Why do translations disagree with the Septuagint?

Question

Psalms 40:6(7) for instance, "Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened."

In many translations, in the footnotes there will be reference indicating that the Septuagint disagrees with "...my ears you have opened." Instead it translates, "...a body you have prepared for me."
There is zero similarity between the two verses. How can it be translated differently in the Septuagint and why????

Answer 1

There are two possible ways for the Septuagint to differ from standard translations. In some cases the Septuagint translators may have been working from texts that differ from the Masoretic text that is the basis for all modern translations. In other cases, they may have a different understanding of the original Hebrew text. Remember, there are very few documents other than the Torah in ancient Hebrew, and no dictionaries or other guides to the language exist, at least none written at the time by native speakers. By the time the Septuagint translation was made, Hebrew was already a language of religious scholars, not of daily speech. For many verses in the Old Testament, we really don't know with any confidence what the original Hebrew text meant, a fact that tends to be obscured when the most plausible interpretation is rendered into English.

Answer 2

The septuagint was an attempt to translate from the original hebrew masoretic texts into greek. As hebrew has many words that can not be directly translated into the greek the authors of the septuagint were forced to translate as best they can. The masoretic texts remain the most accurate when it comes to copies of the OT.

Answer 3

It depends on how the translations were made. Were they translated into English from the original Hebrew and Greek, or were they translated to English from Latin or another language. Each time you add a layer of language to a translation, you loose something in the translation. It is always best to refer to a translation taken directly from the original language.

Answer 4

Translation from one language to another depends on the time the words were translated as meanings change through time and where they are geographically. Also, two equal experts can have two different interpretations equally valid.

This is why it is always best to compare several translations to get the proper sense of the scriptures.

Answer 5

As far as the Old Testament is concerned, what matters really is the original Hebrew Bible. The rest are just attempts to translate.

Answer 6

The 40th Psalm is referring to the sufferings and coming of Christ...............Opening ears refers to understanding, Waiting refers to patience.................

Answer 7

It has to do with man and what they want it to say to fit into religion pertaining to please the people not the truth.