SBL Commentary on the Septuagint

The Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint (SBLCS)—which will be sponsored and developed by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS)—will differ from other Septuagint commentary series by focusing on the translation at its point of origin. That is, the SBLCS will take the Septuagint seriously as a translation in order to attempt to determine what the translator was doing when he was translating.

To that end, commentaries in the SBLCS will adhere to five guiding principles:

1. the original text as the basis for interpretation;
2. the original meaning of the text as the goal of interpretation;
3. the parent text as the primary context for interpretation;
4. the text itself as the only source for determining a translator's intent;
5. and the wider Greek-language corpus as the sole basis for identifying normal (and abnormal) Greek constructions.

In keeping with these five principles, each SBLCS volume will, in addition to addressing standard introductory issues, offer a detailed commentary on individual pericopes, including a summary of a pericope's contents, discussion of interpretive questions pertaining to the entire passage, bibliography, a critical edition of the Greek text, a Hebrew text, the NETS translation, and a verse-by-verse commentary on the pericope. (For further details on the contents and structure of the commentaries, click here.)

Responsibility for developing the series contents, making commentary assignments, and editing volumes will lie with the IOSCS through its editorial board, while SBL Press will manage the actual publication tasks. (For further details on the editorial board and commentary assignments, click here.)