What is the Septuagint?

The Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Greek Old Testament or LXX. Created to satisfy the linguistic needs of Jews during the Second Temple period who spoke Koine Greek rather than Hebrew, the first five books were translated in the 3rd century BCE with the remaining books following in the 2nd century BCE.

What we know

• The Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. [1, 2]
• The first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom during the mid- or late 3rd century BCE. [2]
• The traditional title derives from the Letter of Aristeas, which recounts that seventy-two Hebrew translators performed the translation at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. [2] · medium confidence
• The corpus continued to undergo revision and recensional development within both Jewish and Christian communities through the fourth century CE. [2]

Still open

• Whether the traditional story of seventy-two translators recorded in the Letter of Aristeas is historical fact or pseudepigraphical.
• Whether certain early manuscript fragments, such as Papyrus Fouad 266, represent an original text or a later recension of the Septuagint.

Where to go next

• whoWho was Ptolemy II Philadelphus?
• whereWhat was Alexandria's role in Hellenistic Judaism?
• how we knowWhat are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• the bigger pictureHow did Jewish Koine Greek develop?
• a case in pointWhat is the Göttingen Septuagint project?
• an unexpected connectionHow does papyrus fragmentation reveal biblical history?Ancient manuscript fragments like Papyrus Fouad 266 provide direct palaeographic evidence dating back to the 1st century BCE to help scholars study the development of the Septuagint Pentateuch.

Sources

• [1]Septuagint (Wikidata Q29334) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Septuagint · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Papyrus Fouad 266 · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Jewish Koine Greek · CC BY-SA 4.0

Your path

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