Chapter Five

The Septuagint
Emanuel Tov

General

NAME

The name of the Septuagint derives from the legend that 72 (70) elders trans-
lated the Pentateuch into Greek. In the second century c. E. this tradition was
extended to aile the translated books of the Bible, and finally the name
'Septuaginta' referred to all the books contained in the canon of the Greek
Bible, including books that are not translations of an original Semitic text.
Ancient sources mention 72, 70 or 5 translators of the Pentateuch. The main
tradition- which is found in rabbinic, Jewish-Hellenistic and Christian sources1
-mentions 72 or 70 elders, and only a few sources (e.g. A vot de-Rabbi Natan B
37, 94f.) mention 5 translators. The numbers 70 and 72 are probably legendary
and the precise relationship between them is unclear. Possibly the original
tradition referred to 72 translators (6 elders from each tribe as mentioned in the
Epistle of Aristeas) and this number was then rounded off to 70. But it is also
possible that seventy, which often serves as a typological number, was the
original one: to the tradition that seventy elders translated the Pentateuch into
Greek one can compare the 'seventy of the elders of Israel' who went up to the
mountain of Sinai together with Moses (Exod 24:1,9), the seventy elders who
were appointed to assist Moses (Num 11:16ff.) and the seventy members of the
Sanhedrin. 2
The name 'Septuagint' denotes both the first Greek translation of the Bible
and the collection of Jewish-Greek Scripture, containing inter alia this trans-
lation. The latter usage is imprecise because this collection contains also late
revisions of the original translation and books that were originally written in
Greek. In order to distinguish between the two usages of the word, the collec-
tion of Jewish-Greek Scripture is generally called the 'Septuagint', while the
first translation of the Bible is often named 'the Old Greek (translation)'.
1 The rabbinic sources have been collected and described by Miiller, 'Rabbinische Nachrichten',

73-93. The Greek and Latin sources have been collected by Wendland, Aristeae ad Philocratem
Epistula.
2 Cf. Metzger, 'Seventy or Seventy-two'.

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 THE SEPTUAGINT

SCOPE, ORDER AND NAMES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS

The canon of the Septuagint contains three types of books: a) A Greek trans-
lation of the 24 canonical books of the Hebrew Bible. b) A Greek translation of
books not included in the Hebrew canon. c) Books written in Greek as the
Wisdom of Solomon and the Additions to Daniel and Esther.
The latter two groups together form the so-called Apocrypha.
The Septuagint canon is arranged differently from the Hebrew canon. While
the Hebrew books are arranged in three groups reflecting different stages of the
process of canonization, the books of the Greek Bible are arranged according to
their literary character:a) Pentateuch and Historical books. b) Poetical and
Sapiential books. c) Prophetical books.
Within each group the sequence of books does not correspond to that of the
Hebrew canon.
The names of many of the books of the LXX differ from their counterparts in
the Hebrew Bible, but they, too, reflect early Jewish traditions. For example,
the Greek name of the fourth book of the Pentateuch, 'AQL8!J.OL, 'Numbers',
has its counterpart in the Mishna and Talmud as 'C,,,p!lil W?J,n (Hebrew
Bible: i:J.,?J:J.).

TIME OF COMPOSITION

Only a few data are known concerning the time of composition of the trans-
lations contained in the canon of the 'Lxx'. According to the Epistle ofAristeas
the Pentateuch was translated in the third century B.C. E.; this seems plausible in
the light of the early date of some papyri of the Pentateuch (middle or end
second century B.C.E.). The books of the Prophets and Hagiographa were
translated after the Pentateuch, since in them extensive use is made of its
vacabulary and it is often quoted. As for the terminus ad quem, since the
grandson of Ben Sira knew the translation of the books of the Prophets and part
of the Hagiographa (132 or 116 B.C.E., according to different computations),
these translations were probably finished before the first century B.C. E. Most of
the books may have been translated at an early stage (beginning second century
B.C.E. or earlier). One may note that the following books are quoted in early
sources: Chronicles is quoted by Eupolemus (middle second century B.C.E.) and
Job by Pseudo-Aristeas (beginning first century B.C.E.). Additionally, Isaiah
contains allusions to historical occurrences which indicate that it was translated
in the middle of the second century B.C.E. 3
The Septuagint canon also contains some revisions of 'Old Greek' trans-
lations, dating from the first century B.C. E. until the second century C.E .. Thus
some 400 years passed from the time of the first translation contained in this
canon until the time of the last one.

3 Cf. Seeligmann, Septuagint Version, 76-94.

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