Göttingen Septuagint

The Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum (SVTG), also known as the Göttingen Septuagint, is a critical edition of the Greek Old Testament prepared in Göttingen and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. The project was founded by Alfred Rahlfs in 1908, and continues today under the direction of Reinhard G. Kratz and Felix Albrecht. As of February 2025, 26 volumes have been published (out of 36 total). The project is about 75% complete, and work on each of the remaining 10 volumes is now in progress.

History

Since the early twentieth century, preparation of the major critical edition of the Septuagint has been centered in Göttingen. From its inception, the project's goal was to produce a comprehensive critical, eclectic edition of the entire corpus of ancient Greek translations known as the "Septuagint" (LXX). The task of each SVTG volume is thus to reconstruct the oldest attainable text version (i.e., before its later recensions) of a given book in a critical edition and to document its transmission as thoroughly as possible. The vision for the project stretches back to the approach to study of the LXX initiated by Paul Anton de Lagarde (1827–1891), who had hoped to himself produce a full eclectic edition, but ultimately fell far short.

Work on the Göttingen Septuagint official began in 1908 with the project initiated by Lagarde's disciple, Alfred Rahlfs (1851–1913), supported by Rudolf Smend and Julius Wellhausen, and the founding of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen ("Septuagint Company") of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen). From 1908 to 2015, the responsibility for producing a complete critical edition of the Greek Old Testament belonged to the Septuaginta-Unternehmen. The project was led by six scholars over the course of its duration: Alfred Rahlfs (1908–1933), Werner Kappler (1933–1944), Emil Große-Brauckmann (1952–1961), Robert Hanhart (1961–1993), Anneli Aejmelaeus (1993–2000), and Bernhard Neuschäfer (2005–2015). During this period, 24 volumes of the SVTG were published, covering the Pentateuch, prophetic books, most of the deuterocanonical books, and a handful of others. In 2015, the funding for the Septuaginta-Unternehmen expired, and it officially closed.

Following the close of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen, the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities established another commission in 2016 to carry on the task of editing and producing the Göttingen Septuagint: Kommission zur Edition und Erforschung der Septuaginta ("Commission for the Edition and Research of the Septuagint"), directed by Reinhard G. Kratz and Felix Albrecht. This Commission officially ran from 2016–2019, and resulted in the publication of two new editions and a number of revised printings of earlier volumes. From 2020 onwards, the production of the remaining books in the SVTG project will be conducted by the Robert Hanhart Foundation (“Robert Hanhart-Stiftung zur Förderung der Septuaginta-Forschung”), presided over by Kratz.

In 2020, a new long-term project of the Academy was established: “Die ''Editio critica maior'' des griechischen Psalters” ("The ''Editio critica maior'' of the Greek Psalter"). It officially began on January 1, 2020, and is scheduled to run for 21 years. As a product of its larger aim of exploring the complex and extensive tradition and textual history of the Greek Psalter, this new project will culminate in the publication of a new critical edition of the Psalms and Odes for the Göttingen SVTG series. This will replace the outdated and inadequate edition by Alfred Rahlfs from 1931.Albrecht, "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint," p. 204. The critically reconstructed text will be provided in a hybrid edition—both as a printed book and an online edition.

Volumes of the ''Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum'' (SVTG)

Published

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**2nd edition: 2019
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**2nd edition: 2006
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**2nd edition: 2009
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**2nd edition: 1991
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**2nd edition: 2017
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**2nd edition: 1983
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**2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1990
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**2nd edition: 1976; 3rd edition: 2008; 4th edition: 2017
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**2nd edition: 1980
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**2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1979
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**2nd edition: 1980; 3rd edition: 2017
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**2nd edition:1980; 3rd edition: 2015
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**2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1984; 4th edition: 2016
**Replaced by
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**2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1983
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**2nd edition: 1976; 3rd edition: 2005; 4th edition: 2013
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**2nd edition: 1978; 3rd edition: 2006; 4th edition: 2015
**Supplement:
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**2nd edition: 1999 (partially revised by Olivier Munnich and Detlef Fraenkel)

In Progress

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Notes

Citations

References

* Albrecht, Felix. "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint." ''Textus'' 29.2 (2020): pp. 201–220. {{doi, 10.1163/2589255X-bja10003
* Kratz, Reinhard G. "100 Jahre Göttinger Septuaginta." In ''Die Göttinger Septuaginta: Ein editorisches Jahrhundertprojekt'', edited by Reinhard G. Kratz and Bernhard Neuschäfer, pp. 1–10. Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 30. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.
* Piquer Otero, Andrés, and Pablo Torijano Morales. "2.3.9 From de Lagarde to the Göttingen Septuagint." In ''Modern Printed Editions of the Jewish Bible and Its Christian Versions'', vol. 3/2 of ''Textual History of the Bible'', edited by Armin Lange. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. vailable online: https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/textual-history-of-the-bible/239-from-de-lagarde-to-the-gottingen-septuagint-COM_000900#

Further reading

* Albrecht, Felix. "The History of Septuagint Studies: Editions of the Septuagint." In ''The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint'', edited by Alison G. Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law, pp. 53–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
* Albrecht, Felix, and Frank Feder, eds. ''Editing the Septuagint: The Unfinished Task; Papers Presented at the 50th Anniversary of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Denver 2018''. De Septuaginta Investigationes 16. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022.
* Kratz, Reinhard G., and Bernhard Neuschäfer, eds. ''Die Göttinger Septuaginta: Ein editorisches Jahrhundertprojekt''. Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 30. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.
* Schäfer, Christian. ''Alfred Rahlfs (1865–1935) und die kritische Edition der Septuaginta: Eine biographisch-wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studie''. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 489. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.

Biblical studies
Editions of the Septuagint
Septuagint
Hebrew Bible versions and translations
Early versions of the Bible