Hmm.  Here’s an interesting bit of history to share.

King Ptolemy of Egypt.  (OK, he was really a Hellenistic King, ruling over the lower territories of the Kingdom; a contemporary of Alexander the Great.)

On the 8^th day of Tevet (which this year occurs on New Year’s Day), Ptolemy decreed that the Tora, the Jewish bible, be translated to Greek.  (Note that by this date, most Jewish folks were unable to read Hebrew- and there were considerable number of Christians whose vernacular was Greek, but used the Tora as a basis for the religious library.)  One of the oldest accounts of this event can be found in the Letter of Aristeas.  (Josephus, the Jewish-born, Greek historian attributes this letter to Aristeas of Marmora, written to his brother, Philocrates.)

What made this translation interesting is the Ptolemy order for 72 Jewish scholars to effect the translation.  Not by working together, but via individual effort, in separate rooms.  Since Ptolemy knew the Jews considered this book to be the work of Hashem, he would expect each translation to be identical.  (Surprise- it was.)

To the Jews, this was not a happy occasion.  After all, it was yet another schism, a break from studying and using the original documents, to guide our daily lives. (The Orach Chayim declared that when the translation was complete, there was darkness in the world for three days.)  Except within the Talmud, it is stated that Rav [Rabbi] Shimon Ben Gamliel authorized the translation to Greek, since most of the Jews knew that language and had difficulty with Hebrew.  This meant most of the Jews of the realm didn’t avoid using the Septuagint, which could bring the thoughts and ideals of Hashem to more of the populace.

[The event is recounted in the Talmud, Masechet Megilla, daf (page) 9A:  “King Ptolemy assembled seventy-two elders and placed them in seventy-two separate rooms without telling them why he had brought them together. And he went to each one of them and said to him: ‘translate for me the Torah of Moses your master.’ The Omnipresent inspired them and the mind of all of them was identical ]

This translation became known as the Septuagint (yes, the translation of the 70)  And, became the basis for the Christian bible (the “Old Testament”), anďis the oldest extant version of the Tora today.  Within another century, the rest of the Tanach (TaNaKh- Tora, Naviim, Kh’tuvot- the three sections of the Written Law of the Jews) was also translated to the Greek.

As Paul Harvey used to say- the rest of the story.

Oh, yeah-  Happy Secular New Year, Y’all!

Share this: