I am thrilled to announce a new book that I’ve been working on for the past several years, the T&T Clark Handbook of Septuagint Research, which I have co-edited with W. Edward Glenny (U. Northwestern–St. Paul). We’re thrilled to have worked with a wonderful slate of some of the world’s leading scholars in Septuagint studies to produce a handbook designed to present cutting-edge research in the discipline beyond the introductory level.

By way of back-story, this project was originally planned as a volume of essays for the Septuagint Studies section of the ETS annual conference. But within a year or so, the vision had morphed significantly as Ed and I began to imagine a kind of sister volume to Jim Aitken’s Companion (here). Whereas the Companion volume introduces each book in the Septuagint (as does the recent Baylor Introduction), this Handbook surveys the field in terms of areas of research. The metaphor I’ve used before is that while Aitken and Kreuzer provide the ingredients, the Handbook provides the recipes.

Here is the volume description:

Students and scholars now widely recognize the importance of the Septuagint to the history of the Greek language, the textual development of the Bible, and to Jewish and Christian religious life in both the ancient and modern worlds. This handbook is designed for those who wish to engage the Septuagint in their research, yet have been unsure where to turn for guidance or concise, up-to-date discussion that goes beyond the introductory level. The twenty-five chapters in this volume aim to break down the barriers involved in the technical debates and subspecialties as much as possible and thereby to equip readers to conduct their own research.

Each chapter is written by a leading Septuagint scholar and focuses upon a major area of research in the discipline, providing an overview of the topic, key debates and views, a survey or demonstration of the methods involved, and points to ongoing research questions. This Handbook also provides a brief, annotated bibliography of important secondary resources at the end of each chapter, a volume glossary, and a detailed survey of literature for Septuagint studies as a whole. Written to encourage active engagement with the most important issues in the field, this Handbook provides an essential resource for specialists and non-specialists alike.

You can get a sense for the volume in the Table of Contents:

Introduction – William A. Ross
I. ORIGINS
The Origins and Social Context of the Septuagint – James K. Aitken
Septuagint Translation Technique and Jewish Hellenistic Exegesis – Marieke Dhont
II. LANGUAGE
Septuagint Transcriptions and Phonology – Pete Myers
Septuagint Lexicography – Patrick Pouchelle
The Septuagint and Discourse Grammar – Christopher J. Fresch
The Septuagint and Greek Style – Eberhard Bons
The Septuagint and Biblical Intertextuality – Myrto Theocharous
III. TEXT
The Septuagint and Textual Criticism of the Greek Versions – José Manuel Cañas Reíllo
The Septuagint and Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible – John Screnock
The Septuagint and Qumran – Gideon R. Kotzé
The Septuagint and the Major Recensions – Ville Mäkipelto
The Septuagint and the Secondary Versions – Claude Cox
The Septuagint and Origen’s Hexapla – Peter J. Gentry
The Septuagint and the Biblical Canon – John D. Meade
IV. RECEPTION
The Septuagint and Second Temple Judaism – Benjamin G. Wright III
The Septuagint in the New Testament – Steve Moyise
The Septuagint in Patristic Sources – Edmon L. Gallagher
The Septuagint in Byzantine Judaism – Cameron Boyd-Taylor
The Septuagint in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition – Mikhail G. Seleznev
The Septuagint in Early Modern Europe – Scott Mandelbrote
V. THEOLOGY, TRANSLATION, AND COMMENTARY
The Septuagint and Theology – W. Edward Glenny
The Septuagint and Modern Language Translations – William A. Ross
The Septuagint: The Text as Produced – Robert J. V. Hiebert
The Septuagint: A Greek-Text Oriented Approach – Stanley E. Porter
VI. SURVEY OF LITERATURE
The Septuagint and Contemporary Study – Jennifer Brown Jones

Look for this new resource to be released in early 2021!