Letter_of_Aristeas | TriviaQuestions.online

⭐ In the context of the Septuagint, the 'Letter of Aristeas' provides a specific account of its origins, but is regarded with skepticism due to its classification as…

The source text explicitly states that some scholars consider the 'Letter of Aristeas' to be pseudepigraphical, meaning its attributed authorship is likely false, despite its detailed account of the Septuagint's translation.

⭐ Core Definition: Letter of Aristeas

The Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the 3rd or early 2nd century BC, considered by some Biblical scholars to be pseudepigraphical. The letter is the earliest text to mention the Library of Alexandria.

Josephus, who paraphrases about two-fifths of the letter, ascribes it to Aristeas of Marmora and to have been written to a certain Philocrates. The letter describes the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible by seventy-two interpreters sent into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, resulting in the Septuagint translation. Some scholars have since argued that it is fictitious.

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👉 Letter of Aristeas in the context of Septuagint

The Septuagint (/ˈsɛptjuədʒɪnt/ SEP-tew-ə-jint), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (Koine Greek: Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα, romanized: Hē metáphrasis tôn Hebdomḗkonta), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BC) by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—though this story is considered to be pseudepigraphical by some scholars.

Biblical scholars agree that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, centred on the large community in Alexandria, probably in the early or middle part of the 3rd century BC. The remaining books were presumably translated in the 2nd century BC. Some targums translating or paraphrasing the Bible into Aramaic were also made during the Second Temple period.

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