WHAT IS THE SEPTUAGINT?
The Septuagint, (also known as the LXX) refers to the Koine Greek version of the Tanach, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE in Alexandria. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Tanach into Greek. The word septuaginta means “seventy” in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy (or seventy-two) Jewish scholars translated the Torah from Hebrew into Greek for Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Contraty to popular belief, the Jewish scholars only translated the Torah (Five Books of Moses) and not the entire Tanach. The remainder of the Tanach was translated by non-Jewish Greek scholars.
