Review: The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters

NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Crossway without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Gregory Lanier and William Ross. https://amzn.to/3DOcmVFThe Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, November 2, 2021.  216 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

Does the Greek translation of the Old Testament fascinate you, and you want to learn more about it?  The two authors for this book, Gregory Lanier and William Ross, does an excellent job giving readers an accessible introduction to the Greek Old Testament.  Often the term Septuagint is used to say Greek Old Testament and the book goes over what is the Septuagint, if it is even proper to say “the Septuagint says…” and why the Greek translation of the Old Testament is important.  The two authors are both capable specialists in writing on this subject, both having their PhD from Cambridge and both being professors who are professors at Reformed Theological Seminary who hold a high view of the Bible and write academic papers and books.  I am so glad they wrote this book and so glad the publisher was willing to have a book on this subject be published since some can think this is an obscure subject, though I don’t think it should be an obscure topic!  I wished this book was available when I was taking an Old Testament textual Criticism class during my second master’s program.  It was so good that I wish the publisher can published books using the same format and structure as this book but for other ancient translations of the Bible such as the Latin Vulgate, Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, etc.

The book consists of two parts with a total of seven chapters.  Part one answers the question “What is the Septuagint?” and gives us a detailed and nuanced explanation of the Greek translation of the Old Testament and why it is can be incorrect to merely say “the Septuagint says…” when its not just one translations but the term Septuagint has now been used to refer to various Greek translations and updated editions.  Chapter one is on “What (If Anything) Is the So-Called Septuagint?” and chapter two explores who and where dit he Greek Old Testament comes from.  Chapter three is on how the Greek Old Testament was translated and the next chapter was on how did the Greek Old Testament translation developed.  These chapters for part one was highly informative.  Part Two was even more helpful as it answers the question “Why does it matter?”  which chapter five exploring why the Greek Old Testament matter for studying the Old Testament itself, chapter six on why it matter for studying the New Testament.  I love how this was organized as we see the issue is not just obscure but is important for serious students of both the Old and New Testament.  Chapter seven is probably my favorite chapter in the book which masterfully answers the question of what kind of authority does the Septuagint has, in which the author discusses that there are three different kinds of authority (Normative, derivative, interpretative) and how the Septuagint helps with God’s Word being authoritiative without arriving at the strange conclusion some have arrived at of “Septuagint only” nor is it dismissive en toto of the Greek translations of the Old Testament.  I also love how the author looks at the Bible itself with the New Testament use of the Greek Old Testament that helps us see the author’s views are not academic speculation but is biblical and balanced.  The book also made proper use of history and textual studies itself such as when they argue why we should not rule out the need to study the Hebrew Old Testament when we realize later recensions editions of the Greek Old Testament has a translation philosophy of trying to produce a translation that was more faithful to the Hebrew than previous Greek translations of various books of the Old Testament.  This final chapter alone is worth getting the book though of course it builds off the knowledge of everything before in chapters one through six.  There’s also a helpful appendix that briefly answers ten key questions about the Septuagint that I thought was very good and as a result of reading this book I was able to save money from almost buying what I thought was the best critical edition of the Septuagint (it turn out the book I wanted to get was semi-critical edition) and now I’m directed to newer translations published after my time in seminary that I was previously unaware of.  I do think those who are general Christian reading audience and those in seminary or seminary trained would find this book helpful.  I highly recommend it as a book to get if you love to learn about the Bible and want to know more of how even the New Testament used the Old Testament through various translations of the Old Testament.