Sixth Day or Seventh Day?

[RedFan]

Gen. 2:2a in the Masoretic Text states that God completed His work on the seventh day, while the Peshitta, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX has Him completing work on the sixth day. Whether these sources substituted “sixth” in order to resolve the obvious problem of God completing his work on the day of rest; or whether their sources had “seventh” as in MT, and it was a translator who made the obvious change from “seventh” to “sixth,” I cannot tell.

Which do you think it is?

 

[keithr]

Gen. 2:2a in the Masoretic Text states that God completed His work on the seventh day, while the Peshitta, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX has Him completing work on the sixth day. Whether these sources substituted “sixth” in order to resolve the obvious problem of God completing his work on the day of rest; or whether their sources had “seventh” as in MT, and it was a translator who made the obvious change from “seventh” to “sixth,” I cannot tell.

Which do you think it is?

The LXX and Peshitta are both older than the Masoretic, which was primarily copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. I'd trust the LXX more - it was used by Jesus and the Jews during the first century AD.