What is your favourite Starbucks drink?
I've been doing some prep for a study I'm going to be leading through the book of Micah. As part of my prep I was reading through Micah in the Septuagint (LXX). For those of you unfamiliar with the LXX, it is (in simple terms) the Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament.
Why would anyone study the Greek OT when we have the Hebrew OT?
Well, most importantly, it is well documented that the Early Church used the LXX as their scriptures! The LXX was
the "Bible" for the vast majority of Christians during the apostolic era and beyond (in fact, the Greek Orthodox Church still uses the LXX as their OT). So, if we want to understand what the early Christians believed it is obviously very helpful to read and understand the scriptures that they were using. There are other compelling reasons to study the LXX, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Anyway, as I was comparing the LXX to my ESV (based on the Hebrew text) I ran across this:
Micah 1:8 (ESV) 8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
...versus...
Micah 1:8 (NETS - LXX) 8 For this she shall lament and wail; she shall go unshod and naked she shall make lamentation like that of dragons, and mourning like that of the daughters of sirens.
For those of you who might care:
wJV drakovntwn (hōs drakontōn: of serpents) ... yes,
dravkwn
/ drakōn, "serpent" is where we get our word “dragon” from!
wJV qugatevrwn seirhvnwn (hōs thugaterōn seirēnōn: of the daughters of sirens)
Without getting into the details of why the Hebrew and Greek are so different, what struck me (I was quite shocked!) was the appearance of sirens in scripture (and dragons for that matter! Although "serpent" is probably a better translation) .
For those of you who might not be familiar with sirens, they are legendary figures from Greek mythology. Supposedly they were beautiful sea women who would lure men to their deaths with their beautiful voices. They would sing their irresistible songs and sailors would then seek out the source of the music only to crash their ships on the rocks and drown.
Probably the most famous encounter with sirens is in Homer's Odyssey (book 12... portrayed here in this picture) where
Odysseus plugs his men's ears with wax so that they can't hear the voice of the sirens while he straps himself to the mast so that he can hear their beautiful song without the danger of succumbing to it.So, while this is certainly an extremely loose translation of the original Hebrew text, it definitely portrays a very vivid picture of the mourning prophesied by Micah.
There is very little doubt that "serpents/dragons" and "sirens" were not part of the original text written down by Micah (or his scribe) however, as I already mentioned, this is what the people of the early church would have read and thought of as scripture during the first few centuries of Christianity.
Just imagine! Thousands upon thousands of Christians... for literally centuries had serpents and sirens used as similes in their scriptures! What might the Apostle Paul have said about this text had he been preaching from Micah?
What do you make of pagan, mythological figures showing up in scripture?
Can you think of any other examples of this type of content showing up in scriptures?
Anyway, over the course of history different Greek authors and poets adapted the sirens and eventually they became mermaid-like creatures... always singing their irresistible song and luring people to their demises. Understandably they came to represent indulgence and temptation.
And so I find it appropriate that Starbucks uses a siren as their logo. It's not quite as clear on their newer logo, but their original logo shows the siren quite clearly.
... mmmmm... Starbucks...
