The Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint over the errant Masoretic Old Testament for many reasons previously mentioned in articles on this blog. See the following blog posts for more on that:
- "Protestant Myths About the Deuterocanonical Old Testament"
from 02 August 2010 - "The Text of the Orthodox Bible"
from 25 November 2010 - "Metropolitan Isaiah: Which English Translation of the Bible Should I Use?"
from 29 September 2011 - "Why Orthodox Christians Prefer the Septuagint"
from 10 March 2012
But if you aren't fluent in Greek, then which English translation should you use for Bible study? While the Lancelot C. L. Brenton Septuagint Version is written in a poetic style like the KJV and NKJV versions of Holy Writ, it is not as good for accuracy, as beauty is the more important goal.
After decades of studying this, and since Holy Apostles Convent has yet to make an Orthodox Old Testament or a Prophetologion, I have settled on the NETS: A New English Translation of the Septuagint translation. It uses a more wooden literal translation for better understanding like The Orthodox New Testament and The Orthodox Psalter (Psalterion), which makes it worthy for study.
This is how the translators and editors at the Oxford University Press describe their translation:
"The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of Jewish sacred writings) is of great importance in the history of both Judaism and Christianity. The first translation of the books of the Hebrew Bible (plus additions) into the common language of the ancient Mediterranean world made the Jewish scriptures accessible to many outside Judaism. Not only did the Septuagint become Holy Writ to Greek speaking Jews but it was also the Bible of the early Christian communities: the scripture they cited and the textual foundation of the early Christian movement.Translated from Hebrew (and Aramaic) originals in the two centuries before Jesus, the Septuagint provides important information about the history of the text of the Bible. For centuries, scholars have looked to the Septuagint for information about the nature of the text and of how passages and specific words were understood.For students of the Bible, the New Testament in particular, the study of the Septuagint's influence is a vital part of the history of interpretation. But until now, the Septuagint has not been available to English readers in a modern and accurate translation. The New English Translation of the Septuagint fills this gap."
As an added bonus, the version linked above is the same size as the other aforementioned books, as seen in the photo of one of my bookshelves above.
