What are Christians supposed to do with the Septuagint? That is, what should we do with the Greek translation(s) of the Old Testament made in the last few centuries BC and often including additional texts? Should we just declare it to be ‘Scripture’ and call it a day, as those in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths do? Should we just ignore it, only occasionally wondering about it when we glance at the footnotes in our Bibles, as we Protestants tend to do?
These questions are answered in the form of a thorough introduction to the Septuagint in the new book by Gregory Lanier and William Ross, The Septuagint: What it is and Why it matters. This book is based on courses taught by (one or both?) of the authors, and I think that gives the book both strengths and weaknesses–though as a professor myself maybe I’m biased and what I see as strengths and weaknesses really aren’t. The strengths are that this book is well-structured, carefully organized, and thorough in what is covered. The weaknesses are that the book is occasionally too narrow in what it covers and occasionally overly-technical in its terms. At least the first of these weaknesses is by design, as the authors have decided only to cover, as the subtitle notes, what the Septuagint is and why it matters.
And to be clear, these weaknesses aren’t major given the work, you should just be aware of them going in. If you’re hoping for an extended discussion of the contents of the parts of the Septuagint that are not part of the Hebrew text (say, the books of the Maccabees), you’re going to be disappointed. If you’re looking for a careful, thorough, and very, very, useful exploration of why the Septuagint matters for the church today, this is absolutely an excellent place to start.
However, as the authors would tell you, this book is not a place to finish. That comes with actually reading and reflecting on the Septuagint itself. That’s no easy task, especially for those of us in the Protestant world–but The Septuagint: What it is and Why it matters makes the task a bit easier and less daunting.
Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO
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