Karen H. Jobes and Moisés Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint. 2nd ed.

Fifteen years after the release of the original edition, Karen Jobes and Moiss Silva have expanded and updated their primer to account for the multifarious changes in the field of LXX studies.Their balanced and fair manual services both beginning and advanced students alike.2Ezekiel 1:28-29 of Codex Marchalianus graces the book cover.The introduction explains the value of the Greek translations in relation to the HB and the Christian church."No NT scholar can afford to ignore the Septuagint and other Greek versions" (7).The volume divides into three parts: "The History of the Septuagint," "The Septuagint in Biblical Studies," and "The Current State of Septuagint Studies."The chapters commence with an abstract of the contents, and they conclude with an annotated list of recommended resources.Figures interspersed throughout provide pertinent visual aids, such as the sample pages from the Larger Cambridge Septuagint, Rahlfs's Septuagint, and the Gttingen Septuagint, each with an explanatory key (148-55).Five appendixes and five indexes increase the volume's usability.3The second edition responds to criticisms of the first edition.Primarily, James Barr deduced from the first edition that the authors deem the LXX unhelpful for determining the Hebrew text (xii n. 1).Such criticism rings hollow, the authors feel, because even the first edition illustrated the textual-critical process with Deut 31:1, accepting the LXX ("Moses finished speaking") over the MT ("and Moses went and spoke," xii n. 2; 167-69).Moreover, the text-critical approach that seeks to "'retain the MT reading if at all possible' cannot be easily defended, and it is likely to lead us astray" (165).To drive home the point, the new edition adds a list of eighteen scriptural readings that, according to the authors, probably or certainly prove more reliable in the LXX than the MT (163 n. 21).