The Septuagint was held in the very highest repute among the Alexandrine Jews, while the Palestinians looked upon it as a dangerous innovation, andveit instituted the day of its completion as a day of mourning. Gradually, however, it also found its way into Palestine, and at the time of the composition of the New Testament it seems almost to have superseded the original, considering that its quotations from the Old Testament are almost invariably given from the LXX. It was read and interpreted in the syna gogues for some centuries after Christ, until the increasing knowledge of the original, fostered by the many academies and schools and the frequent disputatious with the early Christians, brought other and more faithful and literal translations, such as that of Aquila, Theodotion, etc., into use, and gradually the LXX, was altogether discarded in the synagogue. The church, however, for a long time, and the Greek church up to this day, considered it as of equal authority and inspiration with the Hebrew text itself; and many translations were made from it into the vernaculars of different Christian communities (the Italy, the Syriac, the Ethiopian, Egyptian, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonian, etc.). The large ailrusion of the LXX. among the Hellenists and the churches, and the want of anything like a critically fixed text, together with the pious desire bodily to peculiar explanation given to obscure passages by single authorities, the ignorance of the copyists, and a number of other causes, contributed not little to render the MSS. corrupt, in some instances past mending. Nor were the
endeavors of Origen (q.v.) in his Ilexapla, or of Lucianus and Hesychius for a restora tion of the proper text of any avail. The principal MSS. that have, as far as we know, survived are the Codex Alexandrinus in the British museum, the Codex Vaticanus in Home, and the Sinaitic Codex (imperfect) in St. Petersburg, all of which belong to the time between the 4th and 6th centuries A-D. The principal editions are the Compluten sian (151447), reprinted in the Antwerp and Paris Polygot; the Aldine of Venice (151$); the Sixtine of Rome (1587), partly reprinted in Walton's Polygot (1657), by Lamb Bros. (Fmneker, 1702); Remeecius (Leip. 1730); Parsons & Holmes (Oxford, 171.18-1827); Tis chendorf (1850, etc.). Following more closely the Codex Alexaudrinus is the edition of Grabe (Oxford, 1707-20, completed by F. Lee), reprinted by Iheitiuger (Zhi lett, 1730-32) and others. The Alexandrine Codex has been reproduced in facsimile by H. H. Babel.; the Sinaitic in the same manner by Tischendort Some other MS. recen sions are mentioned by the early fathers, such as the "Hebrew," the " Syrian," the " Samaritan," the "Helleuian," etc. The literature of the LXX. is very large, and special grammars and dictionaries have been compiled for its peculiarly corrupt idiom.