The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) has orginized in July 29th – 31st its 14th congress at the University of Helsinky. The congress has opened prof. L. Greenspoon with his lecture “The 72” in the “Naught Decade”: Septuagint Studies, 2000–2009. The closing point of the congress was a panel discussion with the speakers A. Aejmelaeus, J. Aitken, K. De Troyer and A. van der Kooij about the origins of LXX. Though it was tiring, because for weather of Helsinki in the unusually hot afternoon, it was an interesting discussion because of the topic is a hot issue in the Septuaginta studiesand because the biblical scholars of Helsinki University are well known in the field of Septuaginta research.

IOSCS is a nonprofit, learned society formed to promote international research in and study of the Septuagint and related texts. By the term Septuagint is meant the ancient translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, including both the translation of the Pentateuch and that of the other books of the “Alexandrian Canon.” By the term cognate studies is meant the study of the ancient translations made from the Septuagint (“daughter versions”) and the so-called apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature circulating around the turn of the era.