Close. Only Paul has access to the first five books, a bunch of books that went into the Hebrew Bible, and at least one that didn’t make the cut (Book of Enoch). The writers after him were using a Greek language subset of the Hebrew Bible (septuagint) and their own Greek/Roman traditions. Which is why for example Jesus never references parts of the Hebrew Bible that weren’t in Greek already. Check for yourself, Jesus never says anything from the Book of Esther for example but quotes Micah…
An imperfect analogy: you hire me, a very much not Japanese person, to write a fictional story about someone who lived in Japan a 100 years ago and the only resources I have are a few travel guides written 300 years ago, all of them badly translated.
The Book of Esther was in the Septuagint. It was not a direct translation but a retelling, but it was available in Greek and still not referenced by the new testament authors.
It wasn’t in the older versions of the Septuagint it got added to it later. You are correct I should have been more precise. Point is Jesus, a supposedly real life Aramaic speaking jew, for some strange reason only knows Judaism through Greek. According to his Greek biographers.
Be like if you read a book in Japanese, written in the 1870s, about George Washington that has George Washington only aware of books that were translated into Japanese, and widely available, in the 1870s. I say a bit because unlike Jesus we have direct evidence that George Washington existed.
Yeah my first reaction to this meme was “well they had the Torah though”.
Close. Only Paul has access to the first five books, a bunch of books that went into the Hebrew Bible, and at least one that didn’t make the cut (Book of Enoch). The writers after him were using a Greek language subset of the Hebrew Bible (septuagint) and their own Greek/Roman traditions. Which is why for example Jesus never references parts of the Hebrew Bible that weren’t in Greek already. Check for yourself, Jesus never says anything from the Book of Esther for example but quotes Micah…
An imperfect analogy: you hire me, a very much not Japanese person, to write a fictional story about someone who lived in Japan a 100 years ago and the only resources I have are a few travel guides written 300 years ago, all of them badly translated.
The Book of Esther was in the Septuagint. It was not a direct translation but a retelling, but it was available in Greek and still not referenced by the new testament authors.
It wasn’t in the older versions of the Septuagint it got added to it later. You are correct I should have been more precise. Point is Jesus, a supposedly real life Aramaic speaking jew, for some strange reason only knows Judaism through Greek. According to his Greek biographers.
Be like if you read a book in Japanese, written in the 1870s, about George Washington that has George Washington only aware of books that were translated into Japanese, and widely available, in the 1870s. I say a bit because unlike Jesus we have direct evidence that George Washington existed.