Septuagint
The Septuagint is a Greek
Different Translators over a Long Period
The Septuagint is the product of many different translators, over a period of several centuries. Some translators were working in Israel (probably in Jerusalem), and others in Egypt.
The first books to be translated into Greek were the five books of the Torah
Different Styles
The style of the translations differs. Sometimes people translated quite literally (as with the translation of Judges
Seventy Translators
The Septuagint is named after a legend. The original legend said the Egyptian pharaoh
Later, the legend was adapted: it became 70 men (hence the name Septuagint) and they no longer just translated the Pentateuch, but the entire Old Testament. In the early Christian Church, the Septuagint was understood to refer to the entire Greek Old Testament.
The oldest version of this story of the origins of the Septuagint is recorded in the Letter of Aristeas, a text from the second century BC.
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