When God Spoke Greek by Timothy Michael Law

When God Spoke Greek

The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible

Timothy Michael Law

Oxford University Press · Print & ebook · July 17, 2013

Most readers do not know about the Bible used almost universally by early Christians, or about how that Bible was birthed, how it grew to prominence, and how it differs from the one used as the basis for most modern translations.

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Who it’s for
A little-known story of scripture, translation, and the making of Christian tradition.
Genres
Old Testament Interpretation, Christian History, Ancient Religion
Published
Oxford University Press, July 17, 2013

About this book

Most readers do not know about the Bible used almost universally by early Christians, or about how that Bible was birthed, how it grew to prominence, and how it differs from the one used as the basis for most modern translations. Although it was one of the most important events in the history of our civilization, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BCE is an event almost unknown outside of academia.

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Timothy Michael Law offers the first book to make this topic accessible to a wider audience. Retrospectively, we can hardly imagine the history of Christian thought, and the history of Christianity itself, without the Old Testament. When the Emperor Constantine adopted the Christian faith, his fusion of the Church and the State ensured that the Christian worldview (which by this time had absorbed Jewish ideals that had come to them through the Greek translation) would leave an imprint on subsequent history. This book narrates in a fresh and exciting way the story of the Septuagint, the Greek Scriptures of the ancient Jewish Diaspora that became the first Christian Old Testament.

Scripture in Translation

A little-known story of scripture, translation, and the making of Christian tradition.

Come here for

  • The history behind the Greek Scriptures used by early Christians
  • A look at how translation shaped Christian thought

Expect

  • An accessible narrative of the Septuagint’s rise
  • A comparison with the Hebrew text behind many modern translations

Where it sits

Old Testament Interpretation38%
Christian History24%
Ancient Religion21%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Religion & Spirituality
Authors
Timothy Michael Law
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Published
July 17, 2013
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Religion & Spirituality