Septuagint and Canon: Hengel, part 2

Continuing the series.

Chapter 2: The LXX as a Collection of Writings Claimed by Christians (pp. 25–56)

This is a chapter that is not so much about the canon as about the text of the LXX. It surveys how the LXX became entrenched in the church as the OT text of choice, and how the legend about the LXX grew over time. But Hengel does address the canon in some places. Importantly, he does not think that there was a final closing of the Jewish canon until the late first century, and he believes this was (at least, partially) an anti-Christian action on the part of the Rabbis.

Hengel begins by tracing the development of the LXX translation legend, looking especially for evidence about which writings were included within the translation. For Jews, it was just the Pentateuch. For Justin (pp. 26–35), it was the entire Hebrew canon (pp. 26–29). Hengel summarizes other early Christian authors, all apparently to establish the point that Jewish-Christian polemics contributed to the insistence by Christians that the LXX was the correct Bible in terms of its text (see summary, pp. 40–41). Hengel has not yet addressed how the canon was expanded beyond the narrow Hebrew Bible canon.

The next (brief) section of the chapter mentions the Christian use of the codex and nomina sacra, thus distinguishing their copies from others.

How did Jews react? Some Jews had already been revising the Greek text of some biblical books to stand more in line with the Hebrew text (Hebraizing revisions). Then there were Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. And some rabbinic traditions that seem quite negative toward the LXX.

Hengel begins addressing the canon again on p. 44, first in regard to the Pharisaic canon, the closing of which he believes to have been an anti-Christian action, since the Rabbis excluded books that were considered valuable especially by Christians. (See again p. 105.)

It's a little unclear to me, but I think Hengel next argues that the emphasis on the LXX text in Christianity led to some ambiguity on the canon, and the charge that Jews falsified the text of their Bible spilled over into a uncertainty among Christians as to whether the Jewish Bible should determine the scope of the Christian OT (pp. 47–50). Mostly, Hengel discusses in this section the exchange of letters between Julius Africanus and Origen, and the position articulated by Jerome. But the next section (pp. 51–54), on Augustine, concentrates on the City of God and its defense of the LXX. This has nothing to do with canon, as far as I can tell, only the text of the LXX, which Augustine says is inspired even when it diverges from the (equally inspired) Hebrew text.

In the final section, Hengel returns (abruptly, as it seems to me) to the topic of the OT canon, discussing the position of 1 Enoch, particularly Tertullian's inclusion of 1 Enoch within his collection of Scripture because of Jude's citation of it. Within this discussion, Hengel writes:

The uncertainty with respect to the delineation of the 'Scriptures of the Old Covenant' (Melito, see below, pp. 60–1) which is perceptible throughout the second century may be related to the fact that Christian theologians (including the Gnostics) in this period attempted for the first time to work carefully through the rich Jewish literature which was originally Greek or had been translated into Greek and to investigate its usefulness for church doctrine and practice and theological speculation. (p. 55)

But I don't think Hengel has shown that there was widespread uncertainty in the second century on this point.