A New English Translation of the Septuagint

The NETS is the single best translation of the Septuagint on the market (at least at the moment). The translation follows an ultra-literal method of translation they call "interlinear". The reason for this is that the LXX follows the same pattern and is very jarring. So, where the Hebrew and LXX agree, they translate the Hebrew text and translate it as literally as possible following the LXX at the same time. Where it disagrees, they follow the LXX. It has as a "boiler-plate" the NRSV, but it eschews many NRSV translation principles like gender-inclusive language. All gender-inclusive language except when the LXX's language is itself gender-inclusive (and this happens). The method of translation further removes it from its English parent. In the end, the only way you can know that it started as an NRSV would be to read the introduction. It really only has a few drawbacks. First, because the Bible is written for scholarly study, it is not useful for liturgical use or for private devotional use. Its language would also be too hard for the average reader because of its audience. This, however, is its stated goal. It may be a draw-back, but that's a side-effect of what it set out to do. I do not like the way they translated "pnevma theou" as "divine wind" in Genesis. It's justifiable to a point (it means "breath" and "wind" as much as it does "spirit), but everywhere else I checked they translated translated "pnevma" as "spirit". It should be consistent. The reason for this is plainly obvious: it was produced by an inter-religious committee of Christians and Jews. Since Jews are not Trinitarians, and that would be a valid understanding of the Hebrew and to a degree of the Greek, they would naturally not want anything like this. Christians, almost from the beginning, have made the connection between "Spirit of God" in Genesis and "Holy Spirit". The connection is further exasperated in English, because "spirit" for us does not have the same range of meaning as it does in Greek or Hebrew. So, the only fault I can give them is that it is an inconsistent translation, not that it's an invalid one. The prefaces also almost invariably favor the theory that the LXX is a translation with liberties over that it has a different parent text. Both are truly present, but we generally cannot tell when the LXX reading cannot be derived from repointing or re-dividing the Hebrew words (at that time, they had not yet pointed the text or put spaces in it, and so there were more ways to interpret the consonants than in its current form). Again, however, they do not say anything that is invalid regarding the relation of the LXX and its parent text. I simply divide the text differently than they do and so do not always like the introductions' emphasis. Going back to its strengths, its production standards were exceptional. The binding is excellent, the font is excellent, and it has generous margins. It even does this by being as cheap as the "cheap" Bibles. Short of going back to rag paper, this is about as good as I would normally expect. Overall, if you have good reading skills, I would reccomend this translation hands-down over any other English translation.

It's not for daily reading or devotion, or like memorisation. For that, I switched to the Lexham Septuagint ( more smoother). Still beautiful, accurate to represent the Greek text. And no, it's not merely a NRSV modified as some claim. You feel it's a Greek based translation. I keep it for reference, intro on the books, and maybe for some reading. It's based on Ralhf Septuagint, but nothing too different to the Lexham (Sweete edition). Font too small, but great cover. Not my go to Septuagint in English. The Lexham has taken that place.

I write as a Christian layperson. The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) into Greek was produced by Jewish scholars in Alexandria in the late third and second centuries before the Common Era. It had incalculable influence on the development of Christianity. Before the important Christian writings were gathered together in the second century of the Common Era to form the New Testament, the Septuagint was THE Bible of the new Church. It has been said that quotations from the Septuagint appear in every book of the New Testanent except the letters of John. As Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, few of its adherents could read Hebrew or Aramaic. Many could read Greek, if they could read at all. Pietersma and Wright have put together the first good English translation of the Septuagint since the nineteenth century. It is a literal translation, very close to the original Greek, and therefore often somewhat awkward in English, and this is good. Readers with even a modicom of biblical Greek, say a New Testament Greek course from college days, can use this hand-in-hand with the Greek Septuagint text (available from the American Bible Society), and do quite well. One experiences a very ancient text of the Old Testament even if one has little or no Hebrew. In the past few weeks I have thus worked through the Greek text of the first chapter of Genesis, several psalms, and selections from Second Isaiah, and this has been revivifying and enlightening. I am in debt to Pietersma and Wright. Even with no command of ancient languages, one can taste the flavor of the Septuagint text with this book. Oxford University Press, with its five hundred-plus years of experience in printing bibles, has laid out the text in 1,027 double-column pages with one minor fault--the margins are too narrow to write notes. This inexpensive and well produced translation should be on the bookshelf of every serious bible reader no matter what the level of scholarship.

This is the overall accurate and most complete collection of books of the original covenant scriptures, (the Old Testament.) For the average English reader who doesnt know or care much to learn the spiritual gems of the bible through the languages of modern Hebrew and Ancient pictoral Hebrew, this will be your best version of the O. T. to have by far! Its all in English, translated out of the LXX, Codex Alexandrinus, which is the most ancient and most accurate septuagint text available so far, despite what modern scholars and pastors are wrongly telling you. Why the hell does every church have colies of the NIV Nearly Inspired version, for everyone to use, when they could buy this along with the Greek- English Interlinear N.T with NKJV along the side as well!?? Many scholars will say that the LXX V or Codex Vaticanus is dated earlier and is therfore more accurate but that is not completely true. It is still another great version to use also, as found in Brentons English version and the amazing Apostolic Bible Polyglot but it is still a translation made later in time from out of the Masoretic Hebrew Text. But this NETS version of the septuagint is from the original source Greek O.T. which was made originally around 250 B.C and was made out of Ezras authentic and most accurate Hebrew copy of the Tanakh or O.T., given to him directly by God again, when he was in Babylon. (See 4 Esdras 14 in the Good News Bible with deuterocanonicals/Apochrypha! $8 FROM AMAZON, of which I also did a brief review of a while ago!)You will get the most out of this version of the O.T set of scriptures. But don't forget to also get the other missing scriptures and restore many other lost and forgotten books, and verses of scripture like 4th Esdras, 1st and 2nd Adam and Eve, Jasher and 1st and 2nd Enoch, and the testament of the twelve patriarchs! Plus you will need a separate Set of the Renewed Covent scriptures or (the N.T.) because this bound package of scriptures does still not contain the whole counsel of God. There is no New testament in here in case you were wondering. But this version is still the closest to having the most of Gods words, than any other English O.T version in one bound package, that I have found and this is more accurate in more places than not. But there are a few errors still from the Greek, which get carried over into English, like Genesis 4:26 of which the Aramaic versions, and Hebrew Masoretic text and Jasher have, when the letters are respaced correctly. This verse should tell us that Enosh profaned the name of God, not worshiped or called upon or hoped to call upon God. Some of the Greek text's flaws in which the Hebrew M.T. is superior are: Zechariah 5:1- 2, 12:10 and Genesis 1:1 (of which the Aleph and Tav is present and is unjustly left out and equals The Messiah/God, as in Revelation 1:8!) And psalm 138:2 to name a few. But over all without other deeper study, the Greek O.T. text has more to offer as a whole than the Hebrew version left preserved for us. And there is no finished English translation and bound book yet, of the Aramaic Targumim O.T. TIthat will be the next masterpiece, when someone gets it done. It is still being worked on. See Andrew Gabriel Roth's Aramaic Eastern Peshitta N.T. as well as David Bausher's western peshitta N. T. Interlinear pr plain English. Hopefully one of these guys or both will do the correct smd more co ete Aramaic Targumim for the O. T. and not he later made syriac translation but we will ha e ro wait and see.? Also, some verses in which the LXX is superior over the late made Hebrew M.T. are found in verses like Genesis 11:13- 14, which are missing completely from the Hebrew!!! See Luke 3:36 to verify Kainan or Caianan's existence in the genealogical bible lineage of the Patriarchs! Cainan's existence also makrs creation 565 years earlier then 4004 bc that bishop Ussher wrongly dated from the Hebrew Masoretic Text. And see Ezekiel 21:3- which shows God only killing the unrighteous in the two LXX versions and never the righteous with the wicked, like Abraham pleaded with God in Genesis 18:23. Sadly the late Masoretic Hebrew Text erroneously has God killing both the righteous with the unrighteous! Also see DANIEL 12:4 in this LXX, which has a superior English translation, even though the same better meaning is hidden in the Hebrew. This verse should say the knowledge of evil and cunning to harm us, will increase, not the knowledge of the gospel or technology increasing, like many commentators have said.. Also DANIEL 12:4 should be translated as saying that many people will run away in apostasy and violent madness, not just running to and fro!?? Any serious students can contact me at AnswersInGenesis at live dot com. Every disciplined learned who wishes to mature, needs a copy of this and should read this as their main version of the Tanakh or O.T. I will also be happy to further translate and teach this along with the Hebrew Masoretic Text and both Aramaic Targumim to serious literal minded people, as I am already doing chronologically, through the whole bible, in my own bible study in Tucson on Shabbat (friday) evenings. Enjoy!😊

Just anecdotally, I've found that often when the NETS diverges from the Masoretic text it aligns with the Douay translation of the Vulgate. For example, LXX Psalm 42,4 in the NETS renders it: "to God who makes glad my youth" Douay has: "to God who giveth joy to my youth" Whereas JPS Tanakh has: "unto God, my exceeding joy." The Douay has the Latin book names so none of the frankly weird faux Greek spellings. And the Douay is more poetic. Brenton is more poetic for that matter. The point is if you're looking at buying the NETS just know that Brenton and Douay did it hundreds of years ago only better (IMHO) and those books are public domain. Do buy this book if you 1. can't be bothered to learn Greek and 2. prefer a mutilated NRSV over a little legwork learning how the LXX differs from the Masoretic text. On the other hand, it's sewn bound, compact, sleek and convenient. It opens flat and has a pleasing font. It's nice to consult when Liddell & Scott fail.

Bought this as a gift for my father. He loved it. The book is really great for deep dive into the Bible history and origins. Highly recommend for people already familiar with the Bible and want to learn more. My dad said it was easy to understand.

This is a great translation of the Septuagint translated from Greek to English. A great buy for anyone wanting to read , study or gain more understanding of the Bible.

The introduction to this book does a great job of laying out the challenges of translating an ancient translation. It is not, however, aimed at people without a significant background in Hebrew, Greek and translation theory. I give credit to the authors of the introduction, Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, for specifying the nature of the translation and its audience. Taken from Nida and Taber, _The Theory and Practice of Translation_ (Leiden: Brill, 1982), p. 31: "a translation in the present-day literary language, so as to communicate to the well-educated constituency." The translators chose this group "on the assumption that it is most probably this audience that has a more than passing interest in traditions of biblical literature other than their own" (p. xiv). I think they are right about this. "Translating an ancient text can only be described as a profoundly difficult undertaking.... "The difficulties of the undertaking are certainly not decreased when one attempts to translate an ancient translation into a modern language. If translating is an act of interpreting, as linguists suggest it is, rather than a simple transfer of meaning, a Greek interpretation of a Hebrew original can be expected to reflect what the translator understood the Hebrew text to mean. The end result is therefore inevitably to some degree a commentary written at a specific historical time and place by an individual person, whose understanding of the Hebrew will often have been at variance with our own, though at times perhaps equally viable." (p. xvi) Indeed, back when I was a linguist- and translator-in-training at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (early 1980s), I was taught the rather simplistic model of translation as a mere transfer of meaning. Experience, though, has taught me that this is virtually impossible. A text of any level of sophistication above that of a stop sign is full of cultural assumptions, lexical polysemy, syntactic ambiguity, and so forth. Any translation is perforce an interpretation. The only way to even begin to compensate for this, if the readers of the translations are not scholars trained in the relevant fields, is to include a massive set of footnotes. The average reader is just not going to take the time to read such a set of notes, even if they are included. The majority of traditional religious readers of a Bible translation are not prepared to deal with the challenges that such footnotes would present to their existing understanding of the text. The New English Translation of the Septuagint is aimed at those who already have at least some of the relevant scholarly background and are not averse to acquiring more.

Solid offering of the LXX. You may not agree with some of the formulas the team have utilised but it is nice to read a modern edition rather than Brenton's and Lexham (I generally steer clear of translations of another translation as is the case of Lexham). NETS is great in that it provides the theory behind the translation of each book (given historically accepted that the LXX had 70 different translators to begin with). This book is worth it for Isaiah, the Pentateuch and Jeremiah alone which I have majority worked through and compared with the NASB. Surprisingly I must confess I have shifted my stance across to the camp that believes this tradition is older than the Masoretic since doing so for a few reasons in particular. I even lug this book along to church most Sundays.

The Septuagint is by far one of the most important foundations to our faith ( in Christ) It's interesting to see how the Septuagint flows neatly into the gospels, as many early Christian writers believed as well. The font is a perfect size, and the language used is perfect for understanding what the authors meant to convey. I recommend this book to all my fellow Christians and readers a like.

Excellent Book and very fast delivery 🚚 i am Impressed 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

L'une des principales traductions scientifiques de la Septante en langue moderne. Si on lit le français, on pourra préférer la Bible d'Alexandrie (même si tous les volumes ne sont pas encore parus). De plus, la traduction n'est pas forcément élégante. Mais il est pratique d'avoir tout en un volume. Les introductions aux livres bibliques, décrivant notamment les techniques de traduction, sont très riches et utiles.

Me gustó que haya mucho material al introducir cada sección, cada libro tiene introducciones muy completas, hay bastante información sobre las variantes textuales entre distintas fuentes de la Septuaginta y comparativos con el hebreo. El Tomo está muy padre y es ameno para leer una Traducción del Texto Griego Original en un Inglés contemporáneo. Sin embargo, me imaginaba el Tomo más grande y la letra se me hace algo pequeña.