A New English Translation of the Septuagint 1st Edition

The NETS is the single best translation of the Septuagint on the market (at least at the moment). The translation follows an ultra-literal method of translation they call "interlinear". The reason for this is that the LXX follows the same pattern and is very jarring. So, where the Hebrew and LXX agree, they translate the Hebrew text and translate it as literally as possible following the LXX at the same time. Where it disagrees, they follow the LXX.It has as a "boiler-plate" the NRSV, but it eschews many NRSV translation principles like gender-inclusive language. All gender-inclusive language except when the LXX's language is itself gender-inclusive (and this happens). The method of translation further removes it from its English parent. In the end, the only way you can know that it started as an NRSV would be to read the introduction.It really only has a few drawbacks. First, because the Bible is written for scholarly study, it is not useful for liturgical use or for private devotional use. Its language would also be too hard for the average reader because of its audience. This, however, is its stated goal. It may be a draw-back, but that's a side-effect of what it set out to do.I do not like the way they translated "pnevma theou" as "divine wind" in Genesis. It's justifiable to a point (it means "breath" and "wind" as much as it does "spirit), but everywhere else I checked they translated translated "pnevma" as "spirit". It should be consistent. The reason for this is plainly obvious: it was produced by an inter-religious committee of Christians and Jews. Since Jews are not Trinitarians, and that would be a valid understanding of the Hebrew and to a degree of the Greek, they would naturally not want anything like this. Christians, almost from the beginning, have made the connection between "Spirit of God" in Genesis and "Holy Spirit". The connection is further exasperated in English, because "spirit" for us does not have the same range of meaning as it does in Greek or Hebrew. So, the only fault I can give them is that it is an inconsistent translation, not that it's an invalid one.The prefaces also almost invariably favor the theory that the LXX is a translation with liberties over that it has a different parent text. Both are truly present, but we generally cannot tell when the LXX reading cannot be derived from repointing or re-dividing the Hebrew words (at that time, they had not yet pointed the text or put spaces in it, and so there were more ways to interpret the consonants than in its current form). Again, however, they do not say anything that is invalid regarding the relation of the LXX and its parent text. I simply divide the text differently than they do and so do not always like the introductions' emphasis.Going back to its strengths, its production standards were exceptional. The binding is excellent, the font is excellent, and it has generous margins. It even does this by being as cheap as the "cheap" Bibles. Short of going back to rag paper, this is about as good as I would normally expect.Overall, if you have good reading skills, I would reccomend this translation hands-down over any other English translation.

I write as a Christian layperson. The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) into Greek was produced by Jewish scholars in Alexandria in the late third and second centuries before the Common Era. It had incalculable influence on the development of Christianity. Before the important Christian writings were gathered together in the second century of the Common Era to form the New Testament, the Septuagint was THE Bible of the new Church. It has been said that quotations from the Septuagint appear in every book of the New Testanent except the letters of John. As Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, few of its adherents could read Hebrew or Aramaic. Many could read Greek, if they could read at all. Pietersma and Wright have put together the first good English translation of the Septuagint since the nineteenth century. It is a literal translation, very close to the original Greek, and therefore often somewhat awkward in English, and this is good. Readers with even a modicom of biblical Greek, say a New Testament Greek course from college days, can use this hand-in-hand with the Greek Septuagint text (available from the American Bible Society), and do quite well. One experiences a very ancient text of the Old Testament even if one has little or no Hebrew. In the past few weeks I have thus worked through the Greek text of the first chapter of Genesis, several psalms, and selections from Second Isaiah, and this has been revivifying and enlightening. I am in debt to Pietersma and Wright. Even with no command of ancient languages, one can taste the flavor of the Septuagint text with this book. Oxford University Press, with its five hundred-plus years of experience in printing bibles, has laid out the text in 1,027 double-column pages with one minor fault--the margins are too narrow to write notes. This inexpensive and well produced translation should be on the bookshelf of every serious bible reader no matter what the level of scholarship.

This is a long awaited and long overdue translation of the venerable Septuagint. The scholarship is impeccable. Just the introductions to each book themselves is worth the publication. This is a work of extremely high quality, far more so than one encounters with the usual 'cookie cutter' translations of the Hebrew Scriptures that have flooded the market. If you're surprised at the variations from your usual translation it's because the Septuagint, the bible used by the Apostles and early Christians varied also. And that the original translators made the usual mistakes and diversions common to humans. It's a translation of the ancient Greek which was translated from a very old Hebrew text.I read the Septuagint (and the New Testament) in the original Greek and these translators did incredible work, both in establishing the text and its idiosyncracies and in rendering difficult turns of phrases in the Greek. Brenton's work, along with Thompson/Muses were great works in their time, but this edition is far superior in almost every way possible. New translation of the Bible come out regularly and one wonders why, in most cases, they were even published outside of the obvious, to sell a book. NOT SO with this monumental work. Buy it. Read it. And where it differs from what you're used to seeing investigate why and enjoy the journey.