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Septuagint: Classical Greek
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Septuagint is the name given the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. The term is derived from the Latin word septuaginta ("seventy"; hence, the customary abbreviation LXX), which refers to the 70 (or 72) translators who were once believed to have been appointed by the Jewish high priest of the time to render the Hebrew Bible into Greek at the behest of the Hellenistic emperor Ptolemy II.
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The nature of the Septuagint Greek has been debated for quite some time. Since we do not believe that this is the appropriate place for engaging with that debate, we would simply like to state our position that we regard the language of the Septuagint to be a genuine representative of the contemporary Greek, that is to say, the Greek of the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods, though necessarily influenced by the grammar and usage of Aramaic and Hebrew from which the bulk of the Septuagint was translated, the nature and degree of that influence varying from translator to translator and from question to question.'
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Thankfully, in recent generations there has been a revival of interest in the Septuagint. At present, there are in print at least three English translations of the Septuagint, and it appears that at least one additional translation currently is in progress. Until very recently, no publisher has broken with tradition so as to bind an English translation of the Septuagint together with an English translation of New Covenant scripture into a single volume. But finally, there is such a Bible, which has been given the name, "The Apostolic Bible"; it is published by the Apostolic Press in Newport, Oregon. The same publisher has available a Greek-English interlinear edition of the Septuagint, which serious students of the Scripture should find of great value.
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Until now there has been no comprehensive, yet user-friendly introduction to the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). Most scholarly works presuppose a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek as well as a familiarity with Septuagint studies. Karen Jobes and Moises Silva... have written a primer that will be useful to students who are just beginning to study the Septuagint as well as to seasoned scholars.
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The oldest and most important translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (OT) is the Septuagint (LXX). It translated the Hebrew into Greek in the third century BC in Alexandria, Egypt. The Letter to Aristide tells the story how the Egyptian king Ptolemy II (285-247 BC) ordered his librarian, Demetrius to collect all the books of the world. Demetrius thought there should be a Greek translation of the Torah so 72 Jews, six from each tribe, were sent to translate the Torah into Greek which they did in 72 days (Charlesworth 1985, 7-34).
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There has long been a debate over the influence of the Greek language and culture on the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures but little has been said about the influence the latter had on the former. The Greek language gradually changed after Alexander conquered ‘the world’ and Jews played a role in this change. The Hebrew Bible was the way of life for Jews and therefore its translation into Greek would have impacted their use of that language more than that language would have impacted them. Does anyone know of a study in which this impact is measured; ranging from little things like the use of “en” to translate the Hebrew to bigger things like the use of “kurios” for God?
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