History Between The Testaments: Part Four – The Greek Old Testament

If you want to catch up on the first three articles, you click here to read the Introduction, click here to read about the Roman system of roads, and click here to read how Greek became a universal language.

The most prime spiritual development from the Greeks is the Septuagint, often abbreviated LXX, the Latin for seventy. The word Septuagint means “from the seventy” or “belonging to the seventy.” The project begins in 250 BC, but takes until around 100 BC to complete. The best record we have for the LXX translation is the letter of Aristeas, who was a witness and contemporary to the translation process.

The Letter

The letter of Aristeas is quite long. In it we learn how Aristeas asked the Egyptian king Ptolemy II to add the Jewish scriptures to his Library in Alexandria, and how Aristeas persuaded Ptolemy II to release captive Jews taken by Ptolemy I. The letter tells about correspondence between Ptolemy II and Eleazar, the Jewish High Priest in Jerusalem. Aristeas writes about his travels to Jerusalem and his description of the second temple, along with his discussion with Eleazar about clean and unclean animals. Finally, the letter of Aristeas talks about how Eleazar appointed seventy-two Jewish scholars to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, and how they met with and banqueted with Ptolemy II, along with the translation process and its subsequent approval.

The Process

Ptolemy II’s deputy, Demetrius Phalereus, takes the seventy-two along a seven stadia long seawall along the Mediterranean. It is called the Heptastadion, which is Greek for seven stadia. Like most measurements of the time, there is no standard rule for the stadion, but stated in the roughest terms, a single stadion is about six-hundred feet. That would make the causeway about forty-two-hundred feet. At the end of the Heptastadion is Pharus Island, upon which is the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria. The best scholarship suggests that the seventy-two scholars did their translation work within the Lighthouse.

Each day of work began with Demetrius presenting the seventy-two before Ptolemy II. They would all salute the king. After this they march to Pharus Island. They pray to God and wash their hands in the Mediterranean before getting to work. The LXX is finished in seventy-two days. Demetrius reads it to all the Jews in Alexandria who say it is so accurate that God should curse anyone who would change any part of it. Demetrius then reads it to Ptolemy II, who has no knowledge of the Jewish religion but seems satisfied with the product.

Because the project was done by seventy-two men who took seventy-two days to finisher their work, the text gets its name, belonging to the seventy, or Septuagint. Originally, all these men translated was the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. This set of books is also called the books of Moses, or the law of Moses. Other Jewish scholars in time came to Alexandria to further work on subsequent books, which takes almost another one-hundred and fifty years.

The Approval

The LXX was so well regarded, that a tall tale arose regarding its process. Ptolemy sends each man to work separately and each man in turn have the same word-for-word rendering of the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek. So remarkable is this, it is thought to be a miracle. Clearly, this is a story and it did not happen this way. Like any other translation work, it was a committee who worked together, sometimes arguing, even compromising, but eventually agreeing. The consensus is the LXX manuscript as we have it today.

The LXX became a very popular rendering of the word of God, especially by the first century AD. Hebrew is dying out and becoming a language only for scribes and scholars. Aramaic is much more favored by the common person in Palestine by the time of Jesus. Greek is a universal language thanks to Alexander’s conquering of the world. The LXX helps the birth of the church and the spread of the gospel. Jesus quotes from the LXX in the New Testament. Paul, along with other apostles and first century evangelists, will use the LXX as they go into all the world and preach the gospel. Quoting from a Hebrew manuscript to Grecian Jews in Corinth, for example, would have fallen upon deaf ears. For the same reason the New Testament will be written in Koine Greek, the Old Testament in Greek will prove to be a valuable asset to the spreading early church.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

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