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The Septuagint

This was a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. It was made in Alexandria, where there were many Greek speaking Jews. Tradition has it that, at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B.C.), 70 Jews, skillful linguists, were sent from Jerusalem to Egypt. The Pentateuch was first translated. Later the rest of the Old Testament books were added to the translation. It was called the "Septuagint" from the 70 translators who were reputed to have begun it. .Greek was the language of the world at that time. This version was in common use in the days of Christ. The New Testament was written in Greek. Many of its quotations from the Old Testament are from the Septuagint.