By
– September 8, 2011
This sophisticated discussion of the origins and influence of the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Tanakh, develops this esteemed professor’s Grinfield lectures at Oxford. The author focuses the discussion not simply on the texts and their history, but on the Jews of the Greek-speaking world who developed and used these texts in the ever-changing world from the 3rd century BCE to the mid-2nd century CE. They would naturally be thus expected to change what they found in these texts to guide and enrich their lives. Similarly, Rajak shows her reader many new ways to understand these texts and the people who read them. Perhaps the interested reader can best grasp the scope of this volume from this list of a few of the chapter titles: The Letter of Aristeas between History and Myth; Going Greek: Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Alexandria; The Jewish Diaspora in Graeco-Roman Antiquity; Staying Jewish: Language and Identity in the Greek Bible; Representing the Subverting Power; The Uses of Scripture in Hellenistic Judaism; Parallels and Models; The Bible among Greeks and Romans; The Septuagint between Jews and Christians. Bibliography, index.
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D., University of Kansas, is the author of Mysteryof Romans, winner of the 1996 National Jewish Book Award, Charles H. RevsonAward in Jewish-Christian Relations.
