These are collected studies on the Septuagint by Jan Joosten, one of the leading scholars in the field. In this volume he deals mostly with linguistic features in the Greek version that reveal something about its background, its inner chronology, or the project of the translators.

In this volume Jan Joosten brings together seventeen articles, published in journals and collective volumes between 1996 and 2008, with one unpublished essay. In these essays he deals mainly with questions of language and interpretation in the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Many of Jan Joosten's studies take their point of departure in one or the other striking features in the language of the Septuagint, propose a theory explaining its peculiarity, and go on from there to relate the linguistic phenomenon to wider historical, exegetical or theological issues. Others deal with problems of method in establishing the historical background of the version, its relation to the Hebrew source text, and its theology. Taken as a whole, Jan Joosten offers an original contribution to a number of contemporary debates on the Old Greek version. Notably in this book he addresses from various perspectives the questions of who the translators were and what they tried to do.

Autorentext
Born 1959; Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford; Student of Christ Church.

Inhalt
Foreword

Translation Technique:
Elaborate Similes - Hebrew and Greek - A Septuagintal Translation Technique in the Minor Prophets: The Elimination of Verbal Repetitions

The Translators' Knowledge of Hebrew:
On the LXX Translators' Knowledge of Hebrew - The Knowledge and Practice of Hebrew in the Hellenistic Period. Qumran and the Septuagint - On Aramaizing Renderings in the Septuagint - Biblical Hebrew as Mirrored in the Septuagint - Source-Language Oriented Remarks on the Lexicography of the Greek Versions of the Bible - "benevolence", and "pity". Reflections on their Lexical Equivalence in the Septuagint - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint in Mutual Illumination

Interpretation:
Exegesis in the Septuagint Versions of Hosea - The Impact of the Septuagint Pentateuch on the Greek Psalms - To See God. Conflicting Exegetical Tendencies in the Septuagint - Divine Omniscience and the Theology of the Septuagint

Historical Milieu:
Language as a Symptom. Linguistical Clues to the Social Background of the Seventy - The Original Language and Historical Milieu of the Book of Judith - The Septuagint as a Source of Information on Egyptian Aramaic in the Hellenistic Period - Reflections on the "Interlinear Paradigm" in Septuagintal Studies