This book contributes to the study of Hosea 6:6 ("For what I desire is love and not sacrifice, and I prefer knowledge of God to burnt offerings") and its reception in ancient Jewish and Christian writings. Some of the articles contained in this book address the verse itself and the use made of it in the Sibylline Oracles, Gospel of Matthew, rabbinic writings, and patristic literature. Other articles deal with the notion of sacrifice in Philo and with the notion of mercy in the Septuagint, the Gospel of Luke, and Greek literature.

The projected Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint will offer historical studies of Septuagint words, retracing their usage from early authors, over koine Greek and the translation itself, into Jewish-Hellenistic and early Christian literature. The latter two of these phases were the object of a workshop held in 2011 whose proceedings are published in this volume. The reception of the Septuagint in Greek-speaking Judaism and Christianity raises many questions: How do Jewish or Christian authors writing in Greek handle the difference existing for some words between the...