N E T S is available

A New English Translation of the Septuagint
Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright
Oxford University Press,
ISBN 13: 9780195289756ISBN10: 0195289757 hardback,
Oct 2007, Price: $30.00

arrived on my desk a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned it for my OT colleague, and as the kind person I am,.... when he asked to borrow it for a few days, he were allowed to get it, and there it served on his desk for the next week. That should indicate he found it interesting.

This volume is the result of a working group of scholars who have done us a great service in providing this translation. You can read more about their work on the NETS website. There you will also find that the translation is, in fact, available for free in form of .pdf files, ready for downloading. But I would strongly recommend you rather buy this real book edition.

On the NETS website you will also find a presentations of the translation principles applied. I found the following very interesting and useful when using this volume: Article. 7. Since much of the Septuagint derives from the Hebrew Scriptures, it is important to reflect that dependence as consistently and comprehensively as possible for the English reader. For these reasons, NETS consciously attempts to employ the wording and approach of a standard modern English translation of the Hebrew Bible in situations in which the Greek understands the Hebrew text in the same way as the English. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) has been chosen to provide this English base. Where the Greek does not correspond to the Hebrew as understood by the NRSV, translators will make every reasonable effort to represent the differences fully and accurately. In this way, even a reader not familiar with the Greek or Hebrew texts will be able to get a certain impression of the LXX may deviate from the Hebrew text (which is the vorlage for most Bibles).

I think this volume should be on the desk of every scholar studying Philo or the New Testament alongside studying the Greek text of the LXX themselves.