples (see Acts 2).

Yes, God had already prepared everything, so that the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ could be carried throughout the whole world. That is why the apostles and disciples evangelized in Greek, and, under God's will and guidance, wrote the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament in Greek.
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The text of Scripture: the Old Testament

Having thus been lifted up by contemplating the New Testament revelation, let us now turn toward the Old Testament.

The Septuagint: the OT in Greek

Entrusted at first to the Jewish people, the Writings of the Old Testament were handed over by their Author to Christians, beginning with the day of Pentecost. On that day, while those who had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ were gathered together in the same place, the Holy Spirit came down upon them, immediately enabling them to proclaim, in many of the languages of that time, the mighty deeds of God: these were the words of the Old Testament, quoted and elevated by the recent revelation of the Son of God in their midst. The book of the Acts of the Apostles shows us how, starting out from Jerusalem, the good news of the Gospel and the Word of God were spread by the disciples among the nations: Samaritans, Greeks, Romans, and all those living in the cities and regions controlled by the Roman Empire, as recorded in the book of Acts.

As we saw in the previous paragraph, with the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of humanity, God brought about a change of language, setting aside Hebrew and raising Greek to the rank of the language entrusted with divine revelation. But not only that, because God, in His plans and foreknowledge, had already prepared the Old Testament for the nations. What does this mean? God had taken care that the Old Testament, once inspired in Hebrew, would be entirely translated into the Greek language! Yes, from the birth of Christianity, the Church has had the Old Testament in the Greek language, which it has carefully preserved for 2000 years! Yes, history establishes that the translation of the Hebrew OT into Greek was made between the 3rd century before the Christian era, and the end of the 1st century of the Christian era. Thus, the 5 books of Moses were translated first, 250 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, and then, progressively, all the others, so that, by the time of the Lord Jesus, the whole Hebrew OT was available in Greek. This ancient translation was called the Septuagint. The Septuagint, therefore, is the Old Testament in ancient Greek, translated between the 3rd century before the Christian era, and the 1st century of the Christian era.

In the four Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles, in the Epistles, and in Revelation, many quotations from the Old Testament are found textually, and sometimes word for word, in the Septuagint. This fact is very important, because if the NT is divinely inspired, word for word, then the passages coming from the Septuagint are, so to speak, "raised up" and placed among the words inspired by God. Yes, many passages of the Septuagint, by the very fact that they appear in the NT, are certified as being the true words of God; what is more, they are certified doubly: appearing both in the NT and in the Greek OT.

That is why, beginning with the day of Pentecost, going about among the nations, evangelizing and building up the assemblies, the apostles and disciples used the Septuagint as the sole source of the Holy Scriptures. The new Christians among the nations did not know Hebrew, but they knew Greek (or could learn it), and could read the Old Testament in the Greek language. God then completed the Scriptures, inspiring in Greek all 27 books of the New Testament. In this way, the Christian Bible came into being, made up of 66 books, all in the Greek language, from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

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The OT in Hebrew

The Old Testament was entrusted by God to the Jewish people, book by book, beginning with Genesis, written through Moses (around the year -1500), and ending with the prophecy of Malachi (around the year -400). Today (in the year 2025), the practical reality regarding the OT in the Hebrew language is as follows:

The Leningrad Codex, year 1008: the oldest complete version of the Hebrew OT (HOT)
The Aleppo Codex, year 920: incomplete, containing only 294 pages out of a total of 487 (60%) of the entire OT
The Masoretic Text: the text of the Leningrad Codex bears the name of the Masoretic Text
Nothing before the year 920: there is no other complete and viable text of the Hebrew OT prior to the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex;
The year 1500: available to Christian scholars: the Masoretic Text OT is printed around the year 1500, thus becoming available to Christian scholars
The year 1800: available to ordinary Christians: the Masoretic Text OT is translated into the major European languages, and becomes available to ordinary Christians around 1800
The year 1924: available to Romanian Christians: beginning in the year 1924, Dumitru Cornilescu uses, for the first time in Romanian history, the Masoretic Text for the Old Testament, his translation appearing in the year 1924 (see Nitzulescu)
The year 1947: the Qumran caves: a great many biblical documents are discovered, the oldest dating from the 3rd century BC, and the most recent from the 1st century AD; among them, an (almost) complete manuscript of the Book of Isaiah, plus a great many fragments, from almost all the books of the OT (for a more detailed analysis, read here: Qumran

In the synagogues of Israel and throughout the world, the Masoretic Text OT is used. Although the original language of the OT still remains, even today, in the 21st century, an unintelligible and enigmatic language for Jews, it is nevertheless used in the religious service of the synagogue, when rabbis read aloud from the Book.

Is there really no version of the Hebrew OT earlier than the year 1008? The answer is a categorical NO! In the Israel Museum (in Jerusalem), the oldest surviving scraps of text of the OT in the Hebrew language are, for the most part, fragments discovered in 1947, in the caves at Qumran (Dead Sea). It remains that the Masoretic Text is the one and only version of the Hebrew OT, there being absolutely no other complete and viable text before the year 1008.

The question then arises: from what texts did the Masoretes produce the Masoretic Text? This unanswered question is fascinating! One thing, however, is certain: if the Masoretes had been in possession of a viable text of the OT in the Hebrew language, they would certainly have preserved it with great care and handed it down with reverence to the generations after them, and today this text would be on display in a museum, and we would all know about it; the reality, however, is that the Masoretes handed down nothing other than the Masoretic Text, which they themselves compiled, and which we know to be different from the original Hebrew Old Testament.

The Masoretic Text and the Proto-Masoretic Text: Why do Jews call this text the Masoretic Text? To underline the fact that this text is different from the original text of the Hebrew OT, called for that reason the Proto-Masoretic Text; today, in the year 2025, there is no complete and viable version of the Proto-Masoretic Text. Yes, the Masoretic Text is different from the original Old Testament in Hebrew, as is attested by:

rabbinic tradition,
the Hebrew biblical texts found at Qumran,
the Septuagint itself.

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The OT - a divine gift.

God took care that the Scriptures of the Old Testament would be preserved and handed down, in a wonderful way, to all people. The Old Testament is the gift that God gave to humanity, through the Jewish people, but especially through Christianity. And this gift is, so to speak, twofold, because for the OT, humanity has at its disposal, at the same time, both the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint.

We thank God for the Septuagint, the Old Testament prepared for Christians, and for the whole of humanity.
We thank God for the Masoretic Text, the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, which the Church had awaited with such great longing.
All of Christendom knew that the OT in the Hebrew language had once existed, but that its text had utterly disappeared. For 1500 years, the Church waited, and God rewarded this waiting, working a miracle, and bringing to light a version of the lost text of the OT in the Hebrew language.

By handing down to us these two versions, one in the Greek language (the language of the NT), and one in the Hebrew language (the language of the OT), to which we can also add the fragments from Qumran, God conveys to us, in the background, the true text of the Old Testament.
Yes, the true text of the OT, because the Septuagint and the New Testament and the Masoretic Text, placed side by side, verse by verse, compared and analyzed against one another, bring to light the true text of the Old Testament.

In this regard, let us examine a few examples, in which we will use every source available to us: TM, the documents from Qumran, and SEP.
Let us now analyze a few passages, comparing TM and SEP:

OT texts where TM is the version closer to the truth
OT texts where SEP is the version closer to the truth

1. TM is the version closer to the truth

We will examine, one by one, the following texts:

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani! -- Psalm 22:1
Out of Egypt I called My Son!
Isaiah 42:1, quoted in Matthew 12:18
The Hebrew names of many figures from the NT

Psalm 22:1

In Matt 27:46, the Word of God tells us that when our precious Savior Jesus Christ was on the cross, He cried out with a loud voice, saying,

: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!

The NT, written in Greek, "records" the Lord Jesus's words phonetically, and immediately gives us their translation into Greek, and from there into English: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me! These are Hebrew words, and they had already been spoken, hundreds of years earlier, by David, in Ps 22:1. Let us note how extraordinary this threefold fact is:

Here, the Holy Spirit gave us, through the mouth of the Lord Jesus, a quotation in the Hebrew language from the HOT! ⇒ What does this verse look like in TM?
The Holy Spirit immediately gave us, in the NT, the Greek translation of these words spoken in the Hebrew language
likewise, the Holy Spirit had already given us, beforehand, the Greek translation of these words in the Septuagint! ⇒ What does this verse look like in SEP?

Let us now go and read Ps 22:1, in TM and in SEP.
In TM we have, reading word for word, from right to left, with the pronunciation shown in blue :

5800	4100	410	410
עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי	לָמָ֣ה	אֵלִ֣י	אֵלִ֣י
sabactani	lama	Eli	Eli
M-ai părăsit!	pentru ce	Dumnezeul Meu	Dumnezeul Meu

We observe that TM agrees perfectly with the NT!
In SEP we have

3588	2316	3588	2316	1473	4337	1473	2444	1459 1473
ο	θεός	ο	θεός	μου	πρόσχες	μοι	ινατί	εγκατέλιπές με
o	teos	o	teos	mu	proskes	moi	inati	egkatelipes me
	Dumnezeule		Dumnezeul	Meu	ia aminte	la Mine,	pentru ce	M-ai părăsit

Let us now compare SEP with TM, placing the Septuagint's text into a Hebrew - Greek interlinear, read therefore from right to left:

עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי	לָמָ֣ה	אֵלִ֣י	אֵלִ֣י
sabactani	lama	Eli	Eli
M-ai părăsit!	pentru ce	Dumnezeul Meu	Dumnezeul Meu
εγκατέλιπές με	ινατί	ο θεός μου, πρόσχες μοι	ο θεός
M-ai părăsit	pentru ce	Dumnezeul Meu, ia aminte la Mine	Dumnezeule

As we can see, the last two words of TM, lama sabachthani, are rendered identically in TM and in SEP.
The first two words, Eli, Eli, are however rendered slightly differently in the Greek text.
Let us make the following progressive observations:

in the Hebrew Eli, the possessive pronoun My is not present in the Hebrew text, but is implied in the "declension" of the noun God (אֵ, El), and is rendered literally in Greek, in Matthew.
the words with which Psalm 22 opens, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!, are charged with tension and drama!
let us suppose that you yourselves lived 200 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus (2nd century BC), and that you were well versed in the Hebrew language, and that you had to translate this psalm into Romanian [your own language]! how would you try to "capture" the tension and drama of this Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani! ?
in the Gospel according to Matthew, when we read Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!, we are already in chapter 27, and the tension of the crucifixion is at its peak; that is why Matthew can simply write, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!
unlike Matthew, the translator of the Septuagint, in the 2nd century BC, could not be "helped" by anything other than the way he himself translated! that is why, in rendering Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!, and trying to convey something of the tension and drama inherent in the text, he did not translate it "flatly," as My God, My God, but chose to add emphasis, writing, O God! My God, attend to Me, why have You forsaken Me?

Let us ask ourselves once more: Are these words, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!, difficult to write...?

An even more extraordinary fact: the apostle Peter, too, is confronted with these words, and passes them on to us in a somewhat different way (Mark 15:34): Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!:

MATEI	ηλί	ηλί	λιμά	σαβαχθανί
	Eli	Eli	lama	sabactani
MARCU	ελωϊ	ελωϊ	λιμά	σαβαχθανί
	Eloi	Eloi	lama	sabactani

Unlike Matthew, who writes the words according to grammatical norms, Peter, deeply moved, conveys this cry to us as an interjection: he does not write, according to the rule, Eli!, but hears a longer cry, one that draws out the sounds, Eloi!

What is more, in Mark we have a third (!) rendering of the Hebrew text of Ps 22:1: whereas Matthew uses a single word, ινατί ("why"), Mark writes εις τι ("for what, in what")

MATEI	ινατί		με	εγκατέλιπές
	de ce		m-	ai părăsit
MARCU	εις	τι	με	εγκατέλιπές
	pentru	ce	m-	ai părăsit

So then, for the Hebrew text of Ps 22:1, the Holy Spirit gives us 3 renderings in Greek, all different:

SEP: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, ... O God, My God, attend to Me, why have You forsaken Me?
Matthew: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, ... My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!
Mark: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, ... My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!

As a conclusion, we can affirm that:

in Ps 22:1, TM is closer than SEP to the original text of the HOT
SEP is a genuine translation, one that does not blindly transpose word for word, but seeks to capture the meaning and the stakes of the Hebrew text

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Hosea 11:1

In the Gospel according to Matthew, we read that after Herod's death, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, in Egypt, telling him: "Get up, take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life have died." (Matt 2:20), and the Holy Spirit sheds light on this, saying: "... that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt I called My Son." (Matt 2:15). Reference is made here to the prophecy of Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1. Here is how this verse is rendered in TM and in SEP:

TM: When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
SEP: ... Because Israel was a child, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children.

SEP specifies that God called the children of Israel out of Egypt, whereas TM agrees with Matthew, saying clearly that the one called out of Egypt is My Son!

As a conclusion, we can affirm that in Hosea 11:1, TM is closer than SEP to the original text of the HOT.

For a more detailed analysis, read here: analysis

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Isaiah 42:1

In Matthew 12:17-18, the Holy Spirit tells us that the words of the prophet Isaiah were being fulfilled:

12:18

Iată Slujitorul Meu pe care L-am ales, Preaiubitul Meu în Care Își găsește plăcere sufletul Meu; voi pune Duhul Meu peste El, și judecată națiunilor va face cunoscut.

Here is how this text is rendered in the 1Q Isaiah-a Scroll from Qumran, in TM, and in SEP:

1Q Isaiah-a: Behold, My servant whom I have chosen, in whom My soul takes delight. I have put My Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.
TM: Behold, My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
SEP: Jacob is My servant, I will strongly uphold him, Israel is My chosen one, My Soul has received him. I have put My Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Let us note that, while the Holy Spirit tells us that the Lord Jesus is the Servant and Beloved One of Isaiah:

SEP specifies that Jacob is the servant being spoken of, and Israel is the chosen one
the two Hebrew texts, the Qumran Scroll and TM, agree with one another!
the Qumran Scroll and TM establish neither the identity of the "servant," nor of the "chosen one."

As a conclusion, we can affirm that in Isaiah 42:1, TM is closer than SEP to the original text of the HOT.

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The Hebrew names of many figures from the NT

Without TM, the meaning of the names of many figures in the NT would be unknown to us! What, for example, is the meaning of the names Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel? Although the Septuagint sometimes translates the meaning of names (see e.g. Gen 24:62, Num 11:34, Deut 9:22), this is not done systematically; and so, in general, the Septuagint simply transliterates the names it comes across in the Hebrew text of the OT. On the other hand, the ancient Hebrew language, preserved by TM, giving us access to the meaning of the names of people and places, allows us to know them more deeply.
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2. The Septuagint is the version closer to the truth

We will examine, one by one, the following texts:

Isaiah 7:14 together with Matthew 1:23
Psalm 22:16
Ps 40:6-8 quoted in Hebrews 10:5
Acts 7:14 together with Genesis 46:27

Behold, the virgin shall conceive! -- Isaiah 7:14

1. In Matthew 1:23, the Gospel states that the prophetic word from Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled; the apostle Matthew uses the word virgin, also used in Isaiah 7:14 in the Septuagint; on the other hand, the Masoretic Text uses the Hebrew word young woman; (you can see this, for example, here); here is the text from the NT, from the Septuagint, and from the Masoretic Text:

NT, Matt 1:23: Behold, the virgin (parthenos, παρθένος, G3933) shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which, translated, is: God with us.
Septuagint, Isa 7:14: Behold, the virgin (parthenos, παρθένος, G3933) shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son
Masoretic Text, Isa 7:14: Behold, the young woman (halma, הָעַלְמָ֗ה, H5959) shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son
In TM, the word virgin (betula, בְּתוּלָ֕ה, H1330) appears for the first time in Gen 24:16, where SEP likewise uses virgin (parthenos, παρθένος, G3933)

Since the NT tells us clearly that the Lord Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, believers draw the firm conclusion that the Septuagint takes precedence in Isaiah 7:14.

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Psalm 22:16

Likewise, the NT tells us, in Luke 24:39, that after His resurrection, in order to prove to the disciples that it was truly Him, the Lord Jesus showed them His hands and His feet: yes, His hands and feet had been pierced on the cross! In Psalm 22, verse 16:

The Septuagint reads: For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encircled me; they have pierced (ώρυξαν - G3736) my hands and my feet
The Dead Sea (Qumran) manuscripts have this verse in (fragments of) two scrolls, in both of which it reads "they have pierced"; see here, the 4Q88 Scroll and the Nahal Hever Scroll
The Masoretic Text reads: For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encircled me; a lion cub (כָּ֝·אֲרִ֗י - H378) is at my hands and my feet; you can see this, for example, here

Translating according to the Masoretic Text, in Ps 22:16, all Christian translators faithful to the Lord Jesus write pierced, deliberately ignoring כָּ֝·אֲרִ֗י, lion cub.
We draw the firm conclusion that, in Ps 22:16, the Septuagint takes precedence, because the Lord Jesus Himself shows His disciples His pierced hands and feet (bearing the marks of the cross), and Luke records this fact. Christians have always used verse 16 of Ps 22 as a prophetic word concerning the crucifixion of Christ, the Messiah awaited by Israel.

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You have prepared a body for Me! -- Ps 40:6-8

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 5, the Holy Spirit shows that the incarnation of the Son of God was announced through the prophet David, in Psalm 40:6-8. Let us reproduce here Ps 40:6, from SEP and from TM:

200 years before the revelation of the New Testament, SEP already wrote in Greek, word for word, what we find in Hebrews: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me; burnt offering and sacrifice for sin You did not require.
on the other hand, TM reads: Sacrifice and offering of food did not please You: You have pierced my ears, You have not required burnt offering and sacrifice for sin.

We can therefore affirm that in Ps 40:6-8, SEP is closer than TM to the original text of the HOT.

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Joseph and Jacob in Egypt -- Genesis 46:27

Another well-known discrepancy, claimed by many atheists as "proof" against the Bible, is the difference between Acts 7:14 and Genesis 46:27:

in Acts, Stephen states that, in the days of Joseph, the whole family of the patriarch Jacob numbered 75 souls
on the other hand, TM says that: All the souls of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70. -- Genesis 46:27b
the number given to us in SEP, however, is 75
so both the NT and SEP say 75

Who is making an error, TM, or the NT together with SEP?

Let us observe, first of all, that in favor of 75 we have two "witnesses," the NT and SEP; whereas TM stands alone.

For Christians, the NT is the truth, which on this point agrees with SEP.

On the other hand, those who deny the NT also deny SEP, and hold to the 70 of TM, against two agreeing witnesses, the NT and SEP.

Let us deepen our reflection a little, asking ourselves simply: Who would be more entitled to have access to the text of the Hebrew OT?

Stephen, who is a Jew, and who, not long after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, that is, around the year 33, says "75 souls"?
or TM, which comes more than 1000 years later (in the 10th century)?

It cannot be denied that, in the days of the Lord Jesus, the Jewish people were still in possession of the original text of the Old Testament in Hebrew (100% consonantal); whereas TM appears 1000 years later, without our having any traceability to the "original" sources from which it was drawn.

The Septuagint takes precedence!

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We thank God for the Septuagint, the Old Testament prepared for Christians, and for the whole of humanity.
We thank God for the Masoretic Text, the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, which the Church had awaited with such great longing. All of Christendom knew that the OT in the Hebrew language had once existed, but that its text had utterly disappeared. For 1500 years, the Church waited, and God rewarded this waiting, working a miracle, and bringing to light a version of the lost text of the OT in the Hebrew language.

By handing down to us these two versions, one in the Greek language (the language of the NT), and one in the Hebrew language (the language of the OT), God conveys to us the true text of the Old Testament.
Yes, the true text of the OT, because the Septuagint and the New Testament and the Masoretic Text, placed side by side, verse by verse, compared and analyzed against one another, bring to light the true text of the Old Testament.
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Version history

May 5, 2025:

4 OT books were added: Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Micah
3598 new verses were added

English section:

The Greek-Romanian Interlinear Bible

The Greek text of the Greek Old and New Testaments used by this Greek-Romanian Interlinear Bible, was established by Charles Van der Pool, see the Apostolic Bible Polyglot website. Also, the Apostolic Bible Strong numbering system is used: Charles Van der Pool introduced extended Strong numbers for each Greek word present in the Old Testament, but not present in the New Testament (i.e. Greek words that are not present in the Strong's lexicons). These numers are in form GXXXX.XX.XX (dots are used to denote new numbers).

This translation contains the following:

The New Testament
The Old Testament:
- 17 completed books: Ruth, Esther, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Joel, Obadiah, Jonas, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi
this is version 1.17 because it contains the whole NT, and 17 completed books from the OT
what is new in this version:
- 4 OT books have been added: Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Micah
- 3598 new added verses
Old Testament: 9583 out of 23145 (41.4042%)
Bible: 17540 out of 31102 (56.3951%)
all the other verses are plain text verses from the Dumitru Cornilescu (1924) translation; the plain text verses are progressively replaced, as the translation work is going forward

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Appendix: The Qumran Caves

In 1947, the Qumran Caves were discovered, in which two scrolls of the Book of Isaiah were found, one called the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), and a second, called 1QIsa-b The most important manuscripts from what is now identified as Cave 1 at Qumran are a virtually complete scroll of Isaiah (1QIsa-a), dated to approximately 100-75 BC, and another, very fragmentary manuscript (1QIsa-b), also of Isaiah. The first (1QIsa-a) contains a great many variants from the Masoretic Text, both in spelling and in wording, while the second (1QIsa-b) is very close to TM, and contains a few original variants. The largest collection, from Cave 4, includes fragments from 5 copies of the book of Genesis, 8 of Exodus, 1 of Leviticus, 14 of Deuteronomy, 2 of Joshua, 3 of Samuel, 12 of Isaiah, 4 of Jeremiah, 8 of the Minor Prophets, 1 of Proverbs, and 3 of Daniel. In Cave 11 a Psalter was found containing the last third of the book in a form different from that of TM, as well as a manuscript of Leviticus.

The importance of the biblical documents from Qumran is, without doubt, enormous. First of all, the oldest of them date from 250-200 BC, which brings them quite close to the period of the Hebrew Bible itself. Moreover, for the first time, variants of the Hebrew text are brought to light (a very important matter, given that TM has no variations: there is only one TM, used unanimously throughout the whole world); in addition, at Qumran all the major known types of text are present: some close to the Septuagint, others to the Samaritan Text. On the other hand, many of the manuscripts are practically identical to TM, which pushes the antiquity of the TM version back in history to the pre-Christian era.

All of this is, let us stress again, only a logical conclusion, because in reality, today we have only a single complete manuscript of the Hebrew OT, namely TM (10th century AD), plus the Great Isaiah Scroll (1st century BC), plus many fragments and scraps from almost all the books of the HOT (dated between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD)

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Appendix: Hosea 11:1

Let us suppose that we were 150 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, and that we had to translate the following words:

1121	7121	4714	157	3478	5288	3588
לִבְנִֽי׃	קָרָ֥אתִי	וּמִמִּצְרַ֖יִם	וָאֹהֲבֵ֑הוּ	יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל	נַ֥עַר	כִּ֛י
pe Fiul Meu	l-am chemat	și din Egipt	l-am iubit	Israel	era un copil	Când

In our ignorance, we might ask ourselves: « Should I translate "I called out of Egypt My son"? » We might say to ourselves: « This refers to history, to when God freed the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. And the ones actually freed were "the children of Israel"... So I will interpret the text, and put "his children." »

Let us make a few more observations:

1. we stress once again that the Septuagint is a translation that was made by Jews, in order to help the Jewish people read the Scriptures.

2. some may perhaps be scandalized by the fact that the translator might interpret the text! thinking that the text should be translated word for word, no matter what!

3. if we set the Septuagint aside, we must know that the Jews had enormous difficulties with the Hebrew text itself! What does this statement mean? Because the Hebrew OT was written with consonants only, the classical Hebrew text was highly ambiguous, and those who cared for and copied the texts faced many difficulties; the ambiguity of the classical text of the Hebrew OT was removed by the Masoretic Text, which fixed the reading of every verse, introducing into the text those masorah marks, which are in fact the vowels that had been missing!

4. in the Qumran Caves, all the biblical documents that were discovered consist of:

a very large number of fragments,
and two almost complete scrolls.

The two scrolls are both copies of the book of Isaiah; the first scroll, dated to approximately 100-75 BC, is practically complete, and is therefore the best known, being called the Great Isaiah Scroll, with the code name 1QIsa-a; this scroll contains a great many variants from the Masoretic Text, both in spelling and in wording;

This scroll is practically complete, containing all 66 chapters. It is the only complete biblical scroll discovered in the 11 caves at Qumran; as such, it gives us a picture of what biblical manuscripts looked like at the end of the Second Temple era, around the 1st century AD. Unlike the Masoretic Text, with its consonantal and vocalization framework and its system of notes, accents, and versification, 1QIsa-a is a manuscript without vocalization or accents. In addition, 1QIsa-a contains interlinear and marginal corrections, scribal signs and notations, a different paragraphing system, and special morphological and orthographic features.

1QIsa-a contains such a varied assortment of textual variants from TM that this Qumran scroll can be considered a catalogue of textual variants. By catalogue, we mean a complete list of items. But unlike most catalogues, which generally present their items in a systematic way (such as alphabetical order), the textual variants in 1QIsa-a are not so systematized.

The scribe, or scribes, who copied 1QIsa-a from an original exemplar, took a somewhat free approach to the text, characterized by exegetical or editorial additions, morphological standardization and updating, harmonizations, phonetic variants, and modernizations of terms. There is also evidence that a well-intentioned scribe simplified the text for an audience that no longer understood certain classical Hebrew forms. His editorial tendencies led to the popularizing of certain terms, some from Aramaic, reflecting the language spoken in Palestine at that time. This free approach, together with errors that arose during the transmission of the text (for example, haplography, dittography, graphic similarity, incorrect word division, exchange of letters, transposition of texts), occasionally produced textual variants. These textual variants can be divided into four categories:

unintentional errors that occurred during the transmission of the text
intentional changes to the text made by scribes and copyists
synonymous readings
stylistic approaches and conventions of the scribes toward the text

Of course, not all variant readings fit neatly into one of these four categories; some readings are indeterminate.

This paragraph is an adaptation from the article by Donald W. Parry, "The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa)— Catalogue of Textual Variants," 2020.

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Appendix: The Translation of Nicolae Nitzulescu

We may mention here the translation of Nicolae Nitzulescu, published, it seems, in 1906, which uses the Masoretic Text; this translation was printed in a very small print run, and remained practically unknown, never reaching wide circulation, and remaining an elitist text.

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