SEPTUAGINT

the Version of the Seventy, the Alexandrine Version, etc., is the oldest Greek version Seven of the Old Testament, and was so called because it met with the approval of the Sanhedrim, the Supreme Council of the Jewish nation, or, according to tradition, because seventy men were employed on the translation. It is reported to have been made in the reign, and by order, of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, about 370 or 380 B.C., but modern critics think it was written at different times and that only the Pent a teuch was at first translated. The Septuagint was used up to the time of Christ, and most of the citations from the Old Testament in the New Testa- Seven ment were out of it. The chief extant MSS. known are the Codex Alexandrines in the British Museum, the Codex Vatican us at Rome, and Codex Sinaiticus (imperfect) at St. Petersburg, and the printed editions are the Aldine, Com plu tens i an, Roman, and Grabian (Oxford, 1707).