The differences with Rome are fairly small and have never been a subject of much contention between the Orthodox and that communion. There are a number of differences between the canon of the LXX and that of Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Christians, based on differences in translation tradition or doctrine. Following in the footsteps of those first generations of Christians, the Orthodox Church continues to regard the LXX as its only canonical text of the Old Testament. Given that the spread of the Gospel was most successful among the Gentiles and Hellenistic Jews, it made sense that the LXX would be the Bible for the early Church. Thus, when the Apostles quote the Jewish Scripture in their own writings, the overwhelmingly dominant source for their wording comes directly from the Septuagint (LXX).
By the time of our Lord, the Septuagint was the Bible in use by most Hellenistic Jews.
(Other accounts have the number at seventy or seventy-five.) Only the Torah (the first five books) was translated initially, but eventually other translations (and even compositions) were added to the collection. Six were chosen from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, giving us the commonly accepted number of seventy-two. Ptolemy contacted the chief priest, Eleazar, in Jerusalem and asked him to send translators. Since it is documented that Demetrius Phalerus died at the beginning of the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it has been reasonably inferred that Aristobulus was a witness that the work of translation had been commenced under Ptolemy Soter. In his Letter of Aristeas, he explains that the version of "the Law into Greek" was completed under the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and that Demetrius Phalerus had been employed about it. The earliest writer who gives an account of the Septuagint version is Aristobulus, a Jewish author who lived at the commencement of the second century B.C. Because Greek was the language of Alexandria, the Scriptures therefore had to be translated into that language. It was commissioned at the behest of the Egyptian King, Ptolemy, who wished to expand the celebrated library of Alexandria to include the wisdom of all the ancient religions of the world. The earliest extant version of the Old Testament is the translation executed in Alexandria in the third century before the Christian era this version became known as the Septuagint and more recently, the Alexandrian version. 4 Different Translations of the Septuagint in English.3 Variations with the Masoretic Text (MT).2 Differences with other Christian Canons.It is the basis of the canonical Old Testament of the Orthodox Church. 160), the term has come to refer to the other scriptural and related texts translated from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek in the next century. translation of the Pentateuch into Koine Greek. The "Translation of the Seventy" (from the Greek Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα), better known as the Septuagint (from the Latin septuaginta or "seventy", also referred to by the Roman numeral for seventy, LXX) originally referred to a 3rd century B.C.
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