Anssi Voitila

Doctor of Theology (University of Helsinki) 2001; Adjunct Professor (Dozent) (University of Joensuu, later University of Eastern Finland) 2007.

Working career: University of Helsinki, Department of Biblical Studies: University Lecturer of Exegetics, Researcher, Assistant, Translator of the Old Testament Apocrypha 1990-2003; University of Eastern Finland (formerly University of Joensuu) University Lecturer of Biblical Languages and Studies 2003 (2021 – Senior University Lecturer). I have been a member in the following academic research projects:  The Research Unit for the Formation of Early Jewish and Christian Ideology (Center of Excellence in Research, Academy of Finland) 2000-2005; Birth and Transmission of a Holy Tradition (EURYI) 2007-2012; Project participant: Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT) (Center of Excellence in Research, Academy of Finland) 2014-2019.
My research interests span the language of the Septuagint (Greek), its translation technique, Classical Hebrew language, semantic change and the book of Ben Sira.

I am particularly interested in Septuagint syntax as a part of the broader Post-Classical, Hellenistic, or koine Greek syntax of the last three centuries BCE. Because the Septuagint is a translation, the most powerful method for examining this language is translation technic study. I have also done some research concerning the theology of the translation: Ideologically motivated transformations in the Greek version of the Book of Ben Sira and written a paper on Moses in the Greek Pentateuch. My latest interests include the polysemy and semantic change as evidenced in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek corpus of which the Septuagint forms an important part: I have written about the auxialiary verb construction μέλλω + INF., on ἁπλοῦς “simple” and its derivates and at the moment I am working on the verb ἐκβάλλω.

I have recently widened my research interest to the Greek middle voice (medium) in the Septuagint, e.g. why the translators occasionally use middle voice although the Hebrew source text has an active verb form, as well as to the translation of the Hebrew verbless clauses, my question is how and why do the translators resort to verbal clauses, rendering the verbless clause in the Septuagint. My publications include Présent et imparfait de l’indicatif dans le Pentateuque grec: une étude sur la syntaxe de traduction (Helsinki-Göttingen 2001).