Septuaginta: the Greek Old Testament in the History of Religious Mind

The Septuagint, being the fi rst written biblical translation, was also the early testimony of understanding of the sacred text. It was not inferior by age to the scrolls of Qumran and earlier than the New Testament books, as well as than the written form of aramaic targums. The whole literature of Judaeo-Hellenism is associated with it. For the early Greek Christian communities it was the fi rst form of Scriptura Sacra. Opposition of angels and demons, idea of creation of the Universe «ex nihilo» were perceived by the European thought through the Septuagint. The study of this textual witness now seems to be more and more important and, from other side, more and more complicated, due to the scale and the depth of sources, and also due to the crisis of understanding.