The Use of the Septuagint in New Testament Research (Paperback)

~ R. Timothy McLay (Author) "The key to our gaining an appreciation of the use of the Greek Jewish Scriptures in the NT is to begin with a careful study..." (more)
Key Phrases: kaige group, kaige recension, lexical leveling, Greek Jewish Scriptures, Scholars Press, Old Testament (more...)

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Product Description

Too often the Septuagint is misunderstood or, worse, ignored in New Testament studies. In this book R. Timothy McLay makes a sustained argument for the influence of the Greek Jewish Scriptures on the New Testament and offers basic principles for bridging the research gap between these two critical texts.

McLay explains the use of the Septuagint in the New Testament by looking in depth at actual New Testament citations of the Jewish Scriptures. This work reveals the true extent of the Septuagint's impact on the text and theology of the New Testament. Indeed, given the textual diversity that existed during the first century, the Jewish Scriptures as they were known, read, and interpreted in the Greek language provided the basis for much, if not most, of the interpretive context of the New Testament writers.

Complete with English translations, a glossary of terms, an extensive bibliography, and helpful indexes, this book will give readers a new appreciation of the Septuagint as an important tool for interpreting the New Testament.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802860915
• ISBN-13: 978-0802860910
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,447 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars *Influence* Upon the New Testament, January 18, 2004

By	Virgil Brown (White Oak, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I cannot help but recall something that Timothy McLay wrote in the conclusion of his book: Studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to "have cast a spell when it comes to understanding the background of the NT, while the LXX is too often ignored." Since I agreed with the sentiment of this, I looked forward to reading a book in which the author's intent was to show not only the use of the LXX in the NT but it's _influence_ as well. (Somewhere else I read an admonition to sell other books in order to buy a LXX. Was it Klein, 1987?)

However most of McLay's book is not about LXX influence but about translation problems which he calls Translation Technique and abbreviates as TT because of his frequency of use. This is not easy reading for someone who has no interest in problems of translation. I think many readers will agree that a quote of the OG is not a sufficient proof of a citation. By the middle of the book when McLay lays the foundation of his TT, many readers may be bewildered by McLay's assertions that TT is primarily synchronic, accounts for langue and parole, is structural, and takes the source language as a point of departure.

Only in a final chapter does McLay discuss use of the LXX in the NT. Here he concludes that the use of the LXX by the early church means that the LXX was recognized as Scripture, the LXX influenced the NT by giving it such terms as DOXA and KURIOS, the citation of the OG of Daniel 7.13 had an influence upon NT theology, etc. I think it is too bad that McLay did not spend more of his time on this type of subject matter rather than spending so much on problems of translation.