The Septuagint: Scripture Translated into Greek (c. 250 BC)

The event

According to the earliest tradition, the Letter of Aristeas, the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy II Philadelphus commissioned Jewish scholars in Alexandria to translate the Torah into Greek, traditionally said to number seventy-two translators — hence the name Septuagint, from the Latin for "seventy." The Pentateuch was likely rendered into Greek around 250 BC, with the rest of the Old Testament following in stages over the following century.

The significance of this translation for the biblical storyline is hard to overstate. By the time of Jesus, the Septuagint (often abbreviated LXX) had become the Bible of Greek-speaking Jews throughout the Diaspora, and it is the version most frequently quoted by New Testament writers, including the Gospel authors, Luke in Acts, and the apostle Paul. God was, in effect, preparing His Word to travel in the one language nearly every corner of the Roman world could read, in the very generations before the gospel needed exactly that.

The Letter of Aristeas does contain some clearly legendary embellishment — angelic guidance and all seventy-two translators independently producing an identical text — details most historians, evangelical and otherwise, treat as pious elaboration rather than sober history. But the underlying reality of a genuine, careful scholarly translation project in third-century-BC Alexandria is not seriously doubted, and the Septuagint remains one of our most valuable ancient witnesses to the Old Testament text, still consulted by Bible translators today.

Dating

The Letter of Aristeas dates the project to the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC) and claims it was finished in just 72 days — a detail most scholars regard as legendary. The Pentateuch was almost certainly translated around 250 BC; the remaining Old Testament books followed gradually and were essentially all rendered into Greek before the New Testament era began.

Scripture references

• Acts 8:30-33

Other witnesses

• Letter of Aristeas
• Philo of Alexandria, Life of Moses 2