Ears to hear or a sign of ownership?

Amen, Brother Mexdeaf -- Preach it! :thumbs:

Here is a pre-KJV document that agrees with you.

Psalm 40:6 (Geneva Bible, 1587 Edition):
Sacrifice and offering thou didest not desire:
(for mine eares hast thou prepared)
burnt offring and sinne offering hast thou not required.

 

The author of Hebrews provides the earliest citation of the verse.

Qumran scroll 11QPs d contains only the first verse of Psalm 40.

Don’t be so sure that the author of Hebrews quoted the Septuagint.
He may have been freely interpreting the verse (in an early form of dynamic equivalence or “poetic license”).

The Septuagint itself has diverging witnesses, (Alfred Rahlfs critical edition of the LXX uses “ears” and differs from the Braxton edition of the LXX (as well as the earliest Christian examples of the LXX’s, e.g. Codex Vaticanus) which use the word “ body”.

The question is, ‘Did the author of Hebrews rely on the LXX?’
Or ‘Was the LXX influenced by the author of Hebrews.’

As you noted the NIV translates it as an illusion to Exodus 21:6,
“then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.”
ESV

The illusion has been noted by others (see Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) but there is not a word in either the Hebrew or the Greek that translates directly to “pierce” in the verse.
It’s a possible interpretation but a poor translation, but it fits with the translational philosophy of the NIV.

Additional note: In Hebrew, the words used for "pierce" and "open" are two entirely different words.

Rob

 

Just a note:
In the psalms, the LXX is numbered differently.
Our English psalm 140 is number 139 in the LXX.
The verse numbers differ too.
The LXX numbers the heading, “A Psalm of David”, so verse 6 in our English, is verse 7 in the Septuagint.

I use Rahlfs, Septuaginta, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft from my computer [Libronix].
See this link (already set for Psalm 139 - LXX) TC Ebind Index for Rahlfs edition

Brenton’s, [The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English] is in my bookshelf.

I’m fairly sure it could be found on the web.

Here are two good sources.

Notes on the Septuagint [LINK]

The Septuagint Online [LINK]

I’d also highly recommend a book by by Karen Jobes and Moisés Silva:
Invitation to the Septuagint [LINK]

Rob

 

In my hast I gave you Psalm 140 (139) instead of Ps 40 (39).

Here is the right address [LINK]

TC Ebind [LNK]

Rob

 

Accck, seems I only compounded my err.
I was so eager to correct my numbering mistake that I didn’t read the Greek text I offered.
No one noticed that the Greek in my link to Rahlfs used σομα (body) rather than ὠτία (ear).
Well I don’t have a link to the variant so I’ll copy it below.

7 θυσίαν καὶ προσφορὰν οὐκ ἠθέλησας, ὠτία δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι, ὁλοκαύτωμα καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας οὐκ ᾔτησας.
Psalm 39:7 LXX

Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta, Copyright © 1935, 1979, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.

Rob