Oxford University Press is sponsoring an ambitious new study Bible focused on the early Church Fathers and their interpretation of Scripture (press release here). The Ancient Christian Study Bible (ACSB) will include a brand new translation of Sacred Scripture, focused on the source texts that are revered by Orthodox churches. The Old Testament will be translated from the Greek text preserved in the Codex Vaticanus manuscript (and there will be textual notes for variant readings in other biblical manuscripts) and the New Testament will be translated from the Patriarchal Text (which was published by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1904).
Three types of study notes will be included:
- Textual notes: listing notable textual variants from other Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac editions of Sacred Scripture
- Exegetical notes: explaining the plain historical meaning of the text
- Patristic notes: scholarly summaries of dominant early Christian interpretations of the text
Approximately 80% of the notes are expected to be Patristic notes.
The notes will focus on biblical passages (known as “pericopes”), rather than individual verses.
A complete list of editors and translators has been assembled, and the collaborators are currently working on translating the Greek biblical text and writing the annotations. The group of editors and contributors is ecumenical, with Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants represented. The two Editors-in-Chief are Fr. Eugen J. Pentiuc (Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA) and Dr. Paul M. Blowers (Professor of Church History at Emmanuel Christian Seminary, in Milligan University, TN). Fr. Pentiuc was previously a General Editor for the Orthodox Study Bible (published by Thomas Nelson in 2008).
The complete Bible is expected to be published by the end of 2027. There are more details in the press release from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
I must say, this is one of the most exciting Bible projects I’ve heard about in recent years. After reading the Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation earlier this year (for which Dr. Paul Blowers was an editor), I’m very much looking forward to a complete Bible (including the deuterocanonical books) which summarizes the interpretations of the Church Fathers. I will be following this project with interest! Many thanks to the reader who sent me this news!
Well shoot, YouTuber R. Grant Jones just got his dream Bible project put into practice lol: a translation with a Byzantine NT and a Septuagint OT, with patristic footnotes. (Oh, and the Eastern Orthodox will be happy too.) Looks like the old independent “Eastern/Greek Orthodox Bible” will be very much supplanted by this effort, as will Newrome Press’s effort to combine the aforementioned EOB NT with the Lexham English Septuagint. And needless to say, Thomas Nelson’s Orthodox Study Bible (especially its defective OT translation) will be completely supplanted.
This sounds marvelous. I will eagerly snap this up.
Just go ahead and hook me up to an IV of that future study Bible.
Glory to God! This sounds wonderful.