Translation of the Septuagint

Jewish scholars in Alexandria translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (the Septuagint or LXX), making the Old Testament accessible to Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles throughout the diaspora.

The Septuagint becomes the Bible of the early church and the version most quoted by New Testament authors. It bridges Jewish and Gentile worlds.

Background

By the third century BC, a large and prosperous Jewish community had taken root in Alexandria, Egypt, the cosmopolitan capital founded by Alexander the Great. Many of these diaspora Jews spoke Greek as their primary language and were increasingly unfamiliar with biblical Hebrew. Meanwhile, the Greek-speaking Gentile world contained many who were curious about the Jewish scriptures and the monotheistic faith they described. The need for a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek became pressing both for diaspora Jews who could no longer read the original language and for the broader Greek-speaking world seeking access to Israel's literature. According to the ancient Letter of Aristeas — though embellished in its legendary details — Ptolemy II Philadelphus sponsored the project, requesting that seventy-two Jewish scholars from Jerusalem travel to Alexandria to produce the translation.

The Event

Beginning around 285 BC, Jewish scholars in Alexandria undertook the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. The Torah (the Five Books of Moses) was translated first, with the remaining books following over subsequent decades. The completed Greek translation came to be known as the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX, from the Latin for "seventy"), referring to the tradition of seventy (or seventy-two) translators. The translators made deliberate interpretive decisions — rendering the divine name, selecting Greek equivalents for Hebrew theological terms, and occasionally paraphrasing for Greek idiom — that would shape Jewish and Christian theology for centuries. The text circulated widely across the Mediterranean diaspora and became the standard scripture for Greek-speaking Jewish communities.

Theological Significance

The Septuagint's significance for the history of the Bible and the church is virtually impossible to overstate. It became the Bible of the early church: the New Testament authors quote the Hebrew scriptures overwhelmingly from the LXX rather than the Hebrew, making it the scriptural foundation of Christian theology. Key passages central to the New Testament's argument about Jesus — including the virgin birth prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 (using the Greek parthenos, "virgin") — derive their precise wording from the Septuagint. Paul's arguments in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews depend on the LXX's specific vocabulary. By making Israel's scriptures accessible in the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, the Septuagint prepared an enormous audience of Jews and God-fearing Gentiles throughout the diaspora to receive the Gospel proclamation when it came.