Texts in Conversation
The Letter of Aristeas has the Jews of Alexandria curse anyone who adds to, changes or removes anything from the Greek law. Revelation 22 ends with the same kind of warning, threatening anyone who adds to the book or takes away from it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Letter of Aristeas 1:311
Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
After the books had been read, the priests and the elders of the translators and the Jewish community and the leaders of the people stood up and said, that since so excellent and sacred and accurate a translation had been made, it was only right that it should remain as it was and no alteration should be made in it. And when the whole company expressed their approval, they told them to pronounce a curse in accordance with their custom on anyone who should make any alteration either by adding anything or changing in any way whatever any of the words which had been written or making any omission. This was a very wise precaution to ensure that the book might be preserved for all the future time unchanged.
Revelation 22:18
New Testament
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!” 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge. 18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.
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Notes and References
“... In Deut 4:2 the formula does double duty as an injunction to protect the inviolability of a covenant treaty (the literary genre that frames Deuteronomy) and to protect a sacred text. [...] Another frequently cited parallel to Rev 22:18–19 is found in Ep. Arist. 311, where a sanction is pronounced by an assembly of Egyptian Jews in order to protect the LXX translation (M. Hadas, ed., Aristeas to Philocrates: Letter of Aristeas [New York: Harper, 1951] 221–23): [...] This legend was well known and was recounted also by Philo (Mos. 2.34), who reproduced the formula [...] Josephus (Ant. 12.109), who also recounts this formula, and Philo curiously omit any reference to the curse. ...”
* 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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