Septuaginta— A Reader’s Edition

Septuaginta— A Reader’s Edition March 11, 2023

With the increased interest in intertextuality issues has also come increased interest in the LXX and other Old Greek versions of the OT, and rightly so.  But finding good tools for scholars and students to use to study this remarkable Greek translation of the OT has been difficult.  On the one hand, the Greek of the LXX is not identical with the Greek of the NT, not least because of all the extra vocabulary in the LXX.   And while one can find usable translations of the LXX (see the NETS version) good luck finding a good edition of the Greek text of the LXX with glosses.  Well, look no more because there is now such a thing, thanks to the hard work of Gregory Lanier and William Ross.  In two large volumes they present a clear text of the whole of the LXX complete with all kinds of helpful vocabulary at the bottom of the page (lexemes that appear 100 times or less in the LXX or less than 30 times or less in the UBS Greek NT, or oddly formed lexemes).   If you know your common vocabulary in the Greek NT, then this will be sufficient unto the day.

Kudos to the German Bible Society, and to Hendrickson for publishing this in the U.S. (although it was printed in China— boo!).  But at least this mammoth two volume set can be had at a reasonable price—-namely an amazing $78 in hardcover.   One hopes that many students of the NT will invest in this. After all, this, and not the Hebrew OT, was the OT Bible for many of the earliest Christians, including various of the writers of the NT, and that trend continued right up until the Reformation and beyond, particularly in the eastern part of the church, and still today this is the OT used in the various Greek Orthodox Churches.    We should be thankful for this very helpful new tool for students of the Greek Bible.


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