Swete's Recension of the Greek Septuagint
Interlinear version (Beta)
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
- Joshua
- Judges
- Ruth
- 1 Samuel
- 2 Samuel
- 1 Kings
- 2 Kings
- 1 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles
- Ezra (Alpha)
- Ezra (Beta)
- Nehemiah
- Esther
- Judith
- Tobit
- 1 Maccabees
- 2 Maccabees
- 3 Maccabees
- 4 Maccabees
- Psalms
- Psalms of Solomon
- Odes
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
- Song of Solomon
- Job
- Wisdom
- Sirach
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Lamentations
- Letter of Jeremiah
- Baruch
- Ezekiel
- Daniel (Theodotion)
- Daniel (Old Greek)
- Hosea
- Amos
- Micah
- Joel
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
- Enoch
About
This is Henry Barclay Swete's recension of the Greek Septuagint, published between 1887 and 1894.
It marks a crucial milestone in Septuagint scholarship. Unlike previous editions, Swete's work was based primarily on the early 4th century AD Codex Vaticanus (known by the symbol, B). It was only occasionally supplemented by other uncial manuscripts, such as where Vaticanus had missing portions, was too damaged, had scribal errors, or where better texts were available. These other sections mostly came from the 4th century AD Codex Sinaiticus, followed by the 5th century AD Codex Alexandrinus.
His three-volume edition, The Old Testament in Greek According to the Septuagint, provided scholars with a reliable diplomatic text that avoided the temptation to mix together different manuscript traditions in an attempt to create a theoretical original text.
This suits our purposes well, as the reader can easily know what manuscripts were used, removing any concern that sources may have been cherry-picked to further a sectarian agenda.
Therefore, for us, the fact that Swete's work is not a full critical edition is it's best feature. An attempt to create a full critical edition would later be undertaken by the larger Cambridge Septuagint project, which is still on-going.