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Septuagint (LXX) Links Overview

The Septuagint stands as one of the great historical wonders of the world. It was the world’s first major work of translation. The history and story behind the Septuagint is shrouded with intrigue and mystery which led to its general prominence over any other version of the Old Testament for over 500 years. The Septuagint, not the Hebrew Bible, was the Old Testament for the writers of the New Testament as well as the church fathers. Because most of the church fathers could not read Hebrew, exegetical debates were settled using the Septuagint. Even today the Septuagint remains the canonical text for the Orthodox Christian tradition. Its impact upon the New Testament cannot be understated. It also provides a wealth of philological data for understanding Koine’ Greek. Furthermore, the widely varied translation techniques found throughout the Septuagint have raised questions concerning theories and methods of translation, which still haunt modern translators. "Although few students will pursue Septuagint studies as a specialty at the graduate level, all students of the Bible, regardless of their religious identity, should understand the historical importance of the Septuagint and its significant contribution to the development of the Bible that we hold in our hands today. As the eminent biblical scholar Ferdinand Hitzig is said to have remarked to his students, 'Gentlemen, have you a Septuagint? If not, sell all you have, and buy a Septuagint.'"¹

¹Karen H. Jobes, Invitation to the Septuagint, Baker (Grand Rapids, April 2001), 26.

1. Links to Online Texts of the Septuagint (LXX, Greek Old Testament)

2. Links to Study Helps for the Septuagint

1. Links to Online Texts of the Septuagint (LXX, Greek Old Testament)

The Septuagint - This site is a fantastic gateway to many sites with various texts and study aids.

Interlinear Septuagint Greek and English - This great site provides free PDF's of interlinear texts of each book of the Septuagint.

Septuagint Greek and English - This text can be viewed in images of the original print edition though that can be rather time consuming and difficult to navigate

Septuagint Text Greek - this uses the symbol font and thus has no accents or breathings -- also, the data entry person didn't know how to enter a final sigma so they appear as medial sigmas

Septuagint Text Greek - These are Adobe PDF files with accents and breathings. No special fonts are required to read these

NETS - New English Translation of the Septuagint project.

Bibliotheca Augustana - LXX in Unicode (from the Unbound Bible)

2. Links to Study Helps for the Septuagint

International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies - a nonprofit, learned society formed to promote international research in and study of the Septuagint and related texts

Conybeare and Stock Septuagint Grammar - an e-text available online (1905 release). A free pdf download of the text is available here. This text has annotated selections and an introductory grammar to the Greek of the Septuagint.

Perseus Lexicons - Enter either Greek or English words

Septuagint Course Outline and Bibliography - The outline and bibliography are helpful, but there are other broken links on this page.

Decker's Septuagint Reading Helps - Rodney Decker's great page. Course outline, bibliography, texts, reading notes, and resources.

Orthodox Study Bible - This site is a work in progress but does contain notes on some passages.

New English Translation of the Septuagint - Another work in progress but looks to be helpful.

AHRB Breek Bible Project - The Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World project, an AHRB-funded joint enterprise between the Universities of Southampton and Reading, aims to provide a re-evaluation of the Greek Bible (Septuagint or LXX) as a source for Jewish interpretation of the hellenistic world - in particular the political, social, and intellectual elements thereof. This involves an assessment of the existing criteria used to date and suggest the context of the translation of the books of the Septuagint, and where possible, to develop new criteria for deducing this information from the text.

One major result of the project is the Demetrios database of Septuagint Greek, containing political, legal, and administrative words. The database is still a work in progress, but at time of writing an initial version was available online via the project site. For those interested in exploring the subject further, a useful links section is provided.