Orthodox Study Bible

Orthodox Study Bible
Full name:	Orthodox Study Bible
Abbreviation:	OSB
Complete Bible published:	2008
Textual basis:	NT: the NKJV, from the Textus Receptus, a part of the Majority Text family of 94% of all Greek manuscripts. High Correspondence to the Stephanus 1550 edition of the Textus Receptus. [1] OT: LXX checked against the Hebrew and the NKJV.
Translation type:	Formal Equivalence
Version revised:	New King James Version
Publisher:	Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Copyright status:	Copyright 2008 Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Religious affiliation:	Eastern Orthodox Church
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 in other translations
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The Orthodox Study Bible (OSB) is an English-language translation and annotation of the Christian Bible, published by Thomas Nelson. In addition to the Eastern Orthodox Christian biblical canon, it offers commentary and other material to show the Eastern Orthodox Christian understanding of Scripture.

Translation

The OSB's Old Testament is an eclectic text combining elements of the Greek Septuagint (which predates the standardized Masoretic Text by one thousand years) and the Hebrew Masoretic Text. The Masoretic Text is the standard Jewish text for the Hebrew Scriptures. The Septuagint is an ancient Jewish translation of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek, for use by Greek-speaking Jews. In several places it differs significantly from the Masoretic Text. The Septuagint is the Scripture quoted and referenced in the New Testament. One important feature of the OSB is that all New Testament quotations of the Old Testament are identical in wording between the Old and New Testaments (e.g. Genesis 1:27; Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7-8; 1 Cor 6:16; Eph 5:31). Although the Orthodox Church does respect the Hebrew Old Testament, it also believes the Septuagint tradition should be studied by the church, out of respect for both the New Testament writers and the eastern church tradition. The English style is that of the New King James Version (NKJV), which was used as a template. The Old Testament was prepared under the auspices of the academic community of St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, using clergy and lay scholars. The overview committee included fourteen archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops from various Orthodox jurisdictions, as well as eight priests and seven lay scholars. The Old Testament includes a new translation of the Psalms by Donald Sheehan of Dartmouth College.

The New Testament is the NKJV, which uses the Received Text, representing 94% of Greek manuscripts. The Byzantine text-type is the textual tradition preserved for use in the eastern churches.

Study materials

The translations of the Old Testament and New Testament are accompanied by commentary from the Orthodox viewpoint. Articles provide guidance and support for many facets of the Orthodox faith which can be confusing or unknown to those who did not grow up in the Church. There is a comparative of list of contents, side-by-side with the Roman Catholic canon and the generally accepted Protestant canon. The OSB addresses such questions as: Why is the Mother of God essential to the Faith? Who were the 70 Apostles? How is an Orthodox understanding of the Bible different from a Roman Catholic or Protestant understanding? In addition, the OSB provides basic daily prayers, a lectionary for personal use, and reproductions of icons in its pages.

Response

Despite positive endorsements from such prominent bishops as Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America), Metropolitan Phillip (Antiochian Orthodox Church) and Metropolitan Theodosius (Orthodox Church in America), scholars have given very critical reviews of both the translation and study notes of the OSB. Representative of such reviews are there excerpts:

"If my comments seem harsh it is because the OSB could have been better, and should have been better. As I've mentioned before, if the OSB had managed to package an Orthodox approach to Scripture within the limits of a Protestant-style study bible, I'd be much more gentle in my criticism. That the OSB should prove to be so deeply foreign not only to the ethos of Orthodox Christianity, but to its doctrine and teaching as well is simply unforgivable." [1]

”The notes to the New Testament are on the whole straightforward and some readers will find them a help in understanding many of the words and ideas in the text. Most of them though are dull and many of them jejune in the extreme. As a friend put it to me, they remind one of the notes to some school editions of Shakespeare. ‘King Lear plans to divide his kingdom between his daughters’, or ‘Hamlet wonders if it would be a good idea to commit suicide.’ In this book we find similar notes all too often, such as that on Luke 16:11: ‘True riches signify spiritual treasures’, or that on Luke 16:25 ‘This conversation is not between God and the rich man, but between Abraham and the rich man.’ The level is that of a not very bright Sunday School class. Critical questions are avoided by simply not being discussed at all. This is unsatisfactory, since many readers will be seeking help on just these questions. What should have been provided is an article setting out clearly how an Orthodox reader of the Bible should approach these problems. The solution adopted here is a further instance of what I call the attitude of the double-headed Byzantine ostrich." [2]

See also

Further information: Lxx#Texts and translations

• Eastern / Greek Orthodox Bible, ongoing project of the whole Bible
• New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS), a translation of the Septuagint only

References

1. ^ The Comprehensive New Testament notes that this is an accurate translation of the Koine Text, instead of the Egyptian Sinaiticus text base in Nestle-Aland/UBS.

External links

• Podcast interview with Father Peter Gilquist on the OSB