These user manuals make it easier for readers to use the editio critica maior of the Septuagint - a standard work unique in its kind - in an efficient way. They serve both as an introduction for beginners who use the Göttingen editions for the first time and as a tool designed for specialists to allow them to improve their work on this text. The complexity of the apparatus to the Göttingen Septuagint has longtime made readers wish for a higher level of 'user friendliness'. Both volumes of the Benutzerhandbuch zur Göttinger Septuaginta fulfill this need. Now students, teachers and scholars in the fields of Old Testament and neighbouring disciplines are given the opportunity to work more efficiently with the editions of the Pentateuch and Ruth. The volumes provide a complete overview of the principles and apparatus employed in these editions as well as detailed information on the textual history of the Septuagint and its witnesses.

Christian Schäfer war von 2009 bis 2015 wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Septuaginta-Unternehmen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Im Mai 2015 wurde er mit einer Arbeit über Alfred Rahlfs an der Theologischen Fakultät der Universität Göttingen zum Dr. theol. promoviert. Seit September 2015 ist er Vikar der Evangelischen Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck in Melsungen.