Brenton's Septuagint

History

The Greek text presented here is the Septuagint associated with the English edition of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton (1807 - 1862). The translation Brenton published beside the Greek is not part of this collection; only the Greek text is presented here.

It is worth distinguishing this text from the first editions of Brenton’s work. The first edition, published in London in 1844 by Samuel Bagster and Sons, was an English translation and did not contain the Greek text. The Greek text in parallel with the English translation appeared in later editions, notably the edition of 1870.

The Septuagint is not a translation produced at one stroke. The Pentateuch was translated into Greek probably in the third century B.C., in the Jewish community of Alexandria. The remaining books were translated later, in different periods and by different translators. The Greek prologue to Sirach, written in the second century B.C., already speaks of the Law, the Prophets and the other books translated into Greek, showing that a substantial part of these Scriptures was already circulating in Greek before 132 B.C.

The traditional story of the seventy-two interpreters sent from Jerusalem and gathered at Alexandria is tied to the so-called Letter of Aristeas. According to that narrative, six elders from each of the twelve tribes took part in the translation. The story exercised enormous influence on later tradition, but its historicity is disputed. Brenton himself, in the preface of 1844, allows that the popular story of the seventy-two interpreters may be, in his words, a “fabulous legend”, while acknowledging the evidence that the writers belonged to Alexandria, or at least to Egypt.

The Septuagint was of great importance to early Christianity. The authors of the New Testament frequently used its Greek form when quoting the Old Testament, especially in certain prophetic passages. It was also the principal form of the Old Testament known to Greek-speaking Christians and exercised a strong influence on the Greek Fathers.

Brenton’s first edition came out in London, in 1844, from Samuel Bagster and Sons, in two volumes. Its title presents the work as an English translation of the Old Testament “according to the Vatican text”, accompanied by the principal various readings of the Alexandrine copy.

In the preface, Brenton states that his translation was made from the Vatican text in Valpy’s edition, with occasional insertions of Alexandrine readings in the notes. He observes that the general opinion of his day favoured the Vatican text, but adds that the question of the relative merits of the two texts remained controversial. He also acknowledges that the Alexandrine text clears up many obscure passages and supplies several omissions of the text he adopted as his base.

Curiosities

Two kinds of numbering appear in this text, and they correspond to different phenomena. The joining of Psalms 9 and 10 belongs to the Septuagint tradition: what appears as two psalms in the Hebrew numbering corresponds to a single psalm in the Greek numbering. For that reason, the Septuagint’s psalm numbering diverges from the Hebrew at several points.

The division into chapters, on the other hand, is a convention later than the biblical text. The medieval chapter division is traditionally associated with Stephen Langton (1150 - 1228), Archbishop of Canterbury, in the early thirteenth century. It later became standard in printed Bibles and passed also into editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts.

There is also a Psalm 151. The Greek text presents it as attributed to David and identifies it as being “outside the number” (ἔξωθεν τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ). It thus appears in the Greek manuscript tradition as a poem added to the set of 150 numbered psalms, and not simply as “psalm 151” in the same sense as the others. Psalm 151 tells of David’s combat with Goliath and presents David as the smallest among his brothers. The presence of this poem in ancient Greek manuscripts and the note that it stands “outside the number” explain its peculiar position in the Septuagint tradition.

Sources

• Septuagint Version — Achille Vander Heeren, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13 (New York, 1912), on the Alexandrian origin, the letter of Aristeas and the printed editions
• The Septuagint version of the Old Testament (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1844) — scan of Brenton’s first edition, with the title page and the preface quoted above
• Psalms — Walter Drum, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12 (New York, 1911), on Psalm 151 and on the joining of Psalms 9 and 10
• Scripture — Anthony Maas, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13 (New York, 1912), on Stephen Langton and the division into chapters