Talmud zu Bereschit 18:12

They [all] introduced [the same] thirteen alterations:¹⁶For a comparison of these variants with the Heb. text, cf. on Sof. I, 8. ‘God created in the beginning’; ‘I shall make a man in image and likeness’; ‘And He finished on the sixth [day] and rested on the seventh [day]’; ‘Male and female He created him’; ‘Come let Me go down’; ‘And Sarah laughed among her relatives, saying’; ‘For in their anger they slew oxen and in their self-will they digged up a stall’; ‘And Moses took his wife and his children and set them upon a carrier of men’; ‘Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years’; ‘I have not taken one desirable thing from them’; ‘And the [beast] with small legs’; ‘Which the Lord thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples to give light under the whole heaven’; ‘And they offer sacrifices to the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven which I commanded should not be served’.

Bar Ḳappara said: Great is peace, for we find that the Torah modified a statement in order to maintain peace between Abraham and Sarah. It is stated, And Sarah laughed within herself, saying … my lord being old;²⁹Gen. 18, 12. but in the sequel³⁰When God repeated this to Abraham. it is written, I who am old.³¹ibid. 13. God concealed from Abraham that Sarah called him ‘an old man’.

Thirteen things they changed for King Ptolemy. They wrote for him, “God created the beginning³⁷⁶Gen. 1:1; change not found in LXX..” “I shall make man in stature and form³⁷⁷Gen. 1:26; change not found in LXX..” “Male and his openings He created them³⁷⁸Gen. 1:27; change not found in LXX..” “He finished on the Sixth and rested on the Seventh³⁷⁹Gen. 2:2; change found in LXX.” “Now I shall descend³⁸⁰Gen. 11:7; change found in LXX..” “Sarah laughed in her surroundings, saying.³⁸¹Gen. 18:12; LXX: “in herself”.” “For in their rage they slew a bull and in their will uprooted a trough³⁸²Gen. 49:6; change not found in LXX..” “Moses took his wife and his sons and let them ride on people-carriers³⁸³Ex. 4:20. LXX: “beast of burden”..” “The dwelling of the Children of Israel, which they dwelled in Egypt and other lands, was 430 years.³⁸⁴Ex. 12:40. LXX: “In the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan.”” And the hare³⁸⁵Lev. 11:6 (in LXX 11:5). LXX: “rough-foot”, a designation of the hare., “and the young of foot.” King Ptolemy’s mother was called “hare³⁸⁶The dynasty of the Ptolemies was called the Lagides, after an ancestor Lagos “hare”.”. “Not one precious thing I took from them³⁸⁷Num. 16:15; change found in LXX.” “Which the Eternal, your God, distributed them to give light to all peoples under all the heavens.³⁸⁸Deut. 4:19; change not found in LXX.” “Which I did not command peoples to worship them.³⁸⁹Deut. 17:3; change not found in LXX.
The comparisons with the LXX text was done on the basis of Rahlfs’s edition; the history of the text between the time of the Jewish translation in Alexandria and its adaptation by Christian editors in the Roman Empire is unknown. The same list is in the Babli 9a.”

BARAITHA.¹Keth. 16b-17a (Sonc. ed., pp. 92ff.). How does one dance²The meaning here is to recite the praises of a bride. before the bride? Beth Shammai said: The bride as she is; and Beth Hillel said: Beautiful and graceful bride!³Whether she possessed the qualifications or not. Beth Shammai said to Beth Hillel: Even if she is lame or blind? But it is written, Keep thee far from a false matter!⁴Ex. 23, 7; and there must be no departure from the truth even for a bride. Beth Hillel replied: If one has made a bad purchase, should one esteem it in his eyes or depreciate it? Surely one should esteem it in his eyes. Therefore Beth Hillel said: Always should the disposition of a man be pleasant towards his fellow-creatures.
GEMARA. But how can Beth Hillel [say of a bride] that she is beautiful when in fact she is not? [Beth Hillel can reply that in the circumstances people will understand it as] beautiful in her deeds and graceful in her person because we do not presume [to attribute to a person] what is unbecoming. And [what can] Beth Shammai [reply to this]? They can say: Is it written, ‘Keep far from a falsehood’? [It is written, From a false] matter,⁵lit. ‘word’. even if it be inexplicit.⁶It is therefore wrong to make a statement and expect people to take it in a different sense. And [what can] Beth Hillel [reply to this]? They can say: When the All-present declared, Keep thee far from a false matter, it is in connection with what follows, And the innocent and righteous slay thou not;⁷i.e. the context is giving false evidence which will lead to an innocent person being condemned to death. but where it is a case of preserving life⁸Creating a deeper love between husband and wife. it is in order [to depart from the strict truth]. Should the question be raised: Why do Beth Hillel in their refutation cite the example of ‘a bad purchase’, let them refute Beth Shammai from the Torah! For it has been taught:⁹Yeb. 65b (Sonc. ed., pp. 437f.); B.M. 87a (Sonc. ed., p. 502, n. 4). Great is peace, seeing that for its sake the Holy One, blessed be He, modified a statement. At first it is written, My lord being old,¹⁰Gen. 18, 12. and afterwards, I … who am old.¹¹ibid. 13. When Sarah was told by the angel that she would have a son she laughed to herself and exclaimed, My lord being old; but when God repeated what she had said to Abraham, not to hurt his feelings He changed the word to I … who am old. [Beth Hillel] can reply: There is no question [that what we say] is correct according to the Torah, but it is also correct by the standard of human beings; reverse it.¹²The text should read kelappë ’alyah, lit. ‘towards the tail’, i.e. reverse it, and the word which follows is an explanatory gloss (Jastrow s.v. ’alyah). The meaning is, To meet the question raised, it would be best in the Baraitha first to cite the passage from Genesis and then the example of ‘a bad purchase’.
[It was quoted above:] And the innocent and righteous slay thou not. Since you mention the innocent [may not be slain], obviously the righteous [may not]!¹³The term innocent has a negative connotation, viz. one who keeps away from evil; but the term righteous has both a negative and positive connotation, viz. one who keeps away from evil and does good. [It denotes] ‘innocent because of witnesses’ and ‘righteous because of disciples’.¹⁴These are forensic terms. I. Where two witnesses testify against a man that he had committed an offence but disagree on the details, the accused is discharged. E.g., two witnesses testify that they saw him worshipping idols; one says that he worshipped the sun and the other that it was the moon. Because the witnesses are in disagreement on details, the man is acquitted. He is technically termed naḳi me‘edim, ‘innocent (or, freed) because of [the disagreement of] witnesses’. II. In the criminal court young scholars sat in rows in front of the judges. When the trial ended and before the verdict was delivered, any one of these scholars could, if he knew anything in favour of the accused, come forward and speak for him, and if the judges accepted his statement they discharged the accused. He was then termed ẓaddiḳ min hattalmidim, ‘righteous (i.e. acquitted) because of the disciples’. If the disciple wished to testify against the accused, he was not permitted to do so. That would be a case of rasha‘ min hattalmidim, ‘condemned because of the disciples’, which was not allowed. Cf. Sanh. 33b-34a (Sonc. ed., p. 212) and Rashi ad loc. From this we learn [the ruling]: Do not put to death ‘the innocent because of witnesses’ and ‘the condemned because of disciples’. [Do you think,] ‘Condemned because of disciples’? Say, because of one of the disciples.¹⁵This refusal to listen to disciples’ statements against the accused holds good only when one disciple came forward. This procedure is based on Num. 35, 30; cf. Sanh. loc. cit.
Raba expounded: What is the meaning of what is written, For the Lord is righteous, He loveth righteousness; the upright shall behold His face?¹⁶Ps. 11, 7. If so, [the verse should read,] ‘He loveth the righteous’!¹⁷Since He is described as righteous, that is the wording which might have been expected. But [it is to be understood] as Raba interpreted it:¹⁸Cf. ‘Erub 19a (Sonc. ed., pp. 129f.). Abraham¹⁹So the text must be emended. V reads ‘from forty’. comes and brings [redemption to the wicked who are under sentence to suffer in Gehinnom, in agreement with] Resh Laḳish [who said: The fire of Gehinnom has no power over the transgressors in Israel,] or it may be deduced by an argument from minor to major [from the golden altar], as it is stated, Every one that is written unto life in Jerusalem.²⁰Isa. 4, 3. The text is obviously corrupt and is conjecturally reconstructed from the Talmud. Abraham, in freeing the sinners of Israel from Gehinnom, performs an act of righteousness which merits him the love of God, Who is righteous, especially as He has written unto [eternal] life every one in Jerusalem (i.e. the whole people of Israel).