Septuagint in Context

Gallagher, Edmon L.  Translation of the Seventy: History, Reception, and Contemporary Use of 

        the Septuagint (LXX).  n.p.: Abilene Christian University Press, 2021.  ISBN: 

        9781684269198

What do you know about the Septuagint (also call LXX)?  The Septuagint is often used to refer to a Greek language version of the Old Testament used by Jews and early Christians which is still used in some parts of the world today.  Edmon Gallagher provides a detailed examination of the origin, importance, and use made of this translation of the Bible.

 

Gallagher divides the book into three sections - Starting Points, Cannon and Text in Early Judaism and Earliest Christianity, and The Text of the Septuagint among the Fathers.  Each section has three or four chapters.

 

Section 1: Starting Points provides the history of the Septuagint and what ancient Jewish authorities and modern scholars think of the origins of LXX.  It is called the Septuagint because Ptolemy II of Egypt wanted a copy of the Jewish Law for his Alexandrian Library, but since he could not read Hebrew, he commissioned a translation team of seventy-two men. Early Christians by tradition refer to the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures as the Septuagint whereas the Jews use that only for the translation of the Pentateuch.  

Section 2: Canon and Text in Early Judaism and Earliest Christianity delves into the role the LXX played in shaping what books to include as canon in the Christian Bible.  A chapter looks at the LXX in relation to other Jewish texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Masoretic Text.  A third chapter looks at how the LXX is quoted in the New Testament.

Section 3: The Text of the Septuagint among the Fathers looks at how early Christian authors used and viewed the LXX.  There are two chapters dealing with Greek Christian Fathers including Justin Martyr, Origen, and Irenaeus among others.  Then there are two chapters for  Latin Christian Fathers - specifically one for Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin and one for Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo.

If you have an interest in Biblical scholarship or the history of Biblical translations, you ought to take the time to read this title.  Edmon Gallagher has take great care to make this title readable and interesting for all readers.

Eywitness from Kyiv

Ponomarenko, Illia.  I Will Show You How it Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv.  New York: 

         Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.  ISBN: 9781639733873

The war in Ukraine was unavoidable for anyone paying attention back in 2022.  But the snippets that made it on national and local news were just that snippets, not the broader picture.  Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, offers the reader a much fuller and richer experience of what was happening in Ukraine and especially Kyiv during the first months of the Russian invasion.

Illia Ponomarenko opens the book with being embedded with the 72nd Mechanized Brigade on a patrol outside Kyiv in March 2022.  His remembrance of earlier times spent with this unit in the Donbas area duing 2017 and other years sets the context for the most recent Russian invasion.  Ponomarenko then takes you back to December 2021 and sets the stage letting you in on how life in Kyiv was before the war and what people were ding and thinking.  He guides the reader through the time before the invasion and then the opening days in February and March when all was confusion and chaos.  Ponomarenko, his mother, and his roommate fled to western Ukraine and stayed with Illia;s girlfriend's parents.  But after a couple of days, Ponomarenko and his roommate Ivan return to Kyiv.  Ponomarenko continues reporting for the Kyiv Independent media service visiting the front-lines when possible, but also providing background information and home-front stories as well.  He brings the book to a close in May 2022 after Kyiv has been saved.

In I Will Show You How It Was, Illia Ponomarenko provides a first-person account of the opening days of the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This title will be of interest to anyone interested in Ukraine, recent European events, or life in a war zone.  A story that everyone should read!

Scouts, Rangers, and Secret Services in the American Civil War

 O'Donnell, Patrick K.  The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, the 

          Manhunt for Mosby's Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America's Special 

         Operations.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9780802162861

 

How up are you on American Civil War History?  If you have read any histories, you have likely encountered Mosby, the Gray Ghost of Northern Virginia.  But what do you know of the Jesse Scouts?  The Blazer Scouts?  The various plots ran by the Confederate Secret Service out of Canada to burn down New York City, raise up an insurrection in the Midwest, and blow up the White House?  You didn't know about these?  Well then pick up The Unvanquished and dive into the heart of these operations!

 

 Patrick O'Donnell opens The Unvanquished with a preface and prologue linking the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and their activities to the "shadow war" conducted by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War.  He then divides the book into three broad sections - Part I: The Jesse Scouts, Part II: The Confederate Secret Service, and Part III: Sheridan's Scouts and "Come Retribution."  While the headings provide some structure, the book basically starts in what is now West Virginia when Union General John Frémont brought the Jesse Scouts (named after his wife) from Missouri  in 1862 and turned them loose to scout ahead of his forces, conduct raids behind enemy lines, and deal with local guerrillas.  Under various names the Jesse Scouts played a role until the end of the war.  In northern Virginia, John Singleton Mosby formed his Independent Ranger Company to operate behind Union lines, raid supply trains, and disrupt anything and everything that he could.  In response to the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid that aimed to kill President Jefferson Davis and burn Richmond, the Confederate Secret Service tried to burn New York, raid Northern banks from Canada, promote dissent and rebellion in the Midwest, and sow discord.  They also worked on several schemes to blow up the White House, kidnap President Lincoln and other officials, and finally to decapitate the Federal government.  

 

While Patrick O'Donnell does a wonderful job of detailing the exploits of the various Jesse Scouts, Mosby's Rangers, and various members of the Confederate Secret Service, he doe not provide any sources that show a link between the ACW "shadow warriors" and the OSS or current special Forces.  Despite that caveat, if you want juicy stories of daring Civil War exploits, The Unvanquished is the book for you!