Grammar of Septuagint Greek: With Selected Readings, Vocabularies, and Updated Indexes

Rating:
Summary: Great grammar -- a century ago.
Review: I enjoy studying the Septuagint very much, and if you do as well, it would behoove you to acquire this book for reference purposes.

As a text book, it is barely usable, however. The book was first published in 1905 and its text has hardly been touched since. It is amazing to think of all the hard work that went in to compiling the vast amount of information present in the grammar, especially without the aid of a computer.

The downside to this book is that it is a great example of a 19th century grammar (the century within which I presume most of it was researched and written). This is a bad thing because I think students will have a difficult time with it (I know I have), keeping up their interest and actually understanding the material. Given the paucity of teaching resources on the LXX, this is a tragedy. But, in spite of a dire need for major updating, this book is very handy as a reference tool and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in it as such.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Supplement to Other Grammars
Review: This is an attractive and well organized grammar of the Greek of the LXX. The introduction is a 24-page essay on the history of the LXX in which they show the Letter of Aristeas to be the principle evidence for the early dating and standard conception of the origin of the LXX and then they subsequently show the Letter to be a forgery. Aside from this idiocy the book is a flawless presentation of LXX Greek TO THOSE WHO ALREADY KNOW KOINE GREEK. There is a 74-page grammar section in which the syntax of the LXX is covered and the unusual aspects of LXX morphology are given attention. It is not a full grammar for those who do not know the Greek language, so Old Testament scholars-to-be still have to learn to read the New Testament first. I recommend Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek as a true starter. The remaining 207 pages are basically a graded reader. Several of the more famous OT stories are rendered here with extensive explanatory footnotes at the bottom of every page. The method is really excellent. The syntax section is in a reference format and is not intended to introduce Greek grammar to those who do not know it. If you can already read the New Testament and want some good insight into the quirks of the LXX, then this book is for you.