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An Apology for the Septuagint

by

Edward William Grinfield

Charles H. Welch wrote:

The reader of The Berean Expositor who has been acquainted with its method of exposition for any length of time, will be aware that the testimony of the Septuagint, especially for the light that is sheds upon the meaning of N.T. words, is held in high esteem. In our Index of Volumes I-XX of The Berean Expositor , we devoted two pages to a special Index of references to the Septuagint Version of the O.T.

A book which we recommend every student to obtain if possible is the work by E. W. Grinfield, M.A., published in London by William Pickering in 1850, and now only obtainable at second-hand. He entitled his book:

"An Apology for the Septuagint, in which its claim to Biblical and Canonical Authority are briefly stated and vindicated."

While we may not follow this writer to the full length of his argument and believe as he does that the LXX is of equal inspiration and canonicity as the Hebrew originals, we do certainly value the testimony that he gives to the extreme value and importance of this great Version. An apology is a justification rather than an excuse, and an apologetic is a formal defence of a person, doctrine, course, etc., and is first found in use in 1605. An apologist is a defender, as Lord Broughton wrote "Mr. Hume, the staunch apologist . . . . . of all Stuarts".

The reader will find no "apology" in the weak and secondary sense of the word in Grinfield's work. The following extracts will give some idea of the nature of this "apology".

"This Greek version was received by the immediate successors of the apostles, on authority which they could not hesitate to acknowledge. They had heard it preached and quoted by the apostles; they found it more or less in every chapter of the New Testament."
"The terms repentance, faith, righteousness, justification, redemption, sanctification, etc., together with the titles Lord, Christ, Saviour, Holy Spirit, etc., are the very same in the Alexandrian version (the LXX) as in the New Testament, and they are used precisely in the same meaning.  It is this identity of doctrinal terms and expressions which constitutes the unity, and which secures the continuity of faith and doctrine, in the Old and the New Testament."
" Dikaios , in the LXX and in the New Testament, is one, whom the Judge pronounces innocent, i.e. who He absolves or pardons, whereas dikaios , in Classic Greek, signifies one, who is just in himself , and on his own account, who therefore needs no pardon."
"If you attempt to attire the language of the Scriptures in a classic form, you are in danger of substituting heathen ethics for Christian morals, by bringing down the doctrines of the Bible to the level of human speculation."
"The eloquence of Paul, a Valckenaer has remarked, is quite another kind from that of the Greek orators. His vocabulary is chiefly confined to the LXX, and those who would comprehend his arguments or appreciate his excellence, must give their days and nights to the study of the Septuagint."

In his introduction Grinfield says:

"This `apology' may be regarded as a natural sequel to my Hellenistic Edition of the Greek Testament."

This indicates that Grinfield had worked for some time in the study of the Greek of the O.T., and another work by this same writer is of extreme value, in the matter of comparing passages of the Greek O.T. and the Greek Fathers, with the Greek of the N.T. Its title is rather forbidding, it is Scholia Hellenistica in Novum Testamentum, but the reader needs no Latin to use the work.

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