The time has come for the final installment of what has been a three-part series overviewing scholars who are supervising doctoral work in Septuagint studies. You can see the earlier parts here and here.

As I’ve said before, this is mostly for the benefit of students considering pursuing further study in the discipline, which is pretty decentralized and specialist. Since there are not a lot of scholars whose work is primarily focused on Septuagint, there are even fewer programs and resources to learn about it. Hence these posts, which are also reproduced on a standalone page on the blog that I intend to keep updated.

I’ve been going by geography more than anything, and that continues here with scholars located in Europe.

Scholars in Europe

There are a number of very good scholars and programs in Europe for studying the Septuagint. In no particular order, these include:

University of Salzburg (Austria)

• Kristin de Troyer – de Troyer is an expert in textual criticism, and has run a summer school in that area (see here) that I understand will occur again in the future. Not only will you benefit from a leading expert in Septuagint scholarship, but Salzburg is an outrageously beautiful place.

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven / Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

KU Leuven and UC Louvain are two “sister” institutions in Belgium that (so far as I understand) are closely integrated in faculty and research initiatives, as well as being fairly close to one another. Scholars here include:

• Hans Ausloos (UCL) – Ausloos is a specialist in textual criticism, a prominent research area at UC Louvain, as well as translation technique. His work has involved in the Hexapla Project as well as LXX.D.
• Bénédicte Lemmelijn (KUL) – Lemmelijn is part of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven and also the coordinator of the Centre for Septuagint Studies and Textual Criticism there, which was founded by Johann Lust (emeritus). Her work focuses on translation technique, textual and redaction criticism of the Pentateuch, theologically oriented projects.

University of Helsinki (Finland)

Helsinki is home to a venerable and lively tradition of Septuagint scholars who continue to make important contributions to the field (see here).

• Anneli Aejmalaeus – Aejmalaeus is a leading scholar in the discipline who specializes in textual criticism, textual formation in Second Temple Judaism, and intertextuality. She is currently working on the Göttingen edition of 1 Samuel (1 Kingdoms).
• Tuukka Kauhanen – Kauhanen is an expert in textual criticism, and is currently producing the Göttingen critical edition of 2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms) – for which we should all be immensely grateful. His other work has focused on the Historical Books.

University of Strasbourg (France)

• Eberhard Bons – Bons is part of the Faculty of Theology at Strasbourg, and is known for his work in the Psalter and Prophets. He has contributed to the BdA and LXX.D projects, and is a project coordinator for the massive and important work on the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (here). Accordingly, his current research also includes Greek lexicography.

Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris, France)

• Olivier Munnich – Munnich is a Greek language and literature Professor and  Religious Literature Chair of Late Antiquity. His research interest include textual criticism and textual history of the Bible, as well as Jewish Greek literature. He is also co-director of the BdA project.
• Sébastien Morlet – Morlet’s specialty is in Patristics and Late Antiquity, as well as the reception of Classical antiquity.

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Madrid, Spain)

• Jose Manuel Cañas Reíllo – Cañas Reíllo is an expert in textual criticism and is currently working on the Göttingen edition of Judges. He was also very involved with the recently completed LBG project (also see this interview). The CSIC is a fantastic facility, and also the location of the research center for DGE. Although he is currently emeritus, you’ll also benefit from the input of Natalio Fernández Marcos (here).

Universidad Complutense Madrid (Spain)

• Pablo Torijano – Torijano is an expert in textual criticism and the Historical Books. He is currently working with Julio Trebolle Barrera on 1-2 Kings (3-4 Kingdoms), and is part of the editorial team for massive Textual History of the Bible project.

Universität Göttingen (Germany)

• Reinhard Kratz – Kratz is well known in Old Testament scholarship, but one of his areas of research is Persian and Hellenistic Judaism. He is also the chair of the Kommission zur Edition und Erforschung der Septuaginta in collaboration with Felix Albrecht, which exists to continue and complete the Göttingen critical edition of the entire Septuagint.

 

[20 Oct. Edit– I knew I would forget obvious people for no good reason. Below are a handful more. Thanks to Jim Aitken for these additions]

Kirchliche Hochschule (Wuppertal, Germany)

Two Septuagint scholars are part of the faculty at the Hochschule, located on a beautiful hilltop outside Wuppertal. Another benefit of being here is the biannual Tagung of the Septuaginta Forschung, the next of which is coming up in 2018 (more on that soon).

• Martin Karrer – Karrer is involved in a variety of biblical research, but in Septuagint studies he has taken a key role in the LXX.D project, and now continues working on the multi-volume Handbuch zur Septuaginta (LXX.H). He also focuses on the use and influence of the Septuagint on the New Testament.
• Siegfried Kreuzer – Kreuzer specialized in the Historical Books, and has done a considerable amount of work in the question of the Kaige recension and textual history. He is also the current editor of the IOSCS Journal of Septuaingt and Cognate Studies (here; formerly BIOSCS).

Universität Zürich (Germany)

• Thomas J. Kraus – Kraus is based in Zürich but is Research Fellow at the Department of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. His work in Septuagint is focused largely on the Psalter and elements of Greek style.

Universität Tübingen (Germany)

• Michael Tilly – Tilly’s work focuses on ancient Bible translations and the reception of the Old Testament in the New. He’s done work with 1 Maccabees in particular with the LXX.D project.

Universität Rostock (Germany)

• Martin Rösel – Rösel has a wide range of research interests, but in Septuagint has worked with LXX.D, and also quite a bit in Genesis, Joshua, and others. He has also done some of the most recent work thinking about a “theology” of the Septuagint and the question of messianism.

Wrapping Up

Again, I am certain there are those I have left out unintentionally. These are the scholars I could think up myself. If you know of others I have missed, please leave a comment below and I will add to the page I mentioned for future reference.