Book: The English Septuagint

[sirach2v4]

The Orthodox Study Bible, Thomas Nelson publisher, 2008. This is a new American English translation of the Septuagint Old Testament. Where the Septuagint agrees with the Masoretic Text, this Bible follows the New King James translation.

But, without annotation indicating where they differ, the Septuagint into English translation follows the Septuagint. The translation of the Greek Septuagint is provided by the Ancient Community of St.Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, Elk Grove, California, under the direction of Fr. Jack Norman Sparks, Ph.D, Dean.

You learn early that there is actually no official list of books in the Bible, according to the Orthodox Church. Take that!

There is an introductory essay to explain who and what the Orthodox Church is. according to the study bible, OC is the church of the New Testament. So, they don’t like the idea of a papacy which they don’t find in the NT.

see next post for examples.

They don’t believe in original sin.

The issues of the schism with the Roman Catholic Church are alive and well in this book. They view the schism as just the first such, which was followed inevitably (according to their view) by the many Protestant schisms, from RCC and each other.

I am only beginning to appreciate the Christological interpretation of the Bible, actually, the Trinitarian interpretation of the Bible, starting with Genesis 1. It’s very comfortable to read this type of a study Bible. It doesn’t seem that anybody will miss any Christological insights of the OT (but I haven’t barely read it yet.)

I’ve just heard so much about the Septuagint that I vainly decided that I couldn’t live any more without at least an English translation of it.

 

[sirach2v4]

Examples

What nudged me towards buying TOSB was my reading of the patristic commentaries in the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture from Intervarsity Press, where the early church fathers themselves would once in a while quote the Septuagint or offer a contract of the Masoretic and Septuagint texts.

In TOSB, I was glancing over Peter’s speech in Acts 2, which takes a large quote from the OT prophet Joel. So, there you go. I wanted to see how accurately this had been done. So, in a footnote in Joel, the editors note that Peter paraphrased Joel’s prophecy a bit. There you go.

Here’s an actual bit of the TOSB (which permits liberal quoting without violating copyrights):

*Wisdom of Sirach 1:12 The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord [sic],
And she was joined with the faithful in the womb. (f)

(f 1:12) The capacity to fear the Lord and thus to believe in him is joined with the infant in the womb. This would explain why the Lord Jesus Christ speaks of the special faith of nursing babes (Lk 18:15-17)

[which is rendered as ]
Luke 18:15 Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. (f) 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God.

(f 18:15) Infants are the standard of faith by which adults receive the kingdom of God, and not the other way around. “A little child is not arrogant, he does not despise anyone, he is innocent and guileless. He does not inflate himself in the presence of important people, nor withdraw from those in sorrows. Instead he lives in complete simplicity” (Theoph lact of Bulgaria ]).*

 

[Novocastrian]

The Orthodox Study Bible, Thomas Nelson publisher, 2008. This is a new American English translation of the Septuagint Old Testament. Where the Septuagint agrees with the Masoretic Text, this Bible follows the New King James translation.

But, without annotation indicating where they differ, the Septuagint into English translation follows the Septuagint. The translation of the Greek Septuagint is provided by the Ancient Community of St.Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, Elk Grove, California, under the direction of Fr. Jack Norman Sparks, Ph.D, Dean.

You learn early that there is actually no official list of books in the Bible, according to the Orthodox Church. Take that!

There is an introductory essay to explain who and what the Orthodox Church is. according to the study bible, OC is the church of the New Testament. So, they don’t like the idea of a papacy which they don’t find in the NT.

see next post for examples.

They don’t believe in original sin.

The issues of the schism with the Roman Catholic Church are alive and well in this book. They view the schism as just the first such, which was followed inevitably (according to their view) by the many Protestant schisms, from RCC and each other.

I am only beginning to appreciate the Christological interpretation of the Bible, actually, the Trinitarian interpretation of the Bible, starting with Genesis 1. It’s very comfortable to read this type of a study Bible. It doesn’t seem that anybody will miss any Christological insights of the OT (but I haven’t barely read it yet.)

I’ve just heard so much about the Septuagint that I vainly decided that I couldn’t live any more without at least an English translation of it.

You could also compare with the NETS, which is the NRSV revised by comparison with the Septuagint. Its notes will be more critical than theological, but sometimes that’s good for comparison’s sake!