Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek

by Henry Barclay Swete

Hardcover, no dust jacket. Slightly edge worn boards. Else good. 626 pages.

640 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1989

Reviews

[Robert Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edition was published 109 years ago. A lot has happened in the field of Septuagintal studies since then, the most significant being the discovery of the DSS, especially the Nahal Hever minor prophets scroll. Yet, despite being over a century old, Swete's introduction contains such a wealth of information that no other introduction to the Septuagint has. Additionally, Swete demonstrates how scholars were already suspecting conclusions that were only later confirmed by more recent discoveries. For example, Swete writes, "It has been reasonably conjectured that the writers of the New Testament used a recension which was current in Palestine, possibly also in Asia Minor, and which afterwards supplied materials to Theodotion, and left trances in the Antiochian Bible, and in the text represented by A.” This is precisely what the Nahal Hever scrolls have confirmed and what the most recent scholarship says in the Oxford Handbook to the Septuagint.

This is still worth reading all these years later, though the reader must be aware of the advances in the field of LXX studies.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and exhaustive, if seriously outdated, survey of LXX studies (and many related issues). It is regrettable (though not surprising) that no one has bothered to put forth the effort to obviate Swete's Introduction. Though it contains a great wealth of information and bibliography, much of what it reports is over a century out of date! Yet any recent introduction or handbook to the Old Greek will tell you that Swete has never been surpassed. For shame.