Meaning of SEPTUAGINT

It is the most famous and oldest translation of the OT, to Gr. popular (koine). According to legend, Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 BC) commissioned 72 Jewish scholars to carry out this work.

The LXX version, begun in Alexandria, gets its name from this tradition. It seems established that the translation of the Pentateuch was truly completed under Ptolemy Philadelphus.

The other books of the OT gradually followed, and the entire OT was translated around the year 150 BC. The style and manner of proceeding give evidence of many translators.

Philo, convinced of its conformity to the Hebrew text, says: "When the Hebrews who have learned Greek, or the Greeks who have learned Hebrew, read the two texts, they are amazed at these two editions, and they venerate them as two sisters, or even as one person" ("Life of Moses", by Philo).

In light of the aforementioned discoveries at Qumran, and the existence of mss. heb. related to the LXX, the belief that the LXX is in many places a poor translation of the Hebrew text can no longer be sustained.

In any case, the divergences it may show come from an earlier divergent Hebrew copy tradition. The LXX was adopted by the Christian church as the OT text, and most of the biblical quotations from the OT in the NT are from this version (see QUOTES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW).

There appear to have been three major recensions of the LXX. One appeared around the year 245 AD. and the other two are before the year 311 AD.

The first is from Origen (Palestine), the second is from Lucian (Asia Minor), the third from Hesychius (Egypt). These three men suffered martyrdom.

The Codex Vaticanus contains the AT gr. almost whole; the Codex Alexandrinus and the Codex Sinaiticus include a large part of this version. The Codex of Ephrem and others. They also contain portions of the AT gr.