Dirk Büchner, DLitt

Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies; Director, John William Wevers Institute for Septuagint Studies

  • DLitt (Stellenbosch)
  • LicTheol (BTCSA)
  • MA (Stellenbosch)
  • BTheol (Stellenbosch)
  • BA (Hons.) (Johannesburg)

Expertise

Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac (grammar and syntax), Hellenistic Greek (grammar and lexicography), The Septuagint. Of more popular interest: The Bible and Social Justice, and Creationism, Scientism and the Bible: why there should be no conflict between mainstream science and Christian faith.

Research & Current Projects

  • Septuagint Leviticus (incorporating Greek lexicography, Ptolemaic Alexandria, Hellenistic culture; the reception of the LXX in the New Testament and early Christianity.) Religion and Society in Iron age Palestine. Pre-Exilic Hebrew Prophets.
  • Commentary on LXX Leviticus (SBL Commentary on the Septuagint Series)
  • Lexicographical studies of Hellenistic Greek sacral terminology.

Recent Publications

  • "Exilasasthai: Appeasing God in the Septuagint Pentateuch." Journal of Biblical Literature, 129(2), 237-260. (2010)
  • Leviticus. In A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS) (pp. 82-106). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (2007)
  • "BOSHET in Jer 3.24: Disenfranchisement and the Role of the Goddess in Seventh-Century Judah." Journal of Theological Studies, 59, 478-499. (2008)
  • "A Cultic Term (hamartia) in the Septuagint: Its Meaning and Use from the 3rd Century BCE until the New Testament." Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 41. (2009)
  • "You Shall Not Give of Your Seed to Serve an Archon": Leviticus 18:21 in the Septuagint. In H. Ausloos, J. Cook, F. García Martínez, B. Lemmelijn, & M. Vervenne (Eds.), Translating a Translation: The Septuagint and Its Modern Translations in the Context of Early Judaism (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, Vol. 213, pp. 183-196). Leuven: Peeters. (2008)
  • "The Thysia Soteriou of the Septuagint and the Greek Cult: Representation and Accommodation." In H. Ausloos, B. Lemmelijn, & M. Vervenne (Eds.), Florilegium Lovaniense: Studies in Septuagint and Textual Criticism in Honour of Florentino García Martínez (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, Vol. 224, pp. 85-100). Leuven: Peeters. (2008)