The Septuagint as Canon

Abstract

The term “Septuagint” refers to a lengthy process by which individual books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek, together with the inclusion of a few books originally composed in Greek. It only took on the form of a more or less fixed corpus much later. In the same way, this collection of books in Greek acquired authoritative status for its users over a period of time; notions of formal or institutional canonicity came only at a considerably later date, and in a Christian rather than a Jewish context. This article summarizes the processes by which the Greek translation was made and traces the way in which this corpus gradually acquired authoritative and then canonical status. Some practical implications for Bible Societies’ translation policies are also presented.