Letter of Aristeas

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About This Text

Composed: Alexandria, c.280 – c.80 BCE

The Letter of Aristeas is an apocryphal work detailing how the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Bible, came into formation. Composed in the 2nd century BCE by a Greek-speaking Jew, it takes the form of a letter from an official of Ptolemy II, a Greek monarch of Egypt, explaining how Ptolmey II requested Jewish translators from the high priest of Jerusalem. The high priest sent 72 elders, who translated the Torah’s five books in 72 days. The work is one of few early Jewish works in Greek preserved in its entirety, and provides the basis for the name "Septuagint" (“seventy,” a reference to 72 translators, or in other accounts of the story, 70 translators).

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