SEPTUAGINT, THE, the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testainent, so named from the legend of its composition by 7o (Lat. Septuaginta, LXX.), or more exactly 72, translators sent from Jerusalem to Alexandria at the request of Ptolemy II. Philadelphus (288-247 B.c.) by the high priest Eleazar. The Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates (see ARISTEAS) which unfolds a fantastic story is certainly spurious, though it contains some ele ments of truth; e.g., that the work was the result of collabora tion and was approved by the Jewish community in Alexandria. The king's share in the business is quite secondary, but we know that Ptolemy Philadelphus was a ruler of eclectic literary tastes, and he may well have encouraged an enterprise which not only appealed to his own curiosity but would promote the use of the Greek tongue among the large Jewish population of his city.
That population had been steadily increasing since the time of Alexander the Great, and while remaining loyal to the Hebrew faith had lost its knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, without ac quiring that Aramaic equivalent which had become the com mon speech of Palestine, and in which the law and the prophets were expounded in the synagogues of Palestine. Faced by sheer necessity, the pious Jews of Alexandria were resolved to under stand the Scriptures which were read to them in their own syna gogues, and they overcame the age-long prejudice of the authori ties at Jerusalem against the writing of Scripture in any but the old holy form.
It was natural to begin with the law, and the Greek version of the Pentateuch dates from the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. In the 2nd century B.C., when it had become customary to read not only the law but the prophets in public worship, the bulk of this second section of the Hebrew scriptures was similarly trans lated. In each case the work was done by a small company, but afterwards the enterprise became more casual. From the prologue to Ecclesiasticus we learn that about 13o B.C. portions of the third division of the Hebrew Bible—the "Writings"—were also extant in Greek, but these were private ventures made not so much to meet the direct need of the synagogue as those of a public now be coming interested in the growing series of translations of the Hebrew sacred books. Philo (c. A.D. 40) seems to have known the Greek versions of all the O.T. books except Esther, Ecclesiastes, Canticles and Daniel.
As the work of translation went on so gradually, the compass of the Greek Bible came to be somewhat indefinite. The law
always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon; but the prophetic collection changed its aspect by having various writings incorporated with it according to an arbitrary arrange ment by subjects. In some books the translators made consider able additions to the original, e.g., those to Daniel, and these became a part of the Septuagint. To some extent the widening of the O.T. canon in Greek must be laid to the account of Chris tians. The Septuagint does not keep the triple Hebrew division of law, prophets (which included history) and writings, but groups its books according to subject-matter, law, history, poetry, prophecy, a divergence which was important for the his tory of the O.T. canon in the Christian Church. The early Chris tians generally accepted the LXX. canon, which through the Old Latin, despite Jerome's Vulgate adoption of the Hebrew canon, passed into the West and into Latin Bibles, where the Apocrypha are still included.
After the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in A.D. 7o there was a reaction against the LXX., a movement connected with the strict definition of the canon and the fixing of an authori tative Hebrew text by the rabbis of Palestine. But long usage had made it impossible for the Jews to do without a Greek Bible, and to meet the need a new version was prepared in accurate cor respondence with the Pharisaic text and canon. This was the version of Aquila, which took the place of the LXX. in the syna gogues, and long continued in use there. Later versions were produced by Theodotion (whose Daniel even got into LXX. MSS.) and Symmachus (see BIBLE : OLD TESTAMENT, Texts and Versions). The vocabulary and accidence of the Greek of the Septuagint are substantially those of the KOCH otA1EKTOS or Hel lenistic Greek spoken throughout the empire of Alexander. The language of the Pentateuch attains the higher level of the papyri of the early Ptolemaic age; that of the prophets reflects the less literary style of the papyri of c. 130-100 B.C. In the latest parts of the translation Dr. St. John Thackeray notes two opposing in fluences : (a) the growing reverence for the letter of Scripture, tending to a pedantic literalism; (b) the influence of the Attic istic school, strongest in free writings like 4 Macc. but leaving its mark also on 4 Kings. In syntax especially the LXX. is strongly tinged with Hebraisms, and there are many passages where it is almost impossible to extract any rational meaning.