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Septuaginta | 
 enlarge | Creators: Alfred Rahlfs, Robert Hanhart
Publisher: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
Category: Book
List Price: $82.95
Buy New: $52.26
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Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 238488
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 941
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 2.1
ISBN: 1598561804
Dewey Decimal Number: 225
EAN: 9781598561807
ASIN: 1598561804
Publication Date: August 2006
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Product Description
This new critical edition of the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament corrects over a thousand minor errors, but leaves Rahlf's edition intact. The text is based on Codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus, with variants noted in the critical apparatus. This edition includes English, German, Latin and Modern Greek Introductions, History of the Septuagint Text and Explanation of Symbols. Significance of the Septuagint (LXX):
* The Septuagint is the most ancient translation of the Old Testament and consequently is invaluable to critics for understanding and correcting the Masoretic Text.
* The Septuagint was indispensable to the Early Church, serving as its "Bible." New Testament authors and Church Fathers would quote from the Septuagint when quoting the Old Testament. In this way, the LXX was instrumental in spreading the Messianic view of Jesus and propagating the Gospel. Knowledge of the Septuagint lends to a better understanding of the Old and New Testaments.
* The Septuagint served as the basis for the ancient Latin translations, that is, the Old Latin Vulgate.
* The Septuagint was important to Jews before the time of Christ--it helped Diaspora Jews who did not speak Hebrew still remain faithful to their religion, as well as allowing Gentiles to study Judaism.
* The Septuagint was important to early Christians--it helped inform their Messianic view of Christ and shaped the theology of the early Church.
* The Septuagint was important to the Catholic Church as it was the basis for the Old Latin Vulgate editions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Septuaginta February 25, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
My order arrived and it is good. I am particularly glad that Amazon offerred to send a replacement when the first order did not arrive.
I recommend whoever intends to buy books online to always do so through Amazon.com.
 Convenience vs. comfort September 30, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The books produced by the German Bible Society (marketed in the U.S. by Hendrickson) are always superbly well made, and this LXX edition is no exception. It is also small enough to easily take with you, though a bit thick for pocket carry. Unfortunately, the efficiency of size has been taken to an extreme where I believe it defeats the purpose. If all you want is to use the LXX as a reference, to look up how a particular Hebrew word was translated, this will do fine. If however, you want to _read_ the LXX (and yes, you should), the font is too small and dense for comfortable reading. Yes, they use quality paper, good font, and crisp contrast, but that only goes so far. I dislike criticising such a fine work and valuable resource, but I recommend instead finding the older two volume set. It is sized at 9x6" rather than 7x5", and uses thicker paper as well.
Brian from Hull December 20, 2006
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
The here presented new edition of Alfred Rahlfs's critical pocket-edition is not a fundamentally revised edition, but a moderate revision of the first edition published in 1935 by the Privileged Wurttemberg Bible Society in Stuttgart. Any potential buyer should be aware that this is a pocket-edition which has relatively small font, although its content(2200pages)largely retains an original Rahlfs's septuaginta in 1935 with a small revision.
Some suggested books and websites to accompany this volume September 29, 2006
53 out of 53 found this review helpful
As far as actually reviewing this version of the Septuagint (LXX), there isn't much more I can say than what the last reviewer mentioned. This volume is eminently readable due to the clear font and font size, it is portable, and it is the best available version of the LXX at this time (the Goettingen Septuagint, which is composed of more-recent [than Rahlfs] critical editions of most books in the LXX and is preferred by most scholars, is not readily available outside of the academic world).
I became interested in reading the LXX after mastering enough Koine Greek to be able to read the Greek New Testament (GNT). It took me only a few verses to realize that there are many more vocabulary words in the Septuagint than in the GNT. As this is the case, I recommend Lust, Eynikel, and Hauspie's "Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint" (available on Amazon). There are few LXX tools available at the moment, and this lexicon covers every word in the LXX; Muraoka's lexicon, for instance, only covers the Pentateuch and the Prophets. This lexicon is not to the LXX what BDAG is to the GNT, but it is the best there is right now.
The LXX has a mix of classical Greek, Semitisms, and (mostly) Koine Greek that makes it a more difficult read than the GNT. The versification is also different in some of the books than in English translations of the Bible (most of which are based on the Hebrew Masoretic Text [MT], which differs from the Septuagint in the just-mentioned instances). Karen Jobes and Moises Silva have written an excellent volume, titled "Invitation to the Septuagint" (also available on Amazon), that anyone should read before actually attempting to read the LXX itself. In addition, they supply a helpful appendix that gives the differences in versification between the LXX and English translations; the version of the LXX they use is Rahlfs' edition, which is why I mention the book here.
I believe the Septuagint receives short shrift in biblical studies circles. The usual assertion is that it is likely to be less reliable than the Hebrew text because there are so many different versions that were written and revised by so many different people (Jobes and Silva discuss the multiple texts of the LXX). However, the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) have shown that the Septuagint may actually be more reliable than people previously thought, since many passages in the DSS agree with the Septuagint over the Masoretic Text (that is, in cases where there is a discrepancy); it appears to be obvious that the Hebrew text underwent some changes as well before it was standardized into the Masoretic Text (although Jobes and Silva provide useful and necessary information about the dangers inherent in trying to use the LXX for textual criticism of the MT). If you are interested in this line of study, I recommend purchasing a copy of the "The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible" by Martin G. Abegg et al. (again, available on Amazon) and comparing passages from the DSS, the LXX, and a Masoretic-Text based English translation (or, better yet, the Masoretic Text itself, if you also read Hebrew).
Additionally, there is a group in Oregon that completed a new interlinear translation of the Greek Bible in 2006 that includes both the LXX and the GNT. Their "Apostolic Bible" includes both a Lexical Concordance and an English-Greek Index, which are invaluable tools for study of the LXX (they are currently working on an Analytical Lexicon, which also will be immensely useful since Bernard Taylor's "Analtyical Lexicon to the Septuagint" is no longer in print). This work does have two unfortunate shortcomings: 1) The LXX is missing the apocryphal books, and 2) They translated both the Old and New Testaments from the Complutensian Polyglot (rather than using Rahlfs' edition for the LXX and NA27/UBS4 for the GNT; the Complutensian Polyglot, like the Textus Receptus, contains many erroneous readings in the NT). Their volume (which is also available on disc) is only available on their website (sorry, Amazon, but I'm trying to help folks out here), which can easily be found through any internet search engine.
Other books which may be of varying degrees of usefulness are: 1) "Concordance to the Septuagint Versions of the O.T. (including the Apocryphal Books)" by Edwin Hatch and Henry Redpath (this concordance is in Greek only, so it is meant for those who are fully versed in the language); 2) "Grammar of the Septuagint Greek with Selected Readings from the Septuagint" by F.C. Conybeare and St. George Stock (see my review on Amazon); and 3) the newly-released "A New English Translation of the Septuagint" edited by Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright (see my review on Amazon). Of course, there is also the older "Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English" by Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton to help the reader who wants/needs an English translation alongside the Greek text.
There are additional books available that look at the history of the Septuagint and its use by both Jews and Christians, but there is a still a dearth of study resources on the LXX at this time (unless you are a professional scholar and have access to all of the scholarly literature); however, there are some helpful websites that are available to all. Again, internet search engines will enable you to locate such sites. I hope that both LXX websites and this review will be of help to those interested in studying the Old Testament in Greek.
BUY THIS! September 10, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is an excellent copy of the Septuagint. Excellent font. Beautifully bound. I concur what the other reviewers stated. It is indeed another masterpiece from Stuttgart, Germany. If you want an excelent copy of the Greek Old Testament to study, or want a deeper understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, this is the one!
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