As the story goes, a few centuries before the birth of Jesus, seventy Jewish sages produced a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures at the request of an Egyptian king. While some Jews believed this translation was itself inspired Scripture, even more significantly, the authors of what would later be called the New Testament relied on this translation as they quoted Scripture. Then in the centuries that followed, many Christians argued that God had provided the Septuagint as the church's Old Testament. But what about all the differences between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible? And what about the extra books of the Septuagint-the so-called Apocrypha or deuterocanonical literature? Written with students in mind, Translation of the Seventy explores each of these issues, with a particular focus on the role of the Septuagint in early Christianity. This fresh analysis of the New Testament's use of the Septuagint and the complex reception of this translation in the first four centuries of Christian history will lead scholars, students, and general readers to a renewed appreciation for this first biblical translation.

"Examines the origins, language, textual history, and reception of the Greek Old Testament"--

Most readers do not know about the Bible used almost universally by early Christians, or about how that Bible was birthed, how it grew to prominence, and how it differs from the one used as the basis for most modern translations. Although it was one of the most important events in the history of our civilization, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BCE is an event almost unknown outside of academia. Timothy Michael Law offers the first book to make this topic accessible to a wider audience. Retrospectively, we can hardly imagine the history of Christian thought, and the history of Christianity itself, without the Old Testament. When the Emperor Constantine adopted the Christian faith, his fusion of the Church and the State ensured that the Christian worldview (which by this time had absorbed Jewish ideals that had come to them through the Greek translation) would leave an imprint on subsequent history. This book narrates in a fresh and exciting way the story of the Septuagint, the Greek Scriptures of the ancient Jewish Diaspora that became the first Christian Old Testament.

This comprehensive yet user-friendly primer to the Septuagint (LXX) acquaints readers with the Greek versions of the Old Testament. It is accessible to students, assuming no prior knowledge about the Septuagint, yet is also informative for seasoned scholars. The authors, both prominent Septuagint scholars, explore the history of the LXX, the various versions of it available, and its importance for biblical studies. This new edition has been substantially revised, expanded, and updated to reflect major advances in Septuagint studies. Appendixes offer helpful reference resources for further study.

Text-critical and Hermeneutical Studies in the Septuagint is the title of a bilateral research project conducted from 2009 to 2011 by scholars from the universities of Munich (Germany) and Stellenbosch (South Africa). The joint research enterprise was rounded off by a conference that took place from 31st of August – 2nd of September 2011 in Stellenbosch. It was held in cooperation with the Association for the Study of the Septuagint in South Africa (LXXSA). Scholars from Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, France, Canada and the USA, as well as South Africa, delivered papers focusing on the history of the LXX; translation technique and text history; textual criticism, and the reception of the Septuagint.

The Septuagint is the most influential of the Greek versions of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The exact circumstances of its creation are uncertain, but different versions of a legend about the miraculous nature of the translation have existed since antiquity. Beginning in the Letter of Aristeas, the legend describes how Ptolemy Philadelphus commissioned seventy-two Jewish scribes to translate the sacred Hebrew scriptures for his famous library in Alexandria. Subsequent variations on the story recount how the scribes, working independently, produced word-for-word, identical Greek versions. In the course of the following centuries, to our own time, the story has been adapted and changed by Jews, Christians, Muslims and pagans for many different reasons: to tell a story, to explain historical events and to lend authority to the Greek text for the institutions that used it. This book offers the first account of all of these versions over the last two millennia, providing a history of the uses and abuses of the legend in various cultures around the Mediterranean.

While many Christians wonder whether we really need the Old Testament, John Goldingay turns the question around: Perhaps Jesus' Bible—the Old Testament—is enough. Goldingay probes our misreading of the Old Testament and brings out the richness of the "First Testament's" message as Israel's and the church's gospel.

"An emerging field of study that explores the Hispanic minority in the United States, Latino Studies is enriched by an interdisciplinary perspective. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers, linguists, as well as religion, ethnicity, and culture scholars, among others, bring a varied, multifaceted approach to the understanding of a people whose roots are all over the Americas and whose permanent home is north of the Rio Grande. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies offers an authoritative, trustworthy, and up-to-date intellectual map to this ever-changing discipline."--Editorial page.

Drawing on the latest in Genesis scholarship, this volume offers twenty-nine essays on a wide range of topics related to Genesis, written by leading experts in the field. Topics include its formation, reception, textual history and translation, themes, theologies, and place within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This volume, the latest contribution to the international Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJH), investigates New Testament and Septuagint descriptions of theophanic interactions with the world. The CJH project aims to improve the understanding of the individual New Testament writings as part of the culture of Hellenistic Judaism. This final volume complements studies on Philo, Josephus, non-textual evidence, and non-canonical pseudepigraphal writings, and focuses on the development of linguistic and theological concepts within and between the LXX and the New Testament. Thematically, the volume considers the possible impact of religious experiences on biblical texts: according to the biblical authors Israel experienced God as speaking and acting on its behalf, occasionally in visible, audible, and tangible ways. Indeed, scripture presents itself as beginning with epiphanies of the divine. Contributors: Andy Angel, Richard H. Bell, Eberhard Bons, Roland Deines, Susan Docherty, Jan Dochhorn, Jorg Frey, Volker Gackle, Jens Herzer, Brian Howell, Stefan Krauter, Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, Martin Meiser, Steve Moyise, Thomas O'Loughlin, Alison Salvesen, Joachim Schaper, Edmund Stewart, Mark Wreford