Untitled article by I. D. VAN HORN

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 17, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 14

TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES INTO GREEK.

By I. D. VAN HORN

[Bro. Smith; Thinking many of the readers of the Review would be pleased to read the historical account of the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language, as given by Rollin in his Ancient History, Vol. iii, Book xvi, Chap. 2, and Sec. 6, I herewith copy the same, and place it at your disposal. , I. D. VAN HORN.]

“PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS CAUSES THE BOOKS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES TO BE TRANSLATED INTO GREEK.”

“The tumult of the wars, which diversity of interest had kindled among the successors of Alexander, throughout the whole extent of their territories, did not prevent Ptolemy Philadelphus from devoting his utmost attention to the noble library he had founded in Alexandria, and wherein he deposited the most valuable and curious books he was capable of collecting from all parts of the world. This prince being informed that the Jews were masters of a work which contained the laws of Moses, and the history of that people, was desirous of having it translated from the Hebrew language into the Greek, in order to enrich his library with that performance. To accomplish this design, it became necessary for him to address himself to the high priest of the Jewish nation; but the affair happened to be attended with some difficulty. A very considerable number of Jews had been actually reduced to a state of slavery in Egypt, by Ptolemy Soter, during the invasions of Judea in his time; and it was represented to the king that there would be no probability of obtaining from that people either a copy or a faithful translation of their law, while he suffered such a number of their countrymen to continue in their present servitude. Ptolemy, who always acted with the utmost generosity, and was extremely solicitous to enlarge his library, did not hesitate a moment, but issued a decree for restoring all the Jewish slaves in his dominions to their full liberty; with orders to his treasurer to pay to their masters twenty drachms each for their ransom. The sum expended on this occasion amounted to four hundred talents, so that one hundred and twenty thousand Jews recovered their freedom by this bounteous proceeding. The king then gave orders for discharging the children born in slavery with their mothers, and the sum employed for this purpose amounted to more than two hundred talents. These advantageous preliminaries gave Ptolemy hopes that he should easily obtain his request from the high-priest, whose name was Eleazar. He had sent ambassadors to that pontiff, with a very obliging letter on his part, accompanied with magnificent presents. The ambassadors were received at Jerusalem with all imaginable honors, and the king’s request was granted with the greatest joy. Upon which they returned to Alexandria with an authentic copy of the

Mosaic law, written in letters of gold, and given them by the high-priest himself, with six elders of each tribe, that is to say, seventy-two in the whole; and they were authorized to translate that copy into the Greek language.”

“The king was desirous of seeing these deputies, and proposed to each of them a different question, in order to make trial of their capacity. He was satisfied with their answers, in which appeared great wisdom, and loaded them with presents, and other marks of his friendship. The elders were then conducted to the isle of Pharos, and lodged in a house prepared for their reception, where they were plentifully supplied with all necessary accommodations. They applied themselves to their work without losing time, and in seventy-two days completed the volume which is commonly called the Septuagint Version. The whole was afterwards read and approved, in the presence of the king, who admired, in a peculiar manner, the wisdom of the laws of Moses, and dismissed the seventy-two deputies with extremely magnificent presents; part of which was for themselves, others for the high-priest, and the remainder for the temple. Expenses of this nature, though very considerable, never ruin a state, and do a prince great honor.”

“The author, from whom these facts are extracted, is Aristæus, who represents himself as one of the officers of the guard of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He adds a number of other circumstances which I have omitted, because they seem more improbable than those I have inserted. It is pretended that the writers, whether Jews, as Aristobulus, Philo, and Josephus; or Christians, as Justin, Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Hilary, Austin, and some others, who have employed their pens on the subject of the Septuagint version, have founded all their relations solely on the veracity of Aristæus, when the work that bears his name is thought to be a spurious piece. Some of these authors have added circumstances which are generally disbelieved, because they have too much of the marvelous in them. Philo declares that though their translations were made in separate apartments, yet the least difference in the sense or style in which they were couched was so far from appearing, that, on the contrary, the expressions were everywhere the same, even to a single word, from whence he concludes that these persons were not mere translators, but men inspired by the Spirit of God, who conducted them on that occasion, and dictated the whole to them, even to the minutest word. Justin, and after him the other fathers already mentioned, suppose that each of the seventy-two interpreters performed his version in a separate cell, without the least correspondence with each other, and yet that all their translations were perfectly conformable to each other in every particular.”

“I have frequently declared my resolution not to enter into any historical disquisitions of this nature, which would require much time and learning, and would, therefore, call off my attention too long from my principal object. The reader may consult the learned Prideaux, who has treated this subject at large. All that can be depended upon, and which no one has thought fit to contest, is, that a translation of the sacred books from the Hebrew into the Greek, was made in Egypt, in the time of the Ptolemies; that we have this translation still extant, and that it is the same which was used in the time of our blessed Saviour, as most of the passages cited by the sacred writers of the New Testament from the original Greek of the Old, are to be found verbatim in this version. It still subsists and continues to be used in the oriental churches; as it was also by those of the primitive ages, among whom it passed for a canonical translation.”

“This version, therefore, which renders the Scriptures of the Old Testament intelligible to a vast number of people, became one of the most considerable fruits of the Grecian conquests; and was evidently comprehended in the design God had in view when he delivered up all the East to the Greeks, and supported them in those regions, notwithstanding their divisions and jealousies, their wars, and the frequent revolutions that happened among them. In this manner did God prepare the way for the preaching of the gospel which was then approaching, and facilitate the union of so many nations, of different languages and manners, into one society, and the same worship and doctrines, by the instrumentality of the finest, most copious, and correct language that ever was spoken in the world, and which became common to all the countries that were conquered by Alexander.”