The Old Testament

In Greek

According to the Septuagint

edited for the syndics of the university press

by

Henry Barclay Swete D.D.

hon. litt.d. dublin, hon. d.d. glasgow

fellow of gonville and caius college

fellow of the british academy

regius professor of divinity

Vol. I–III

Genesis–4 Maccabees
Psalms of Solomon, Enoch, The Odes

Cambridge

At the University Press

1909

Cambridge University Press

London: Fetter Lane, E.C.

C. F. CLAY, Manager

Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street

Berlin: A. Asher And Co.

Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus

New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Bombay and Calcutta: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.

First Edition, 1887.

Second Edition, 1895.

Third Edition, 1901.

Fourth Edition, 1909.

Introduction to Volume 1

IT is not the purpose of these pages to supply a general Introduction to the Septuagint. To repeat here the history of that Version, the legend of its birth, the destinies it fulfilled and the handling it received in the centuries that followed; to state the problems which it still offers for solution, and to furnish descriptive lists of its MSS. and printed editions, would be either to exceed the limits of a portable volume, or uselessly to epitomize the work of previous writers. At a future time the subject will claim the full consideration and careful treatment which a larger experience may render possible1. For the present it may suffice to recall only so many of the facts as are necessary to illustrate the relation which this edition bears towards those which have preceded it, and to describe the method pursued and the materials employed in its preparation.

Since the invention of printing four primary editions of the Septuagint have issued from the press—the Complutensian, the Aldine, the Roman, and the Oxford representation of the Alexandrine text.

1. The Greek text of the O. T. in the Complutensian Polyglott (1514–1517)2 claims to be drawn partly from MSS. collected by Cardinal Ximenez himself, partly from others borrowed from the Vatican. “Testari possumus (so the Cardinal writes in the dedication of his work to Leo X.) … maximam laboris nostri partem in eo praecipue fuisse versatam ut … castigatissima omni ex parte vetustissimaque exemplaria pro archetypis haberemus; quorum quidem tam Hebraeorum quam Graecorum … multiplicem copiam variis ex locis non sine summo labore conquisivimus. Atque ex ipsis quidem Graeca Sanctitati tuae debemus, qui ex ista apostolica bibliotheca antiquissimos tum V. tum N. Testamenti codices perquam humane ad nos misisti, qui nobis in hoc negocio maximo fuerunt adiumento.” Documentary evidence has been produced by Vercellone1 that the Vatican MSS. 330, 346 (= Holmes 108, 248) were lent to Ximenez, and a comparison of the Complutensian text with these MSS. shews an extensive and in places almost absolute agreement which suggests that they were largely used. Both MSS. are comparatively late. It is uncertain to what extent the Cardinal availed himself of other materials2; but there is no ground for supposing that he ...