The text of the Greek Old Testament is quoted more often than the original Hebrew Bible text in the Greek New Testament (particularly the Pauline epistles) by the Apostolic Fathers, and later by the Greek Church Fathers. Greek scriptures were in wide use during the Second Temple period, because few people could read Hebrew at that time. However, the authenticity of Aristeas' letter has been questioned "t was the English monk Humphrey Hody (1684) who was able to show convincingly that the letter was not by a contemporary of Philadelphus." Whatever share the Ptolemaic court may have had in the translation, it satisfied a need felt by the Jewish community, in whom the knowledge of Hebrew was waning. Egyptian papyri from the period have led most scholars to view as probable Aristeas's dating of the translation of the Pentateuch to the third century BCE. The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend might indicate the esteem and disdain in which the translation was held at the time Greek translations of Hebrew scriptures were in circulation among the Alexandrian Jews.
English to greek translation full#
The full title ( Ancient Greek: Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα, lit.'The Translation of the Seventy') derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas that the Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 72: six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who independently produced identical translations. The remaining books of the Greek Old Testament are presumably translations of the 2nd century BCE. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, were translated in the mid- 3rd century BCE.
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint ( / ˈ s ɛ p tj u ə dʒ ɪ n t/, US also / s ɛ p ˈ tj uː ə dʒ ɪ n t/ from the Latin: septuaginta, lit.'seventy' often abbreviated 70 in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible and deuterocanonical books.