The language of the Septuagint is not only a linguistic question: evaluations of the language have been intertwined with presuppositions on the social context of Jews in antiquity, in particular their linguistic competency, educational background, and position within the Graeco-Roman society. Recent work has rehabilitated the position of Jews in ancient society and with it came a renewed quest for understanding the social locus of the language of the Septuagint and related Jewish-Greek writings. In order to appreciate the language of the Septuagint, we need to contextualize it appropriately within the history of Greek, diachronically and synchronically. The dedication of a special issue to the present topic by Journal for the Study of Judaism signals the recognition of the importance of the Septuagint for the wider discipline. In this introduction, the editors lay out recent trends in the field and discuss its challenges.

《七十士译本》的语言不仅仅是一个语言问题：对语言的评价与对古代犹太人社会背景的预设交织在一起，特别是他们的语言能力、教育背景和在希腊罗马社会中的地位。最近的工作恢复了犹太人在古代社会中的地位，随之而来的是对理解《七十士译本》和相关犹太-希腊著作的语言社会轨迹的新探索。为了理解《七十士译本》的语言，我们需要将其置于希腊历史的历时和共时的背景中。《犹太教研究杂志》专门为当前主题推出了一期特刊，标志着人们认识到《七十士译本》对于更广泛学科的重要性。在本介绍中，编辑们列出了该领域的最新趋势并讨论了其面临的挑战。