The Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum (SVTG), also known as the Göttingen Septuagint, is a critical edition of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) prepared by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
The project was founded by Alfred Rahlfs in 1908, and continues under the direction of Reinhard G. Kratz and Felix Albrecht. As of February 2025, 26 volumes have been published (out of 36 total). The project is about 75% complete, and work on each of the remaining 10 volumes is in progress.
History Since the early twentieth century, preparation of the major critical edition of the Septuagint has been centered in Göttingen, Germany. From its inception, the project's goal was to produce a comprehensive critical, eclectic edition of the entire corpus of Koine Greek translations known as the (LXX). The task of each SVTG volume is thus to reconstruct the oldest attainable text version (i.e., before its later recensions) of a given book in a critical edition and to document its transmission as thoroughly as possible. The vision for the project stretches back to the approach to study of the LXX initiated by Paul Anton de Lagarde (1827–1891), who had hoped to himself produce a full eclectic edition, but ultimately fell far short.Piquer Otero and Torijano Morales, "2.3.9 From de Lagarde to the Göttingen Septuagint".
Work on the Göttingen Septuagint officially began in 1908 with the project initiated by Lagarde's disciple, Alfred Rahlfs (1851–1913), supported by Rudolf Smend and Julius Wellhausen,Kratz, "100 Jahre Göttinger Septuaginta", p. 1. and the founding of the ('Septuagint Company') of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities ().Albrecht, "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint", pp. 201–202. From 1908 to 2015, the responsibility for producing a complete critical edition of the LXX belonged to the . The project was led by six scholars over the course of its duration: Rahlfs (1908–1933), Werner Kappler (1933–1944), Emil Große-Brauckmann (1952–1961), Robert Hanhart (1961–1993), Anneli Aejmelaeus (1993–2000), and Bernhard Neuschäfer (2005–2015). During this period, 24 volumes of the SVTG were published, covering the Pentateuch, prophetic books, most of the deuterocanonical books, and a handful of others.Albrecht, "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint", p. 202. In 2015, the funding for the expired, and it officially closed.Albrecht, "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint", p. 203.
Following the close of the , the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities established another commission in 2016 to carry on the task of editing and producing the Göttingen Septuagint: the ('Commission for the Edition and Research of the Septuagint'), directed by Reinhard G. Kratz and Felix Albrecht. The Commission officially ran from 2016 to 2019, and resulted in the publication of two new editions and a number of revised printings of earlier volumes. From 2020 onwards, the production of the remaining books in the SVTG project has been conducted by the Robert Hanhart Foundation (), presided over by Kratz.
In 2020, a new long-term project of the Academy was established: the Editio critica maior' des griechischen Psalters ('Major Critical Edition of the Greek Psalter'). It officially began on January 1, 2020, and is scheduled to run for 21 years. As a product of its larger aim of exploring the complex and extensive tradition and textual history of the Greek Psalter, the project will culminate in the publication of a new critical edition of the Psalms and Odes for the Göttingen SVTG series. This will replace the outdated and inadequate 1931 edition by Rahlfs. The critically-reconstructed text will be provided in a hybrid format—both as a printed book and an online edition.
Volumes Published
2nd edition: 2019
2nd edition: 2006
2nd edition: 2009
2nd edition: 1991
2nd edition: 2017
2nd edition: 1983
2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1990
2nd edition: 1976; 3rd edition: 2008; 4th edition: 2017
2nd edition: 1980
2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1979 Replaced by
2nd edition: 1980; 3rd edition: 2017
2nd edition:1980; 3rd edition: 2015
2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1984; 4th edition: 2016 Replaced by
2nd edition: 1967; 3rd edition: 1983
2nd edition: 1976; 3rd edition: 2005; 4th edition: 2013
2nd edition: 1978; 3rd edition: 2006; 4th edition: 2015 Supplement:
2nd edition: 1999 (partially revised by Olivier Munnich and Detlef Fraenkel)
In progress
Notes
See also
Alfred Rahlfs' edition of the Septuagint
References
Sources
Schäfer, Christian. Alfred Rahlfs (1865–1935) und die kritische Edition der Septuaginta: Eine biographisch-wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studie. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 489. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. Albrecht, Felix. "Report on the Göttingen Septuagint." Textus 29.2 (2020): pp. 201–220. Kratz, Reinhard G. "100 Jahre Göttinger Septuaginta." In Die Göttinger Septuaginta: Ein editorisches Jahrhundertprojekt, edited by Reinhard G. Kratz and Bernhard Neuschäfer, pp. 1–10. Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 30. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013. Piquer Otero, Andrés, and Pablo Torijano Morales. "2.3.9 From de Lagarde to the Göttingen Septuagint." In Modern Printed Editions of the Jewish Bible and Its Christian Versions, vol. 3/2 of Textual History of the Bible, edited by Armin Lange. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming. Available online
Further reading Albrecht, Felix. "The History of Septuagint Studies: Editions of the Septuagint." In The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint, edited by Alison G. Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law, pp. 53–70. Oxford University Press, 2021. Albrecht, Felix, and Frank Feder, eds. Editing the Septuagint: The Unfinished Task; Papers Presented at the 50th Anniversary of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Denver 2018. De Septuaginta Investigationes 16. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2022. Kratz, Reinhard G., and Bernhard Neuschäfer, eds. "Die Göttinger Septuaginta: Ein editorisches Jahrhundertprojekt". Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens 30. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.
External links
Official website