HISTORY OF THIS BIBLE

( Quoted from the original printing copyrighted 1954 by The Falcon's Wing Press)

It is with great reverence that we present here to the general reader, as well as to the student or religious teacher, the oldest version of what has doubtless been the most influential book in the formation of western civilization--the Old Testament, a book sacred alike to Christianity of all persuasions and to Islam, as well as to Judaism.

Since English has become the lingua franca of the modern western world and of a good part of the orient, this most anciently authoritative version of the sacred test--The Septuagint Bible--best appears in an English language edition.  The title expresses the fact that the present volume is the Bible in the accepted use of the term among both Jews and Christians, as it contains only those books admitted by both as canonical.  Though history proves the criteria of that admission to have been somewhat arbitrary, and gives solid grounds for the equal admittance of certain of the so-called apocryphal books, we bow to tradition in this instance, for the sake of rendering the understanding and assimilation of a precious and ancient heritage easier for the majority of readers, who are by and large already used to that form of the Bible containing only the canonical books as above defined.

The Septuagint (pronounced Sep'tuajint and meaning "Seventy," conveniently abbreviated as LXX) is the only version of the Old Testament dating from the third century before the Christian Era, being then begun to be translated in Alexandria, Egypt, from Hebrew and later from Aramaic** originals that were already in those early times the oldest original manuscripts of the Bible in existence.   Unfortunately, those ancient originals are lost in the mould of ages; but not irretrievably, for their text was transferred to that Greek translation just mentioned, begun in the reign of the famous Hellenistic patron of learning and promoter of the great Alexandrian Library, Ptolemy II, surnamed Philadelphus, who also in several ways, directly and indirectly, befriended Hellenistic Jewry.  His later successor continued that friendship by not only offering much wanted Egyptian asylum to the Jewish refugees from the violent Syrian persecutions near the turn of the third century before the Christian Era, but in donating a building in Alexandria to the Jewish priesthood, so that their temple services could proceed without interruption and in dignity.

Charles Thomson (b. Ireland, 1729; d. U.S.A., 1824) first translated the Septuagint Bible into English, a painstaking work of decades, finally published at Philadelphia in 1808.  Thomson was one of the finest Greek scholars of his day, and was judged by one of his students as "a man of great genius and general knowledge."  He as the one friend with whom Thomas Jefferson conversed and corresponded intimately and unreservedly about the latter's deep religious convictions.   Secretary of both the Continental Congress throughout it existence and of the regular Congress until 1789,*  Thomson enjoyed a sterling reputation for truth and uncompromising integrity, as well as the personal friendship of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and John Jay, to name but some of the most prominent of that famous historical group of founding fathers of the United States of America.

Thomas's work of translation and scholarship was sound and honest as were his official activities, and he has left us a valuably basic translation, deserving all the more merit in view of the limited state of ancient discoveries in his day, and also of the fact that he worked practically isolated.   Dr. Francis Bowen, the nineteenth century Harvard authority's dictum still stands;

    "This solitary and unaided scholar, over three quarters of a century ago...having at his disposal none of the
    rich means and appliances of scholarship which were collected in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey. . . .            has yet produced a work which may well challenge comparison with the best results of the united labors, during
    the last ten years, of two companies containing thirty or forty of the best scholars in England and America."

and the contemporary British scholar, Orme, wrote of Thomson's Septuagint in the Bibliotheca Biblica of 1824:

    "This transatlantic work is creditable to America and to the learned author. . .and is worthy of attention. . . for the fidelity with which it is executed."

Indeed, in not negligible number of places does the text of Thomson's translation predict that of the Revised Version (1881-85) of the Old Testament; for not only was his work consulted by the Revisers, but they also used the ancient Septuagint reading (e.g. Genesis iv.8, xii.6, xxx.11, xlix.6; Joshua ix.4; Judges viii.13; I Samuel xiv.18; II Samuel xxi.19; I Kings xiii.12, xxii.38; Psalms xxii.16) in order to better the sense and make the text more accurate.  And after the appearance of the revised Version, J. Paterson Smyth of Trinity College, Dublin, forecast by way of evaluation that in the next revision "there is little doubt. . .that the ancient versions, especially the Septuagint, will play a larger part in the work"--a statement that is factually justified.

    The standards of Thomson's translation of the Septuagint Bible are here given in his own words, the first quoted paragraph being from his letter to Rev. Samuel Miller, dated January 6, 1801, and the second, from his own notebook:

    "Attached to no system nor peculiar tenets of any sect or party, I have sought for truth with the utmost ingenuity, and endeavored to give a just a true representation of the sense and meaning of the Sacred Scriptures; and in doing this, I have further endeavored to convey into the translation, as far as I could, the spirit and manner of the authors, and thereby give it the quality of an original."

   "To translate well is: 1, to convey a just representation of the purpose of an author; 2, to convey into the translation the author's spirit and manner; 3, to give it the quality of an original by making it appear natural, a natural copy without applying words improperly, or in a meaning not warranted by use, or combining them in a way which renders the sense obscure, and the construction ungrammatical or harsh."

    It was because of the excellence and soundness, as well as on account of the abiding historical interest attached to Thomson's work, that we were led with little hesitation to select it as the material for the present revised English language edition of the Septuagint Bible.*  We have confined ourselves to changing Thomson's work only where the facts of the text required it, or where another translation was called for preferentially by the oldest manuscript tradition.  In several instances we have corrected Thomson's wording.  Where the oldest surviving manuscript** of any feasible length for the basis of a recension--the Codex Vaticanus, No. 1209 (termed B), is lacking, best readings have been supplied from the next oldest portion of the manuscript tradition, depending for principal authority in this respect on the Sinaitic and Alexandrine codices,*** and the editors of the Sixtine text.

    *Though worthy of praise for the labor bestowed on it. albeit marred by poorly planned typography, L. C. Brenton's translation (London, 1844), the only extant alternative to Thomson's , was not acceptable as the basis for a revision because, aside from question of style, of the number of errors such as "barley" for "wheat" in Genesis xxx.14, "oil" instead of "corn" in Hosea vii.14, and insensitivities to meaning of a lesser though still significant order of importance, such as "words" instead of "sayings" in Proverbs xxvii.27.

    **The one chosen by Thomson in John Field's edition, Cambridge, 1665, a reprint of the 1587 Sixtine edition of Vaticanus B and supporting MSS, printed for for the first time.

    ***In the interests of the reader who may be not familiar with the history of the Septuagintal MSS, the foregoing names arose in the following manner.  The first was so named because the German traveller and scholar, A. F. C. von Tischendorf discovered the manuscript in a convent on Mt. Sinai in 1844, and afterward published it in a series of facsimiles in the years 1846, 1855, 1857, 1862 and 1867.  As is learned from an Arabic note in the manuscript, the second codex was presented to the Patriarch of Alexandria in the year 1098, and thus named.  Both of these old manuscripts are now in the British Museum, while the earliest, the Vaticanus MS, is, as its name implies, in the Vatican Library at Rome.

    The Alexandrine Codex was first edited and published by the German scholar, Johann Ernst Grabe (1666-1711), who emigrated from Konigsberg to England, and was appointed chaplain at Christ Church, Oxford, under a pension from William III in 1700.  He was posthumously assisted in completing his monumental edition by the learned Dr. Francis Lee and by William Wigan, a doctor of divinity.  The entire edition is dated 1707-20, at Oxford, four volumes.

   Since Thomson omitted additional material in the Book of Esther found in the Septuagint Bible, we have restored it to its proper place in the text.  Thomson undoubtedly left out this material, feeling that omission was justified on the basis of the portions of the Bible conventionally called canonical.  However, on quite factual grounds, the material in question belongs properly in the Book of Esther; for, unlike other apocryphal portions of canonical books, the date of its composition differed little if any from the original date of composition of the rest of the Book of Esther.  That the Alexandrian translators had the entire manuscript before them in a now lost Semitic original is almost certain.

    The context too makes the inclusion of this material* equally indicated and desirable, for the interpretation of Mordecai's dream--to cite but one instance--completes the point of the entire narrative.   If the Book of Esther is to be rejected as apocryphal, or retained as canonical, it must be rejected or retained in toto, rather than in an historically unwarranted piecemeal fashion.

    The editor is fully responsible for the new matter in the Book of Esther now appearing in the Thomson translation, and we have tried to make our reading at least conformable to his general style and standard of accuracy.

    Throughout this edition square brackets [  . . . ] indicate material added by the translator or reviser to make explicit the meaning of the text or fill an ellipsis; while parentheses ( . . . ) indicate parenthetical expressions in the text itself, with the sole and obvious exception of the beginnings of certain paragraphs in the prophetical books. where parentheses are employed on occasion to distinguish clearly between the speech of a prophet (p) and of the Lord (J), following Thomson's original notation.

    As an example of the problems besetting Septuagint translation, in Proverbs xiii.13 (the Hebrew word) cannot be translater in the usual manner as merely "matter" or "affair," for the word is used here--as often in the Septuagint text--in the sense of the Hebrew (Hebrew word) , meaning a matter spoken of; and hense pragmata means "counsel" or "advice" in this context, corresponding to the Greek (Greek Word) ("injunction," "commandment") in the second or complementary period of the proverb.

Again, in the magnificent speech of Zechariah xii.9, 10, there is, we believe, an oversight made in the translations of this passage heretofore.  The (Hebrew Word) of v. 10 clearly refers to the (Hebrew) of the precedig phrase.  The increased use of avrov, as distinct from classical writers, on the part of the Old and New Testament writers in Greek to denote all pronouns of all persons is well know.  That avrov must here be translated as "Me" is born out too by A. Vanicek's remarks on this word in his Greek-Latin Etymologisches Worterbuch as well as by other etymological authorities.  Avrov,--signifying smply and literally "again" in a pronominal context,--is, in connection with the preceding 1st person (Hebrew) limited in its reference to a repetition of the force of (Hebrew.)   We have hence translated it unequivocally as "Me," which is also directly confirmed by the context.  The entire passage in question is given ehre for the sake of easy reference:

                (Hebrew Quote:                                              )

As a final example, in Daniel ii.2 et al. an entire phrase becomes necessary to render the force of the word (Hebrew) in the meaning-context of the Babylonia court.

In presentation, as distinct from translation, Thomson's text suffers in some respects.  It was necessary to repunctuate and paragraph practically the entire Old Testament, as well as to remove inconsistent spellings, all in all amounting to thousands of improvements.  In this same matter of presentation, however, Thomson employed the very useful idea of using comparative verse numbers to refer to the standard verse numbers, wherever possible, in the widely known and read King James Version. (Authorized or Revised); however, he placed them in the margins of the pages instead of in the body of the text, where they would be much more convenient to the reader from the standpoint of exact location, so necessary if comparisons between the present text and the older Septuagint text are to be made.  Hence in this edition, after having been inserted in their proper places in the body of the text itself in clear type within square brackets, providing a practical working tool and guide for the reader who wishes to investigate such matters.*  Where there are no verse numbers, there is no direct comparison to be made.

    The fact that it was necessary to spend much time-consuming labor on the presentation of the basically fine Thomson text in itself demonstrates that, though inspired by worthy motives, the S. F. Pells verbatim repreint of Thomson just fifty years ago (London, 2 vols.) was, aside from its limited edition, of less use to students than it otherwise might have been.  Furthermore, and unknown to the 1904 reprint, Thomson himself had made several changes in the text, embodied in the longhand corrections made in his own desk copy of his work, now to be found * fittingly enough in the valuable collection of the oldest public library in American, the Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Charles Thomson's friend, Benjamin Franklin.  We have adopted Thomson' s addenda and corrigenda wherever, in our opinion, the alterations were merited.  However, we did not incorporate his wholesale change of (Hebrew work) (Lord) to "Jehovah"; for the Septuagint term better represents the ancient Hebrew practice of pronouncing Adonai, Lord, instead of the ineffable Tetragrammaton whenever the latter appeared in the text being read.  This practice was faithfully reflected by the ancient Alexandrian translators.

    After some thought, Thomson's "cherubims" rather than "cherubim" et al. has been retained so as to give English readers without a knowledge of Hebrew derivations the plural feeling where it is required.

In general, proper names have been retained as they are spelled in the Septuagint text.  However, for the sake of clarity to the general reader, in the case of the two well-known figures from the story of Esther, Mordecai and Haman, the usually spelling of these names, just given, is made predominant, with footnotes to indicate the Septuagint spelling.  And "Lebanon," because a so widely recognized and frequently occurring biblical place-name, is used rather than "Libanos" throughout..

The use of italics in this edition is confined to indicating quotations from documents (in order to suggest calligraphy), titles of books and parts of books of the Bible, and proper names formed from some figurative expression as, for instance, in Hosea i.6, 9 or Exodus xv.23, where italics perform the necessary clarifying function of distinguishing between words as ordinarily used, and the same words as employed in some allegorical or metaphorical proper name.  Biblical allegorizing by no means began with Philo, as is so frequently and erroneously repeated, nor even with the Talmud or the oral Kabbalah, but permeates the very text of the Bible itself, and finds its ultimate origin in the construction and nature of the Hamitic-Semitic languages current in the ancient world.

The Septuagint Bible considers I, II Samuel and I, II Kings as a set of four related books, entitled BASIAEION or Kingdoms (the word implying in addition the idea of monarchical reigns).  It has been decided as most accurate and least confusing in this case to allow the Greek word BASILEION to remain as the common title of these four books, adding the more familiar titles, however, in parentheses and also using them for the running heads in order to facilitate reference.  In general, the titles of the biblical books in the running heads follow the more familiar spellings and for the same reason; although it is well to note here that in the new Testament the Septuagint spelling, Esaias, is used instead of Isaiah to refer to that prophet.

Footnotes have been kept to a minimum, and have been added only for the sake of clarification or to indicate a wider historical perspective where such might not generally be familiar.  Short footnotes are Thomson's, except for linguistic notes by the editor, who is also responsible for the longer footnotes, unless otherwise designated.

Another editorial task--an onerous one though not of inconsiderable importance from the standpoints of both textual accuracy and meaningfulness to the reader,--lay in the necessity to capitalize pronominal references to the Supreme Being, in order to distinguish such references and also to make them unmistakable in otherwise ambiguous passages.  It is not a little surprising that no common Bible in use capitalizes such references, without which capitalization the prophetic books particularly suffer severely from a thus artificially imposed ambiguity, to a point of deprivation of meaning in many passages.  In other such passages, lack of proper capitalization results in a confusion which may suggest a meaning not in the text.  In this edition of the Old Testament all pronouns referring to the Supreme Being are capitalized.

Finally, the discerning student must observe that the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis are dependent on very ancient and not necessarily Semitic sources, and that they are pervaded with some of the earliest traditions of mankind, thus forming a special section of the old Testament of extreme antiquity as far as subject matter is concerned.*  For these reasons it is felt that, in the interest of exhibiting so ancient a record with the utmost precision, the actual speeches made by the several personages in this oldest and universal section of Genesis should be distinguished for the reader's attention by the use of quotation marks; while speeches throughout the rest of the Old Testament are introduced simply by means of an initial capital letter.

Though recognized on all sides as of great and fundamental importance, the Septuagint Bible--the oldest version of the Old Testament--has by and large lain strangely dormant save for more or less sporadic activity on the part of scholars at various places and time in regard to its textual details.  Despite the perspective gained by twentieth century scholarship, the oldest Old Testament, the psalms from which are sung in most of the liturgies of the western world,--has not been made readily, faithfully and easily available to the modern public.  The publishers of the present edition of the Septuagint Bible--a basis for an English Textus Receptus--were forward-looking and public-spirited enough to recognize this unwarranted hiatus in the publishing history of the most widely circulated book in the world, and requested the editor (who had been concerned for some years with the problems involved) to undertake a revision of the first and finest, though long unnoticed English translation--that of Charles Thomson.

The oldest Old Testament is now ready to assume its rightful and respected place as a basic source-work and essential supplement to whatever other volume of the Bible may be on the reader's bookshelf.

*The editor has just noticed among some European books coming to his attention that the Swiss student, that Walter Zimmerli, observed the special character of these chapters in his volume Mose 1-11: Die Urgeschichte, Zurich, 1943.