Accordance users have always enjoyed the freedom to pair any translation or original language text of the Bible with any set of study Bible notes, and this remains true with the OSB. However, since the Old Testament of the OSB follows the Septuagint (LXX) and not the Hebrew Bible, included with every copy of the OSB is the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint, a new English version of the LXX created specifically to accompany the Old Testament annotations of the OSB. The SAAS began with the New King James Version as its base, but changes were made at any point where the LXX differed from the Hebrew text. Moreover, brand new translations were created for the additional books (often referred to as Apocrypha or Deuterocanon) not found in the NKJV. The translation of these additional Old Testament books use the NKJV style and vocabulary as a template to maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the OSB. But this Bible is not just for Orthodox Christians. Countless others will find the Orthodox Study Bible an invaluable roadmap for their spiritual journey. Those exploring Christianity for the first time and those Christians waiting to discover their own spiritual roots will see this Bible as a source of inspiration and challenge.

The content of the OSB–including annotations, introductions, and articles–is written at a vocabulary level of a high school graduate to communicate “the treasures of the Orthodox biblical tradition with clergy and laypeople desirous of understanding their Christian beliefs and making them accessible to others” ( Introduction). The notes and commentary emphasize the major themes of the Christian faith, giving special attention to the following: Prof. Dr. Karen Jobes and Dr. Moises Silva. Invitation to the Septuagint. 2nd ed. Baker Academic, 2000. 351 pp. ISBN 9780801022357 The Orthodox (and Catholic) Bible also has an extra section of Daniel including the story of Susanna and the Elders. This didn't hit me as hard, but it was fine. Prof. Dr. Jennifer Mary Dines. The Septuagint. Ed. Michael Anthony Knibb. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. 196 pp. ISBN 9780567084644

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The fact that this has in fact happened should make clear to the Orthodox or those who are simply studying Orthodoxy why it is most unsatisfactory to use Old Testament translations made from the Hebrew. Orthodox should know and use the Septuagint version of the Old Testament in the original Greek or in translation. The Orthodox Church formularies and services are the most theologically complex and profound of all Christian church services, and they are a virtual mosaic of scripture quotation from the Septuagint or of the Church Fathers paraphrasing and commenting on Septuagint texts. For an example of this, consider the very first line of the first Book of the Bible, Genesis. In the Hebrew Bible and the English translations made from it we have ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’. In the Septuagint it is ‘In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth’. The first clause of the Nicene Creed, following the Septuagint, has Maker of heaven and earth, not Creator. On the other hand, the Apostles’ Creed of the Roman Catholic Church, following St Jerome’s translation from the Hebrew, has Creatorem, Creator. In the next sentence of Genesis the Septuagint describes the earth at the moment of creation as ‘invisible and unformed’. The Septuagint’s word ‘ invisible’ is taken intothe next clause of the Nicene Creed, where we have ‘…and of all things visible and invisible’. In the Hebrew the passage reads ‘unformed and empty’. It is a truism that learning the Orthodox Faith comes very largely through attending its services. It is not learned through books. Orthodox say to the curious, ‘Come and see’, not ‘Come and read’. If one cannot recognise these scriptural quotations when they are encountered in the services, then one’s apprehension of the Orthodox faith is handicapped. The Danish Biblical scholar Mogens Muller has noted that: ‘Historically the Septuagint should be endowed with special significance considered as a translation, because, to some circles of Greek-speaking Jewry, it replaced the Hebrew Bible, and thus became their Bible. Because it was accepted as conclusive evidence of the biblical revelation, it was used by the authors of the New Testament writings, and accordingly came to have a decisive impact on the theology of the New Testament. In an historical perspective, it became, to an even greater extent than the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament of the New Testament. This circumstance is fundamental insofar as this translation as a witness of the handing on of traditions represents a reappraisal of the basic content of the Old Testament.’ [3](The Biblical scholar Robert Hanhart even thinks that the Septuagint actually expresses a more profound appreciation of the Old Testament’s testimony of revelation than does the Hebrew.)

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid twentieth century many examples have been recovered of the Old Testament in Hebrew from the time of Christ and the Holy Apostles and earlier. Scholarship during the past half century based upon these Dead Sea discoveries has revealed a close agreement between the LXX and pre-Masoretic Hebrew texts. In a review of some of this scholarship, Hershal Shanks [2] notes that ”…many Hebrew texts [are available] that were the base text for Septuagintal translations…”. Further he notes that what ”…texts like 4QSama show is that the Septuagintal translations are really quite reliable” and ”…gives new authority to the Greek translations against the Masoretic text”. Quoting Frank Moore Cross (a co-author of the book under review), Hershal continues ”We could scarcely hope to find closer agreement between the Old Greek [Septuagintal] tradition and 4QSama than actually is found in our fragments”. God the Father spoke to His Word and Only-begotten Son, through whom He made the light (AthanG). Since the Son, too, is Lord, He is coequal with the Father, and is His Coworker in making heaven and earth. How can one review a Bible? For me it was a way of getting some insight into the way the Eastern Orthodox Church handles exegesis and theology. And for the most part, the experience was positive.However, Emanuel Tov [3] summarizes the contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls biblical manuscripts with the following percentage breakdown:

The Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible are part of God’s revelation to mankind. The Orthodox Church claims that the author of the Old Testament is truly God Himself, but it recognises that it is equally the work of men in different times and places. It also believes that God can and does reveal Himself, and that men and women come to know Him in His self-revelation only through a deep personal experience found within the Church. This image is filled with symbolism as one would expect in any Orthodox icon. Centered in the image, Jesus stands on the broken gates of Hades, which in their fallen state have formed a cross. Jesus is pulling the parents of humanity, Adam and Eve, from Hades by the wrists and not the hands because the work being done is all his and not theirs. James I of England, who commissioned the Bible named after him.The most accurate translations available

Contents

Prof Dr. Wolfgang Kraus, R. Glenn Wooden. Septuagint Research: Issues and Challenges in the Study of the Greek Jewish Scriptures. Society of Biblical Literature, 2006. 414 pp. ISBN 9781589832046