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SEPTUAGINT

General designation for the Jewish-Greek Scriptures, which consist primarily of various translations of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Also included are additions to some books of the Hebrew Bible as well as independent works, some of which are translations while others were composed in Greek. The texts are believed to have been produced from the 3rd to the 2nd or 1st centuries b.c.e., and at least partly in Alexandria, Egypt. The name Septuagint derives from the tradition in the Letter of Aristeas that 72 (or 70; hence the symbol LXX) elders translated the Pentateuch into Greek.

The term “Septuagint” is actually a cause of difficulty for the field. Many nonspecialists employ a reading from one of the standard printed editions (Rahlfs or Brooke-McLean) or a manuscript and designate it as the definitive reading of the LXX, as though this represents the oldest recoverable form of the Greek text. For this reason, specialists now reserve the term “Old Greek” (OG) or other, more specific terminology to designate a text that in the judgment of scholars most likely represents what was originally written. Critical editions for many books of the LXX are now available and continue to be published in the Göttingen Septuaginta.

There are three main areas of interest in LXX studies. First, the study of the LXX and the later recensions offers insights into the beliefs and thoughts of the Jewish community in antiquity. Second, next to the Dead Sea Scrolls the LXX is the most important witness for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. For the most part the LXX text is very close to the Hebrew; however, there are significant differences between the two, in certain sections (e.g., Exod. 35–40; Dan. 4–6) or even entire books (e.g., the LXX version of Job is 17 percent shorter and Jeremiah, 12 percent shorter). Any comparison of the Greek to the Hebrew must treat each book individually. Third, Greek versions were employed with equal authority to the Hebrew Bible in the early Church. Consequently, the LXX had an enormous impact on the language and theology of the early Church.

Bibliography. A. Aejmelaeus, “What Can We Know about the Hebrew Vorlage of the Septuagint?” ZAW 99 (1981): 58-89; C. E. Cox, ed., VII Congress of the IOSCS (Atlanta, 1991); L. Greenspoon, “The Use and Abuse of the Term ‘LXX’ and Related Terminology in Recent Scholarship,” BIOSCS 20 (1987): 21-29; S. Jellicoe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (1968, repr. Winona Lake, 1993).

Tim McLay

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEPTUAGINT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)