An Initial Review of Baylor’s Introduction to the Septuagint

It’s great to see the appearance of a new volume for the field of Septuagint studies, this time from Baylor University Press. This coming November the new Introduction to the Septuagint, edited by Siegfried Kreuzer, will become available to students and professors alike. Dr. Kreuzer is Professor of Old Testament at Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel in Wuppertal, Germany, where the bi-annual Septuaginta Tagungen are held (e.g., here).

This is a volume you will certainly want on your shelf, but there are a few things to know about it before you take the plunge. (more…)

LXX Scholar Interview: Dr. Peter J. Gentry Discusses His New Critical Edition

Within a discipline as small and technical as Septuagint scholarship the definition of “exciting news” starts to look pretty odd to the typical person on the street. But for those of us involved in the field, the appearance of a new edition within the corpus certainly qualifies.

This is precisely what has happened within the last few weeks, as Dr. Peter J. Gentry finished the critical text of Greek Ecclesiastes. Gentry is a well respected scholar within Septuagint studies as well as the Donald L. Williams Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. According to a recent Facebook post by Peter’s wife, Barbara, this volume represents over two decades’ worth of labor. Thankfully, he is not the only one at work on the so-called Göttingen edition, as a handful of other volumes are currently underway. (more…)

Review: Jonathan Kline’s “A Proverb A Day In Biblical Hebrew”

Having recently co-edited the Reader’s Edition of the Septuagint, it probably comes as no surprise that I am an advocate of well-produced texts to cultivate learning and appreciation of the biblical languages. So I was excited to see yet another volume from Jonathan Kline suited for that very purpose. Kline has already put together a series of biblical language books that I recommend to students. And this new book, A Proverb A Day In Biblical Hebrew (Hendrickson 2019) is yet another excellent resource to help keep students, pastors, and scholars in the Hebrew text. (more…)