Report on the Göttingen Septuagint

This article provides a brief history of the Göttingen Septuagint Editions up to 2019, and focuses on the new Psalter Project “Editio critica maior des griechischen Psalters” (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen), which started at the beginning of 2020. The article illustrates some of the challenges of the planned editorial work, and uses Psalm 1 as a test case. First, an overview is provided of the editorial history, from the earliest printed versions that reveal a major influence of the Lucianic recension, to the Sixtine edition that marks a turning point, followed by all other modern editions (e.g. by Paul Anton de Lagarde and Alfred Rahlfs). Second, attention is drawn to one of the most urgent research tasks, namely the reconstruction of the fragmentary hexaplaric tradition, giving examples of the hexaplaric fragments of Psalm 1 transmitted in ms. Rahlfs 113 (Cod. Ambros. B 106 sup.) and Rahlfs 271 (Cod. Vat. gr. 1747).

The Latin Patristic Reception of the Book of Canticles in the Hexapla

Although Hexaplaric studies tend to limit themselves to Greek exegesis only, the Latin Fathers, too, are quite valuable for our understanding of Origen's Hexapla. This article discusses two examples, both concerning the book of Canticles, which illustrate the contribution of Latin patristic exegesis to one's understanding of each of the Hexapla's two main features. Firstly, Jerome adds to our knowledge of the Hexaplaric recension of the LXX text, since he revised the Old Latin text on the basis of that recension. Secondly, the readings of α′ and σ′, which Ambrose provides throughout his exegesis, are of direct relevance for the establishment of a new edition of the Hexaplaric fragments, since they were unnoticed by previous editors. An appendix opens new perspectives by asking the question (and providing some steps towards answering it) of the provenance of these variants provided by Ambrose.

Propaedeutic to a Lexicon of the Three: The Priority of a New Critical Edition of Hexaplaric Fragments

This investigation of the marginal notes in the Syro-Hexapla of Ecclesiastes delineates the role of the text history of the O(ld) G(reek) in determining the text of the Three (Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion), the relation of the Three and the Old Latin in the text history of the OG, and the role of the Three in determining the text of the OG. The implications for a new critical edition of the Three are elaborated as well as for the lexicography of the Three.