“The Jewish version is that the original Septuagint was the Five Books of Moses only, and none of it survived.”
That is a novel idea. Since when was the Septuagint a translation of only the first 5 books of Moses?
“And that’s skipping the major difference between the Jewish view that the Five Books of Moses are primary, with the Christian view that later revelation is primary.”
Another odd idea. What makes you think Christians give the first 5 books lower status than what follows?
“Christians believed Greek became God’s language.”
Really? Another odd idea. I’ve never encountered it, but I’ve only been a Christian for 40 years...
Do you reject the Virgin Birth? That’s a rhetorical question of course because Matthew’s quotation of Isaiah quotes from the Septuagint and not from the Hebrew.
Melkite Catholics such as myself use the Septuagint as the norm for our faith the way the Latin Church follows the Vulgate.
The Septuagint was hallowed by the apostles who used it rather than the Hebrew to prove Christian doctrine.
To preface this post, note that I am an Orthodox Christian who converted from Lutheranism in 2008, after a 9-year in-depth exposure to Orthodoxy in a Serbian-American community.
1. Judaism had several different streams just before and during Jesus’ earthly ministry. The ENTIRE Septuagint was translated and produced by Hellenistic Jews, NOT Christians. So there was NO “Christian revisionism”, even though post-Second Exile Jews do not accept the Septuagint.
2. Orthodox Christians read from the first five books of Moses in certain services (not the Sunday Divine Liturgy), some of which (such as in Holy Week) are very important services attended by most of us. We also commemorate as Saints many figures in the Torah, including Moses, Aaron, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, etc. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod commemorates some of the m as well.
3. Christians believe that God speaks to us in ALL human languages—ever since the Day of Pentecost (also a Jewish feast) after Jesus’ Resurrection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost#New_Testament
In Alaska, Divine Liturgy is celebrated in several Native Alaskan tongues, as well as English, Slavonic, and Russian (among others).