The Legend of the Septuagint: From Classical Antiquity to Today PDF
Preview The Legend of the Septuagint: From Classical Antiquity to Today
This page intentionally left blank P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 the legend of the septuagint The Septuagint is the most influential of the Greek versions of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The exact circumstances of its creation are uncertain,butdifferentversionsofalegendaboutthemiraculousnatureofthetrans- lation have existed since antiquity. Beginning in the Letter of Aristeas, the legend describes how Ptolemy Philadelphus (285–247 b.c.e.) commissioned seventy-two Jewish scribes to translate the sacred Hebrew scriptures for his famous library in Alexandria. Subsequent variations on the story recount how the scribes, working independently,producedword-for-word,identicalGreekversions.Inthecourseof thefollowingcenturies,toourowntime,thestoryhasbeenadaptedandchanged byJews,Christians,Muslims,andpagansformanydifferentreasons:totellastory, toexplainhistoricalevents,and–mostfrequently–tolendauthoritytotheGreek textfortheinstitutionsthatusedit.Thisbookoffersthefirstaccountofallofthese versions over the last two millennia, providing a history of the uses and abuses of thelegendinvariousculturesaroundtheMediterranean. AbrahamWasserstein(bornFrankfurtamMain,1921,diedJerusalem,1995)taught attheuniversitiesofGlasgowandLeicesterbeforetakingupin1969achairinGreek attheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,wherehestayeduntilhisdeathin1995.He had special interests in Greek literature and science, and he wrote widely in these fields. His publications include an edition of the medieval Hebrew translation of Galen’s commentary on Hippocrates’ Airs, Waters and Places (lost in the original Greek).Thepresentbookwasbegunbyhimandleftincompleteathisdeath. DavidJ.Wasserstein,A.W.’sson,readclassicsandorientalstudiesatOxford(DPhil 1982).HelecturedinArabicandHebrewatUniversityCollege,Dublin,andwas professorofIslamichistoryatTelAvivUniversitybeforetakingupachairofHistory andofJewishStudiesatVanderbiltUniversity,inNashville,Tennessee,in2004.He istheauthorofTheRiseandFalloftheParty-Kings(1985)andTheCaliphateinthe West(1993),aswellasofmanyarticlesonmedievalIslamicandJewishtopics. i P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 ii P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 The Legend of the Septuagint From Classical Antiquity to Today abraham wasserstein david j. wasserstein VanderbiltUniversity iii cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb22ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Informationo nthi stitle :www.cambri dge.org/9780521854955 ©DavidJ.Wasserstein2006 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisionof relevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplace withoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublishedinprintformat 2006 isbn-13 978-0-511-19103-9 eBook(EBL) isbn-10 0-511-19103-0 eBook(EBL) isbn-13 978-0-521-85495-5 hardback isbn-10 0-521-85495-4 hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurls forexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,anddoesnot guaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 Da´vid Iva´n 30 January 1935 U´jpest, Hungary 1944 Auschwitz nephew and cousin Awrb wrkz yhy v P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 What is Plato but Moses speaking in Attic? NumeniusofApamea(2ndcenturyc.e.) vi P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 Contents PrefaceandAcknowledgments page ix Abbreviations xvii Introduction 1 1. The Letter of Aristeas 19 2. TheHellenisticJewishTradition 27 3. TheRabbisandtheGreekBible 51 4. ThePtolemaicChanges 84 5. TheChurchFathersandtheTranslationoftheSeptuagint 95 6. AmongtheChristiansintheOrient 132 7. TheMuslimsandtheSeptuagint 174 8. YosipponandtheStoryoftheSeventy 192 9. Karaites,SamaritansandRabbaniteJewsintheMiddleAges 217 10. TheSeptuagintintheRenaissanceandtheModernWorld 238 Conclusion 270 Appendix:InPartibusInfidelium:ZosimusofPanopolis 275 BibliographyandSources 291 Index 324 vii P1:JZP 0521854954pre CB976/Wasserstein 0521854954 February5,2006 9:54 viii
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