Septuagint (septuajint)

and a. [F. les septante; G. septuaginta (def. 2); ginta (Gr. ἑβδομήκοντα), seventy: see serenty.] I. n. 11. The Seventy-that is, the seventy (or more) persons who, according to the tradition, made a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. The rounded legend is that the translation was made by seventy-two persons in seventy-two days. In another view, the Seventy were members of the sanhedrim (about seventy in number) who sanctioned the translation. Minsheu . The Septuagints translation. 2. A Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures made by the Seventy (see def. 1): usually expre ed by the symbol LXX ('the Seventy'). This version is said by Joseph us to have been made in the reign and by the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, about 270 or 280 years before the birth of Christ. It is supposed, however, by modern critics that this version of the several books is the work, not only of different hands, but of separate times. It is probable that at first only the Pent a teuch was translated, and the remaining books gradually; but the translation is believed to have been completed by the second century B. C. The Septuagint is written in the Hellenistic (Alexandrine) dialect, and is linguistically of great importance from its effect upon the diction of the New Testament, and as the source of a large part of the religious and theological vocabulary of the Greek fathers, and (through the Old Latin version of the Bible (see Italic ) and the influence of this on the Vulgate) of that of the Latin fathers also and of all western nations to the present day. In the Greek Church the Septuagint has been in continuous use from the earliest times, although other Greek versions (see Hexapla ) were anciently also in circulation, and it is the Old Testament still used in that church. The Septuagint contains the books called Apocrypha intermingled among the other books. It is the version out of which most of the citations in the New Testament from the Old are taken. Abbreviated Sept. II. a . Pertaining to the Septuagint; contained in the Greek copy of the Old Testament. Septuagintal (sep"tu-a-jin'tal), a . [ Septua gint + -al.] Pertaining or relating to the Septuagint; contained in the Septuagint. The Septuagintal tradition was at length set aside. Smith , Dict. of the Bible, III. 1701.