When God Spoke Greek

The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible

By: Timothy Michael Law

Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

How did the New Testament writers and the earliest Christians come to adopt the Jewish scriptures as their first Old Testament? And why are our modern Bibles related more to the Rabbinic Hebrew Bible than to the Greek Bible of the early Church? The Septuagint, the name given to the translation of the Hebrew scriptures between the third century BC and the second century AD, played a central role in the Bible's history. Many of the Hebrew scriptures were still evolving when they were translated into Greek, and these Greek translations, along with several new Greek writings, became Holy Scripture in the early Church.

Yet gradually the Septuagint lost its place at the heart of Western Christianity. At the end of the fourth century, one of antiquity's brightest minds rejected the Septuagint in favor of the Bible of the rabbis. After Jerome, the Septuagint never regained the position it once had.

Timothy Michael Law recounts the story of the Septuagint's origins, its relationship to the Hebrew Bible, and the adoption and abandonment of the first Christian Old Testament.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Oxford University Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Wonderfully written and read!!!

I can't recommend this intro to the early churches use and view of the LXX enough! Wonderful!!!

A popular history about the formation of the Bible

This is the kind of book that should have been written DECADES ago. Far too many Christians have a very naive concept of the origin of the Biblical text and act as if the accepted consensus of Protestants from the 16th Century onward concerning the text and canon of the Bible was true. Scholarship over the last 250 years has made such a view untenable... make that IMPOSSIBLE. Studies of the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint: LXX), the Samaritian Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other resources make it clear that 1) there was no "Hebrew Bible" until the 2nd Century AD. 2) Until that time there were several competing texts of the Protocanoncial books that were in circulation simultaneously, 3) the New Testament authors clearly used the Septuagint as their preferred OT text and the variant readings in the LXX that they used affected their theology and also influenced the teachings of Jesus, 4) Many of the Protocanonical books were cut and paste jobs reflecting different original Hebrew Sources. In short, the texts we have cannot be declared to have plenary inspiration (word, vocabulary, and grammatical) and thus, the concept of Biblical inerrancy cannot be upheld. The only sensible position really left at this time is Canonical Criticism in which the final form of the book that is accepted into the Canon is the only authoritative text and this text needs to be accepted with some careful limitations.

There is no book like this one that I have ever found. As the Holy Spirit whispered to St. Augustine, "Tolle lege." Take up and read this book!

Superior!

Exceeded my expectations on Septuagint history, theology, ancestry and more. I now own it in paperback, ebook and audiobook formats for future reference and listening.

Excellent Insights. A very interesting book.

I would recommend this book. The only thing I didn't like was the narrator was rather dry and monotone.

Eye opening on so many levels.

I'll definitely be listening again and purchasing a physical copy...it's THAT good. I recommend it highly.

Engaging and well-needed but some cautions

Tim Law has done a wonderful job in bringing an otherwise neglected issue to the forefront of biblical and theological studies. LXX has long been deemed a stepchild when it was the progenitor for the writers of the NT text. Yet, there are 2 cautions:
- the emphasis on the diversity of the OT text seems to be stretched beyond allowable evidence. True, the LXX is an authoritative text but that does not imply that the OT text was completely in a state of flux.
- the downplaying of the value of seeking after one authorial and authoritative text is also unnecessary and does not follow from the evidence presented.
Nonetheless, the book is excellent and educational.

awesome review. every Christian should read

as above. every Western Christian needs to understand the Septuagint's rightful place in the can on and scripture itself

A Word of Caution

The author has an extremely low view of scripture. He argues largely that there is no point in seeking original documents or truth because the bible is all just re-worked, made-up tradition anyway. And then has the nerve to cynically "advise" the church to embrace the Septuagint out of the enertia of tradition and the calculations of utility. This book may have some limited use for scholars of arcanum and antiquities, who are more interested in Greek or historical intrigue than in the bible itself. If you are looking to grow in your understanding of God's word, I'd skip this one.

exploring the TRUTH through another's view. amazin

this was an amazing journey through the view of another. enjoyed it thoroughly. simply AMAZING.

A highly recommended book

Would you listen to When God Spoke Greek again? Why?

Yes, it's an excellent scholary work on the Septaugint with a critical approach to its manuscript texts and historical tradition. This is so far the best book I know of dealing with the manuscripts of the Bible from an critical and academic point of view.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, it was.