In the beginning God made heaven and earth. The earth was invisible and unfinished; and darkness was over the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
The original edition of the OSB, released in 1993, included only the New Testament and Psalms, both NKJV.[1] Priest Seraphim Johnson criticized the use of the NKJV translation, particularly for the Psalms.[2] The 1993 edition was also criticized by Archimandrite Ephrem for its commentary feeling more evangelical than Orthodox.[3] The NKJV text of the Psalms was replaced in the 2008 edition by the Psalms of the new OSB translation of the Old Testament.[1]
The 2008 OSB's Old Testament is a translation of the Greek Septuagint developed by St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology.[a][1] One feature therefore is that 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).[4] The 2008 OSB's New Testament is the NKJV, which translates the Greek Textus Receptus used by the Eastern Orthodox Church.[5] The overview committee included fourteen archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops from various Orthodox jurisdictions, as well as eight priests and seven lay scholars.[6]
Study materials
The translations of the Old Testament and New Testament are accompanied by commentary from the Orthodox viewpoint.[5] 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.[7] The OSB addresses such questions as: Why is the Mother of God essential to the Faith?[8] Who were the Seventy Disciples?[9] How is an Orthodox understanding of the Bible different from a Roman Catholic or Protestant understanding?[10] In addition, the OSB provides basic daily prayers,[11] a lectionary for personal use,[12] and reproductions of icons in its pages.[13]
^The translation is based upon the Alfred Rahlfs edition of the Septuagint using the Brenton edition and New King James Version Old Testament, which was translated from the Hebrew Masoretic Text, as additional source material.
