Statement of Aristeas, a supposed officer of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that the Septuagint was executed by seventy-two interpreters.-The ancientest account we have hereof is from a book still extant, under the name of Aristeas, which is professedly written to give us the whole history of it. He is said therein to have been a prime officer in the guards of Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt, at the time when this affair was transacted. What we are told of it by him is as followeth ::- Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, being intent on making a great library at Alexandria, and being desirous of getting all manner of books into it, committed the care of this matter to Demetrius Phalereus, a noble Athenian, then living in his court, directing him to procure from all nations whatsoever books were of note among them. Demetrius, in the search he made pursuant to these orders, being informed of the book of the law of Moses among the Jews, acquainted the king hereof, whereon he signified his pleasure, that the book should be sent for from Jerusalem, with interpreters from the same place to render it into Greek; and ordered him to lay before him in writing what was proper to be done herein, that accordingly he might send to the high priest about it. Aristeas, the pretended author of this history of the seventytwo interpreters, Sosibius of Tarentum, and Andreas, three nobles of king Ptolemy's court, having great favour for the Jews, took this opportunity to move the king in the behalf of those of that nation who had been taken captive by king Ptolemy Soter in those invasions made by him upon Judæa, which are above mentioned, and were then in bondage in Egypt, telling him, that it would be in vain to expect from the Jews either a true copy of their law, or a faithful translation of it, as long as he kept so many of their countrymen in slavery; and therefore they proposed to him first to release all those Jews, before he should send to Jerusalem about this matter. Hereon the king asked, what the number of those captive Jews might be? Andreas answered, that they might be somewhat above one hundred thousand. "And do you then think (said the king) that this is a small matter which Aristeas asketh?" To this Sosibius replied, that the greater it was, the more it would become so great a king to do it. Whereon king Ptolemy, complying with the proposal, published a decree for the release of all the Jewish captives in Egypt, and ordered twenty drachms a head to be paid out of his treasury to those that had them in servitude for the price of their redemption; and this was computed to amount to four hundred talents, which shows the number of the redeemed to have been one hundred and twenty thousand; for four hundred talents, at twenty drachms a head, would redeem just so many. But afterwards the king having ordered the children that were born to those Jews while in their servitude, and the mothers that bore them, to be also redeemed, this made the whole expense to amount to six hundred and sixty talents; which proves the whole number of the redeemed, that is, men, women, and children, to have amounted to one hundred and ninetyeight thousand for so many six hundred and sixty talents, at the price of twenty drachms a head, would have redeemed. When this was done, Demetrius, according as he was ordered, laid before the king, in a memorial, the whole method which he thought was proper to be followed for the obtaining from the Jews the book of the law of Moses, which he desired. What he proposed in this memorial was, that a letter VOL. II. : D should be written to Eleazar, the high priest of the Jews at Jerusalem, to send from thence a true copy of the Hebrew original, and with it six out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, to translate it into the Greek language. And, according to this proposal, a letter was written in the king's name to Eleazar the high priest to send the book, and with it, for the rendering of it into Greek, six elders out of every tribe, which he should judge best able to perform the work. And Aristeas, the pretended author of this history, and Andreas above mentioned, were sent with this letter to Jerusalem; who carried with them also from the king several gifts for the temple, in money, for sacrifices there to be offered, and other uses of the sanctuary, one hundred talents; in utensils of silver seventy talents, and in utensils of gold fifty talents, and precious stones in the adornments of the said utensils, of five times the value of the gold. On their coming to Jerusalem, they were received with great respect by the high priest and all the people of the Jews, and had all readily granted them which they went thither for. And therefore having received from the high priest a true copy of the law of Moses, all written in golden letters, and six elders out of every tribe, that is, seventy-two in all, to make a version of it into the Greek language, they returned with them to Alexandria. On their arrival, the king, calling those elders to his court, made trial of them by seventytwo questions proposed to them, to each one in their order; and from the answers which they made, approving of their wisdom, he gave to each of them three talents, and sent them into the island of Pharus adjoining to Alexandria, for the performing of the work which they came for: where Demetrius, having conducted them over the Heptastadium (a bank of seven furlongs in length, which joined that island to the continent) into a house there provided for them, they forthwith betook themselves to the business of the interpretation; and as they agreed in the version of each period by common conference together, Demetrius wrote it down, and thus, in the space of seventy-two days, they performed the whole work; whereon the whole being read over, and approved of in the king's presence, the king gave to each of them three rich garments, two talents in gold, and a cup of gold of a talent weight, and then sent them all home into their own country. Thus far Aristeas. Statement of Aristobulus, an Alexandrian Jew: a copy of Aristeas. -Aristobulus, an Alexandrian Jew, and a Peripatetic philosopher, is the next that makes mention of this version. He flourished in the one hundred and eighty-eighth year of the era of contracts (that is, in B. C. 125), for then a letter was written to him by the Jews of Jerusalem and Judæa, as we have it in the Second Book of the Maccabees.' This Aristobulus is said to have written a comment on the five books of Moses, and to have dedicated it to king Ptolemy Philometer, to whom he had been preceptor, and therein to have spoken of this Greek version made under the care and direction of Demetrius Phalereus, by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt. The book is not now extant. All that remains of it are some few fragments quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus 3 and Eusebius, in which, having asserted that 1 Chap. i. ver. 10. Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. 3, c. 10. Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. 13, c. 12. Clemens Alex. Strom. lib. 1. 3 Strom. lib. 1, et lib. 5. Canon. Chron. p. 187. Præp. Evang. lib. 7, c. 13, lib. 8. c. 9, lib. 13, c. 12. 35 Pythagoras, Plato, and other Grecians, had taken most of their philosophy from the Hebrew Scriptures, to make this seem the more probable, he tells us, these Scriptures had been for the most part translated into Greek before the time of Alexander and the Persian empire; but that under Ptolemy Philadelphus a more perfect translation was made of the whole by the care of Demetrius Phalereus. Statement of Philo, another Alexandrian Jew: a copy of Aristeas, with additions.-The next that makes mention of this version is Philo, another Alexandrian Jew, who was contemporary with our Saviour. For it was but a little after the time of his crucifixion that he was sent in an embassy from the Jews of Alexandria to Caius Cæsar the Roman emperor. In his account of it he tells us the same that Aristeas doth,2 of king Ptolemy Philadelphus's sending to Jerusalem for elders to make this version; of the questions proposed to them on their first arrival, for the trial of their wisdom; and of their retiring into the island of Pharus for the accomplishing of this work, and of their finishing it there in that retirement; and thus far he plainly writes after Aristeas. But he further adds, what Aristeas gives him no foundation for, that in their interpretations they all so exactly agreed, as not to differ so much as in a word: but to have rendered everything not only in the same sense, but also in the same phrases and words of expression, so as not to vary in the least each from other through the whole work. From whence he infers, that they acted not herein as common interpreters, but as men prophetically inspired and divinely directed, who had every word dictated to them by the Holy Spirit of God through the whole version. And he adds further, that in commemoration of this work, the Jews of Alexandria kept a solemn anniversary one day in every year, when they went over into the island of Pharus, and there spent that day in feasting and rejoicing, and giving praise to God for his divine assistance in so wonderful a manner given by him in the making of this version. 4 Statements of Josephus and Eusebius: copies of Aristeas, with a variation as to the money paid for the redemption of the captive Jews.Josephus, who wrote his Antiquities of the Jews towards the end of the first century after Christ, agreeth with Aristeas in his relation of this matter,3 what he writes of it being no more than an abridgment of that author. And Eusebius, who flourished about two hundred and twenty years after him, doth the same, giving us of it no other account but what he found in Aristeas, and is now extant in him: only as to Josephus, it must be acknowledged there is a variation in his account concerning the price paid by Ptolemy for the redemption of the captive Jews: for whereas Aristeas saith it was twenty drachms a head, and that the sum total amounted to six hundred and sixty talents; Josephus lays it at one hundred and twenty drachms a head, and the sum total at four hundred and sixty talents; in all other things they exactly agree. Statement of Justin Martyr: a copy of Aristeas, with further additions. -The next author after Josephus who makes mention of this version and the manner of making it, was Justin Martyr, a Christian writer, who flourished in the middle of the second century [A. D.], about one 2 De Vita Mosis, lib. 2. hundred years after Philo. He having been at Alexandria, and there discoursed with the Jews of that place concerning this matter, tells us what he found there related, and was then firmly believed among them concerning it. Whereby it appears, that what Philo tells us of the wonderful agreement of the interpreters in the making of that version was much further improved by his time. For they had then added to the story distinct cells for the interpreters, and the fiction of their being shut up all in them apart from each other, one in each cell, and of each of them therein making a distinct version by himself, and all agreeing together to a word, on the comparing of what each had done; which the good man swallowing with a thorough credulity, writes of it in the words following: "Ptolemy king of Egypt, having a mind to erect a library at Alexandria, caused books to be brought thither from all parts to fill it; and being informed that the Jews kept with great care ancient histories written in Hebrew, and being desirous to know what these writings contained, sent to Jerusalem for seventy learned men, who understood the Hebrew and the Greek languages, and ordered them to translate those books; and to the end they might be the more at quiet and free from noise, and thereby be enabled the sooner to make this translation, he would not have them stay in the city, but caused to be built for them in the island of Pharus, seven furlongs from Alexandria, as many little houses or cells as there were interpreters, that each might there apart by himself make his version. And he enjoined those who served them to do them all sorts of good offices, but to prevent their conferring together, that he might know, by the conformity of their versions, whether their translation was true and exact. And finding afterwards, that these seventy persons did not only agree in the sense, but also in the same terms, so that there was not one word in any one of their versions which was not in all the other, but that they all wrote, word for word, the same expressions, he was surprised with admiration, and not doubting but that this version was made by the Spirit of God, he heaped honours upon the interpreters, whom he looked on as men dear unto God, and sent them home loaden with presents to their own country. And, as to the books, he received them with that veneration which was due to them, looking on them as divine books, and placed them in his library." And then the holy man adds, for the confirming of this story, which he himself thoroughly believed as true: "These things, which we now relate unto you, O Greeks, are not fables and feigned stories. For we ourselves, having been at Alexandria, did there see the ruins of those little houses, or cells, in the island of Pharus, there still remaining; and what we now tell you of them we had from the inhabitants of the place, who had received it from their forefathers by undoubted tradition." And in another place," he saith of the same matter: "When Ptolemy king of Egypt was preparing a library, in which he purposed to gather together the writings of all men, having heard of the writings of the prophets among the Jews, he sent to Herod, then king of the Jews, to desire him to transmit to him those books of the prophets. Whereon king Herod sent them unto him, written in the Hebrew language. But whereas those books, as written in this language, were wholly unintelligible to the Egyptians, he sent 1 Cohort. ad Gentes, p. 14. Apologia secunda pro Christianis. a second time to Herod to desire him to send interpreters to translate them into the Greek language; which being done, these books thus translated are still remaining among the Egyptians, even to this day, and copies of them are now in the hands of the Jews, in all places wheresoever they are." 4 5 Ancient Fathers adopted the account in Justin Martyr.-Irenæus,' Clemens Alexandrinus, Hilary,3 Austin, Cyril of Jerusalem, Philastrius Brixiensis, and the generality of the ancient Fathers that lived after Justin, follow him in this matter of the cells, and the wonderful agreement of all the versions made in them. And some also of the moderns are zealous contenders for the truth of this story, being fond of a miracle which would so much conduce to the confirming of the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures against all gainsayers; and it is much to be wished, that it were built upon such authority as would not admit of any of those objections which are urged against it. Statement of Epiphanius: a further corruption of the story by false traditions. By the time of Epiphanius, who was made bishop of Salamine in Cyprus, A. D. 368, false traditions had further corrupted this story. For he gives a relation of the matter which differs from that of Justin, as well as of Aristeas, and yet he quotes Aristeas, even in those particulars which he relates otherwise than that author doth; which shows, that there was another Aristeas in his time, different from that which we now have, though it be plain that the author which is now extant with us under that name is certainly the same which Josephus and Eusebius used. What Epiphanius writes hereof would be too long to be all here inserted. The sum of it is, that Ptolemy Philadelphus,7 designing to make a library at Alexandria, sent to all countries to procure copies of their books to put into it, and committed it to the care of Demetrius Phalereus to manage this whole matter; by whom being informed of the books of the Holy Scriptures, which the Jews then had at Jerusalem, he sent an embassy thither, with a letter to the high priest, to procure a copy of the said books. That hereon the Jews sent twenty-two canonical books and seventy-two apocryphal, all written in Hebrew. But Ptolemy not being able to read them in that language, he sent a second embassy to Jerusalem for interpreters to make a version of them into Greek: for which purpose a second letter was written to the high priest; and that the Jews, on the receipt of this last letter, sent him seventy-two interpreters, chosen six out of every tribe, who made the version according as was desired. The manner in which he saith this was done will best appear from his own "The seventy-two interpreters were in words: they are as followeth :the island of Pharus (which lieth over against Alexandria, and in respect of it is called the upper land), shut up in thirty-six little houses, or cells, by two and two in a cell, from morning till night, and were every night carried, in thirty-six boats, to king Ptolemy's palace, there to sup with him, and then were lodged in thirty-six bedchambers, by two and two in a chamber, that they might not confer together about the said version, but make it faithfully according to what appeared to 2 Strom. lib. 1. Epiphanius in libro de Ponderibus et Mensuris. p. |