Messianism and the Septuagint

The essays reproduced in this volume have been selected on the basis of
their common theme: Messianism in the Septuagint. The aim of the papers is
to answer the following basic questions: Does the Septuagint enhance the
messianic hope developed in the Masoretic text? Does it reflect a stage in
the development of Israel's messianic expectations, perhaps preparing for
Christianism and its Messiah? Questioning a theory accepted by many
scholars, the author argues that the Septuagint as a whole does not
exhibit an increased interest in royal messianism. While some texts offer
literal translations, others display a weakening of the royal messianic
character of the translated passages, or perhaps more correctly, several
relevant passages in the Septuagint are witnesses to an earlier Hebrew
version in which the messianic accents were less pronounced than in the
final Masoretic text.