Subject: Re: nice detail, robbie...
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 10 2002 - 22:46:40 EDT
Here's what I have about the Septuagint (LXX).
From: Swete, H.B. _Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek_.
Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA: 1914.
He affirms that some early writers tried to attribute some of Plato's
ideas to Mosaic influences, namely Alexandrian Jews -- one Aristobulus,
and a psuedo-Aristeas in a letter to Demetrius of Phaelerum, both imply
that there were Greek copies of the OT before 400 BC. Swete figures
that these were attempts "on the part of Hellenistic Jews to find a
Hebrew origin for the best products of Greek thought" (2), at least
partially because there's simply no textual evidence for OT Greek texts
that old.
Swete observes that there were Jews in Egypt long before the conquests
of Alexander the Great, possibly as far back as the 10th century BC. In
the early 4th century BC, though, Alexander conquered most of what is
now the Middle East, including Egypt. The first Ptolemy after
Alexander's death, Swete says, added considerably to the Jewish
population of Alexandria -- still early 4th century BC.
This is all important because it is Swete's argument that the LXX was
created to meet the needs of a Greek speaking Jewish community in
Alexandria, a community that by the Christian era was around 1 million
(according to Swete).
The earliest history of the LXX is in a letter of Aristeas to
Philocrates which is very conveniently in the back of the volume. In
freaking Greek. I've had a little but certainly can't translate :).
But this letter is the source of the story that 6 rabbis were taken from
each of the 12 tribes of Israel -- a total of 72 translators -- to
translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek for the Alexandrian library,
who supposedly completed their work in 70 days. They supposedly brought
with them scrolls written in gold ink. Misreadings of this letter by
early Christians led to stories that each of them made their own
separate translations...and they all miraculously matched when compared.
Misreadings also led to the idea that the entire OT was translated into
Greek, but Aristeas, as Robbie mentioned, only said that the Pentateuch
had been translated (23).
This doesn't mean a full translation wasn't completed before the time
of Christ, however. The author of the prologue to Sirach, who is
estimated to have written around 132 BC, makes reference to "The law,
the prophets, and the rest of the books" already current in
translation. Swete goes on and cites other evidence, then asserts that
"though the direct evidence is fragmentary, it is probable that before
the Christian era Alexanria possessed the whole, or nearly the whole, of
the Hebrew Scriptures in Greek translation" (25).
He then goes on to observe that Philo and the NT authors quote from most
of the LXX, and esp. and interestingly that Josephus' list of the books
of the OT "is practically identical with our own" (26). Swete closes his
introductory remarks by saying "thus while the testimony of the first
century AD does not absolutely require us to believe that all the books
of the Hebrew canon had been translated and were circulated in a Greek
version druing the Apostolic age, such a view is not improbable; and it
is confirmed by the fact that they are all contained in the canon of the
Greek Bible which the Christian Church received from its Jewish
predecessors" (27).
I think it's important to note the use of the word "canon." The
importance of this collection and its being quoted with some authority
in Philo, Josephus, and by the NT authors -- and being accorded some
authority by simply being gathered with the books of the Law -- is that
the canon existed more in a sacred sense than in a literary sense. I
suspect the LXX, which does indeed seem to have been a fairly complete
collection of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings and hagiographa
prior to the time of Christ, is also testimony to the idea of a sacred
canon prior to the time of Christ. While the boundaries of this canon
were somewhat fluid, it seems they did exist.
Jim
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