Praxean,

Your points are quite good. However, I have several points of issue:

Codex B, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus.

"4th century and later manuscripts, full of blunders, so not very important to the discussion of a B.C. LXX."

While these are very corrupt witnesses, they are still witnesses. I would venture that the Old Testament exhibits more consistency in it than the text offered by the New in these Codices.

Unicorns. (Relates to LXX discussion, namely, is "monoceros" a correct translation in the Septuagint?)

"He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn." (Psalm 29:6). I am not sure that young rhinoes "skip" about. Seems like an animal that doesn't exist today.

Reformation and Protestant traditional view of the LXX.

You quote John Owen, but what about the opinion of many men who lived before John Owen, such as the translators of 1611? How could they be said to be used of God, made such a wonderful translation, be praised for their superior knowledge and yet been so hopelessly wrong when it came to the LXX?

The meaning of the word "publish".

While publish has a wider meaning than writing, it does include writing. "And the gospel must first be published among all nations." (Mark 13:10). This verse cannot be restricted to oral form, but is said by many Christians to be fulfilled in Bible printing.

When Peter preached to Cornelius, he said, "But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." (Acts 10:35). How did Cornelius know the fear of the Lord or righteousness except by knowing the law. Are we to expect that he and other learned Hebrew? No, it is entirely logical that he knew Greek, and therefore read the Old Testament in Greek, namely, the LXX. "That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Juda, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;" (Acts 10:37). Now, the Gospel of Christ was based on knowledge of the Old Testament. In fact, the "anointing" Scripture is in Isaiah, "THE Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek" (Isaiah 61:1a). Thus, Cornelius, being a Gentile, would have had to know this from the LXX. Further than this, when Jesus preached this message at Nazareth in Luke 4:18, he opened the book of Isaiah and read not from Hebrew, not in Hebrew, but in Greek from the Septuagint. He went on speaking in Greek to the people, and used the Greek form of words, like "Elias" (not Elijah), "Sarepta" (not "Zarephath") and "Eliseus" (not Elisha).

Another example based on Greek usage is the quote of the Old Testament at Matthew 2:6 which has "Juda". This differs from Paul's quotation in Hebrews 8:8 which has "Judah". The reason for this is in transliteration versus translation. "Juda" is the Greek translation, while "Judah" is the Greek transliteration. Thus, Matthew must have been using the Septuagint (translation), rather than the Hebrew, or he would have transliterated it "Judah".

Matthew