In Greek Genesis, linguistic variation can be identified by analyzing how particular variables are rendered. This project identifies variables through the text’s relationship to its Hebrew source: a Hebrew construction is treated as a variable, and its different renderings in Greek are considered variants. Many of these variants can be accounted for within the Post-classical Greek linguistic system. Translation recodes a text into a new semiotic environment and pragmatically adjusts it to fit that environment. From this perspective, linguistic variation may reflect the Genesis translator’s attempt to shape the text pragmatically, whether motivated by epistemic intersubjectivity or social intersubjectivity. At the same time, many variants can be explained by the text’s relationship to the Hebrew linguistic system of its source (often described as Hebraisms or Semiticisms). While some of these variants can only ostensibly be explained by recourse to the Hebrew source, others may also be interpreted in terms of social intersubjectivity. In such instances, the Genesis translator strategically employs linguistic variation to generate social meaning within his own Jewish sociohistorical matrix in Ptolemaic Egypt. To illuminate the rationale behind pragmatic linguistic variation in Greek Genesis, this project employs a methodology that integrates both epistemic and social intersubjectivity.