Introduction to The Orthodox Study Bible
The last decade of the twentieth century saw an historic event. In 1993, The Orthodox Study Bible: New Testament and Psalms was released as the first English Bible with study material reflecting the ancient faith of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
St. Athanasius Academy, which had organized this effort, began receiving requests for the completion of the Old Testament – a monumental task which involved not only preparation of the study notes and outlines, but also the presentation of an acceptable Old Testament text. Though the Orthodox Church has never officially committed itself to a single text and list of Old Testament books, it has traditionally used the Greek Old Testament of the Septuagint (LXX). However, in Orthodoxy’s 200-year history in North America, no English translation of the LXX has ever been produced by the Church.
The contributors used the Alfred Rahlfs edition of the Greek text as the basis for the English translation. To this base they brought two additional major sources. The first is the Brenton text, a British translation of the Greek Old Testament, published in 1851. The availability of this work, and the respect accorded it, made it an obvious choice as a source document. Secondly, Thomas Nelson Publishers granted use of the Old Testament text of the New King James Version in the places where the English translation of the LXX would match that of the Masoretic (Hebrew) text. The development team at St. Athanasius Academy carefully studied these sources, along with other documents, to produce an English Old Testament text suitable for the project.
The organization of the Old Testament books, that is, their canonical order, was taken from The Old Testament According to the Seventy, published with the approval of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. The first edition was released in June, 1928. The Old Testament text presented in this volume does not claim to be a new or superior translation. The goal was to produce a text to meet the Bible-reading needs of English-speaking Orthodox Christians.
In some Old Testament books, including the Psalms, the numbering of chapters, and sometimes individual verses is different in the LXX version from the English translation of the Hebrew text (such as the New King James Version and New Revised Standard Version). To help the reader, the LXX psalm number appears first, followed by the alternate number in parentheses, such as Psalm 50 (51).
In addition to the difference in the numbering of the Psalms, the books of Jeremiah and Malachi show differences in the chapter and verse numbering when comparing The Orthodox Study Bible alongside English translations based on the Hebrew Old Testament text. The following shows how the Hebrew and LXX texts compare in the books of Jeremiah and Malachi.
Jeremiah
| Hebrew | LXX |
| 1:1–25:1 3 | 1:1–25:13 |
| 25:14 | – – |
| 25:15–38 | 32:1–25 |
| 26:1–43:13 | 33:1–50:13 |
| 44:1–30 | 51:1–30 |
| 45:1–5 | 51:31–35 |
| 46:1 | – – |
| 46:2–25 | 26:1–24 |
| 46:26 46:27, 28 | – – 26:25, 26 |
| 47:1–7 | 29:1–7 |
| 48:1–44 | 31:1–44 |
| 49:1–5 | 30:17–21 |
| 49:6 | – – |
| 49:7–22 | 30:1–16 |
| 49:23–27 | 30:28–32 |
| 49:28–33 | 30:22–27 |
| 49:34a, 35–39 | 25:14–19 |
| 49:34b | 25:20 |
| 50:1–51:44 | 27:1–28:45 |
| 51:45–49 | – – |
| 51:50–64 | 28:46–60 |
| 52:1 | 52:1 |
| 52:2–3 | – – |
| 52:4–14 | 52:2–12 |
| 52:15 | – – |
| 52:16–27 | 52:13–24 |
| 52:28–30 | – – |
| 52:31–34 | 52:25–28 |
| Malachi | |
| 1:1–3:18 | 1:1–3:18 |
| 4:1–3 | 3:19–21 |
| 4:4 | 3:24 |
| 4:5–6 | 3:22–23 |
The New Testament of The Orthodox Study Bible is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. It is a translation of the Received Text of the Greek New Testament, with notes showing major variants in the Majority Text and the critical text of Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Societies.
The introductory material, commentary and notes accompanying the Old and New Testament books are presented in a vocabulary understandable to a high school graduate. This is not a book of scholars addressing other scholars, but rather scholars clearly communicating the treasures of the Orthodox biblical tradition with clergy and laypeople desirous of understanding their Christian beliefs and making them accessible to others.
Further, the decision was made that the notes and commentary which clarify the biblical text would emphasize the major themes of the Christian faith. Thus, the notes give primary attention to:
1. The Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
2. The Incarnation: The Divine Son of God becoming Man
3. The Centrality of the Church, the “dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph.2:22)
4. The Virtues: God’s call to His people to live righteous and holy lives in Christ
To attain these goals, specific attention was given to the biblical interpretations of the fathers of the ancient and undivided Church, and to the consensus of the Seven Ecumenical or Church-wide Councils of Christendom, held from the fourth to eighth centuries.
The Holy Scriptures have always been integral to the life of the Church. The liturgical cycle of the year and the days of feasting and fasting are accompanied by Scripture readings from throughout the Bible. The lectionary in the back of The Orthodox Study Bible guides the reader along this biblical path through the Church year. Further, liturgical notes at the foot of the pages of The Orthodox Study Bible relate specific readings to the yearly cycle of prayer and worship. These notes are designated with the symbol ω.
The prayer of the editors and contributors of The Orthodox Study Bible is that it presents an understandable Bible text and commentary to (1) English-speaking Orthodox Christians the world over and to (2) non-Orthodox readers interested in learning more about the faith of the historic Orthodox Church.
Lent, 2008