Orthodox Study Bible-OE-With Some NKJV: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World

Not a complaint about the book whatsoever but I ordered a used version and large amounts were ripped out. I was fine with some of the normal wear and tear but when I noticed over 20 chapters of certain books ripped out I was very disappointed.

The Orthodox Study Bible (O.S.B.) is the long-awaited completion of a project to provide the full text of Holy Scripture (the entire canon of the Old Testament, with all of its deuterocanonical writings, as well as the New Testament), translated from the Greek texts that are normative for the Orthodox world, to meet the liturgical, devotional, and study needs of Eastern Orthodox laymen and clergy, yet it is also a landmark publication in Christian scholarship of more general application. This assessment of the superb O.S.B. is from the standpoint of an informed Québec layman whose background and research interests, in various ways, encompass Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and even Eastern Orthodoxy. The "Orthodox Study Bible" (O.S.B.) is a marvellous choice for Catholic and Orthodox believers who are attached to the phraseology of Anglicanism's Authorised "King James" Version Bible tradition, for whom the O.S.B. is a good and wise choice. The O.S.B. includes the deuterocanon of the Old Testament (O.T.) as well, of course, as the other writings of the O.T., and it uses the N.K.J.V. in the New Testament (N.T.) part. The editors of the O.T. amended the N.K.J.V. to conform to the Greek Septuagint version's renderings. With the O.S.B.'s study notes, a Roman Catholic or Eastern (Uniate) Catholic reader, concerning doctrinal and exegetical matters, only has to ignore the annotation on perhaps one single passsage, St. Matthew 16:18 (which Catholics interpret to defend the role and alleged infallibility of the Papacy, the so-called "Petrine Office"), so Catholics and Eastern Orthodox alike can pretty much agree on everything else in the commentary of the notes. The "Orthodox Study Bible" is quite different from other study or otherwise annotated Bibles, and in the most marvellous faith-affirming ways, integrating as it does Orthodox-Catholic tradition into the study of Holy Writ. The textual base of the translation is a welcome choice, too, the Septuagint (LXX) Greek O.T. and Byzantine Greek N.T., the latter entirely free of the serious flaws of the textual basis of Protestant and more or less recent Roman Catholic translations which are based too uncritically upon the late Hebrew Masoretic O.T. and the vilely corrupt "Critical Texts" (U.B.S., Nestle-Aland, and worse) of the Greek N.T. Refreshingly, the N.T. of the New King James Version (N.K.J.V.), to which the editors wisely resorted for a modern English usage translation, is based on that already mentioned Byzantine Text (also called "Textus Receptus"), so it is refreshingly free of the faults of so many other late 19th and 20th century translations from Greek "minority text" manuscript sources. The ample study notes of the O.S.B. for the most part are taken from, or based upon, the writings of the great Fathers of the Church ("Patristic" writings) and of other early Christian theologians and saintly figures of post-Patristic times. These notes deal with only few of the subjects to which other

Aside from the footnotes and articles which provide an Orthodox Christian view of Scripture, this is a very important new work primarily because there are very few English translations of the Septuagint available. I have been using the Anglican Sir Lancelot Brenton version which I think was done in the 19th century. I understand Oxford Press is also currently working on a Septuagint translation. Unfortunately, many people do not even know what the Septuagint is. Briefly, following the Babylonian exile of the Jews, they began to lose their Hebrew language in everyday usage (in Jesus' time they spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew). In the 4th century before Christ Alexander the Great conquered pretty much everything in sight in the Mediterranean area and established Greek language and culture throughout the region. Greek became (much as English is today) an international language of art, philosophy, business, etc. Although, relatively few people could read in those days, if you did know how to read during this period, chances are you would find Greek very useful. Therefore, in the 2nd century before Christ, there were about seventy Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This became known as the Septuagint (meaning "seventy"). So what? Well, this is the version of the Old Testament used by the first Christians. The New Testament was written in Greek and every quotation from the Old Testament comes from the Septuagint and not from the Hebrew text. In short, if it was good enough for the Apostles, it's good enough for us. The Septuagint has been the Old Testament used in the Orthodox Church ever since the time of the Apostles. The Septuagint was used exclusively for the first four centuries of the Christian Church until St. Jerome translated the Old Testament in Latin in the late 4th and early 5th centuries using the Hebrew text rather than the Septuagint. This was not without controversy. Personally, I have to weigh the matter by comparing seventy rabbis two centuries before Christ (i.e., it can't be claimed to be a Christian biased translation) vs. one man who went to Jerusalem and studied Hebrew for six years before doing his own translation from Hebrew into Latin. I think I'm going with the seventy rabbis. There are some other things to note. First, from an archeological / historical viewpoint, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament are the Septuagint (going back to about the third century). The oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Masoretic text (which is what the Jews and, surpisingly the Protestants use) is only about a thousand years old and was edited centuries AFTER Christ. This raises the issue among many of whether the Masoretic text was edited to counter the Christian Septuagint. Perhaps the most famous contradiction is to be found in Isaiah 7:14 which says, "Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb, and will bring forth a Son, and you will call His Name Emmanuel

This is a bible well suited for ALL Christians, not only those in the Orthodox Church. I am so grateful to have a bible whose Old Testament is not based upon the Masoretic Texts. It has been explained to me by scholars more knowledgeable than myself that while the Masoretes were well known as scribes who paid close attention to detail regarding lettering, etc. they also had a bias against the Messiah. If one compares any of the other translations of the Old Testament (i.e anything from the original KJV on) there are many differences in that the references to the Messiah were removed. One who is far wiser than myself asked the question, "Why would we want to embrace something written by people who hated Jesus?" For those who may not know, the Septuagint was written about 250 years before the Incarnation. It was not manipulated, rearranged or chopped up as were the Masoretic Texts. This is the first complete English translation of the Septuagint right out of the original Greek. The Masoretic Texts were written over several hundred years beginning with the 400s. I am not a member of the Orthodox Church, so I have no denominational axe to grind here. I am just a recovering sinner (a Protestant) who continues to pursue intimacy with God. To be reading the same Old Testament that Jesus and His Apostles used is a true blessing. That is where the Church began....a long time before all the schisms that have occurred over the last 2,000 years. For those who are of the same thoughts, this bible is for you. Glory be to God in all things!!