The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria

Honigman, Sylvie

doi:10.4324/9780203498774

Cited by 51 publications

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“…33 Therefore, it is clear that the call for representatives from all twelve tribes might possibly reflect the orderings of the Polis-the Greek world that was innate to the author's identity, as Sylvie Honigman asserts. 34 That said, the solution to the enigma of the seventy-two elders seems to point mainly in the direction of the Jewish world-to biblical exegesis and interpretation that are well attested in rabbinic literature. The Letter of Aristeas has deep roots not only in the Greek world but also in the Jewish world: in the same manner that rabbinic literature stands to elucidate enigmas in the Letter of Aristeas and in Jewish-Hellenistic literature in general, so the latter exposes obscure and ancient roots of developed traditions that occur in rabbinic literature.…”

Section: And Macdonald Concludesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

Hacham

2021

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

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According to the Letter of Aristeas, the ancient treatise on the creation of the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, the high priest Eleazar chose seventy-two elders and dispatched them to Egypt where they translated the Torah into Greek. Scholars discerned the meaning of this number, indicating the affinity to the seventy elders who joined Moses and Aaron in the Sinai covenant (Exod. 24) and the fact that this number represents all the tribes of Israel equally, thus sanctifying the Greek translation in a similar way to the Torah. Particular attention was paid to Epiphanius, the fourth century church father, who explicitly states that the seventy-two elders provide equal representation to all the constituent tribes of Israel. Rabbinic literature, however, has been entirely absent from this discourse. In this article I point to Sifre on Numbers, a second century midrash, that notes that seventy-two elders experienced the Divine revelation (Numbers 11): seventy in the Tabernacle and Eldad and Medad in the camp. I suggest that based on a similar ancient interpretation of Numbers 11, the Letter of Aristeas chose the number seventy-two in order to bestow the aura, authority and sanctity of the seventy-two elders of Number 11 on the Greek translation. This example also highlights Rabbinic literature as an integral element of the cultural context of Jewish-Hellenistic literature.

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Section: And Macdonald Concludesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

Hacham

2021

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

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“…As Honigman notes, seventy-two is by far the best compromise between seventy and the demand for a multiple of twelve: it is the closest multiple of twelve to seventy. 62 It is impossible to get closer to the scriptural precedent without abandoning equal representation. Several of the hypotheses considered above offer plausible ways to reread scripture in search of seventy-two elders, if one is so inclined.…”

Section: Seventy-two and The Twelve Tribesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…30 Furthermore, Sylvie Honigman has argued that the narrative of the Letter of Aristeas follows a general "Alexandrian paradigm" used for stories about Ptolemaic kings commissioning things (such as editions of Homer) for Alexandria. 31 Such a paradigm could well influence both of our stories-if both the paradigm and the Alexandrian Homeric Anecdote existed. (Note that even here, we rely rather heavily on conjecture.)…”

Section: Seventy-two and The Hellenistic Traditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The seventy-two elders of Aristeas: An evaluation of speculation

MacDonald

2019

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

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The Letter of Aristeas recounts the translation of the Jewish Law into Greek by seventy-two Jewish elders. That number of elders (seventy-two) has been the subject of considerable discussion, and several competing explanations for the origin of the number have been proposed. Some scholars claim the number is derived from Hellenistic (specifically grammatical or arithmological) traditions, whereas others see precedent for the number seventy-two in the details of Exod 24 or Num 11. This paper evaluates several such hypotheses (most of them relatively recent), showing most to be speculative and lacking explanatory power. Rejecting such hypotheses, this paper argues that the number seventy-two emerges from a compromise between two of Pseudo-Aristeas’s interests—a hypothesis rendered all the more plausible by its appearance in Epiphanius. All this justifies an appeal for scholars to exercise both diligence and restraint regarding Jewish and Christian engagement with exodus traditions.

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“… 12. The parallels between LXX and Homer in terms of “canonical status” for a collection of writings have been observed by many authors. The most systematic statement of the case is Honigman 2003; good summaries may be found in Rajak 2009, 239–43 and McDonald 2013, 27–34. The broader background may be seen in the collection of essays edited by Finkelberg and Stroumsa (2003). …”

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confidence: 99%

The Septuagint as Canon

Crisp

2016

The Bible Translator

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The term “Septuagint” refers to a lengthy process by which individual books of the Hebrew Bible were translated into Greek, together with the inclusion of a few books originally composed in Greek. It only took on the form of a more or less fixed corpus much later. In the same way, this collection of books in Greek acquired authoritative status for its users over a period of time; notions of formal or institutional canonicity came only at a considerably later date, and in a Christian rather than a Jewish context. This article summarizes the processes by which the Greek translation was made and traces the way in which this corpus gradually acquired authoritative and then canonical status. Some practical implications for Bible Societies’ translation policies are also presented.

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The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria

Cited by 51 publications

References 0 publications

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

The seventy-two elders of Aristeas: An evaluation of speculation

The Septuagint as Canon

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