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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

New Septuagint Books

Today, T.M. Law announces the commencement of a new project--The Oxford Handbook to the Septuagint, to be edited by himself and Alison Salvesen. He says the book will include nearly 50 chapters by different specialists and will take a thematic approach. The completion date is 2015/6. I'm sure it will be a great resource both for myself and my students.

Law compares this book to another one being edited by James K. Aitken--The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint. This one takes a look at the Septuagint translations book-by-book, with different scholars writing on each biblical book. You can look at the T&T Clark webpage for a list of authors. (I'm glad to see that Amazon is giving a steep discount.) I first heard about this book a few years ago, and apparently we'll just have to wait a few more months for its appearance. The projected publication date is Sept. 13 of this year. This will be a really useful book, I'm sure, so I'm excited that the time of its appearing is at hand!

One more forthcoming book on the LXX I'll mention: Salvesen and Law have also co-edited a volume called Greek Scripture and the Rabbis (Peeters). I'm familiar with a couple of the contributions to this volume, as their authors have graciously allowed me to read pre-published versions of their papers, and they are excellent. I even cite one of them--by Willem Smelik on Justinian's Nov. 146--in my own forthcoming book, though apparently I have given the book the wrong title. I call it Greek Scriptures rather than Scripture. Anyway, I see the cover of the book on the right side of Law's blog, but I cannot find it yet on Amazon or Peeters' website. One of the fascinating aspects of LXX study is its reception in rabbinic literature (cf. esp. b. Meg. 9a). I have not encountered a truly satisfying account of how the Rabbis felt about the LXX, so I look forward with great anticipation to seeing the entire contents of this volume.

Each of these books will be extremely helpful, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on them.

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