Texts in Conversation
In Exodus 24, seventy elders of Israel go up the mountain with Moses when God gives the law. The Letter of Aristeas has seventy-two elders, six from each tribe, sent to translate the law, a number close enough to present the translation as a new Sinai.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 24:9
Hebrew Bible
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of blue sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank. 12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.”
Letter of Aristeas 1:46
Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
holy law might prove advantageous to you and be carried out successfully. In the presence of all the people I selected six elders from each tribe, good and true men, and I have sent them to you with a copy of our law. It will be a kindness, righteous king, if you will give instruction that as soon as the translation of the law is completed, the men shall be restored again to us in safety. Farewell.' The following are the names of the elders: Of the first tribe, Joseph, Ezekiah, Zachariah, John, Ezekiah, Elisha. Of the second tribe, Judas, Simon, Samuel, Adaeus, Mattathias, Eschlemias. Of
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Notes and References
“... Demetrius conducts an investigation to discern which Jewish scrolls were available and concludes that a fresh translation with the very best scrolls would be necessary. The scrolls of the Law of the Jews were not only written in the Hebrew language and stood in need of translation. They were also full of mistakes due to careless copying since, as Demetrius reports, they had not been produced under royal patronage. If the Ptolemaic Library were to include the Jewish Law, an accurate version was necessary. This outstanding version was to be completed by seventy-two translators, six from each of the twelve tribes, and it is no accident that the feature of seventy-two translators is close to the number of the seventy elders who went with Moses to Sinai (sections 28-32; cf. Exodus 24:1, 9). The Septuagint, the Letter of Aristeas implies, is a new revelation. ...”
Law, Timothy Michael
When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible
(p. 37) Oxford University Press, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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