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The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates (his brother) that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into Koine Greek at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BC) by seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—though this story is considered to be pseudepigraphical by some scholars.
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Biblical scholars agree that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, centred on the large community in Alexandria, probably in the early or middle part of the 3rd century BC. The remaining books were presumably translated in the 2nd century BC. Some targums translating or paraphrasing the Bible into Aramaic were also made during the Second Temple period.
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Few people could speak and even fewer could read in the Hebrew language during the Second Temple period; Koine Greek and Aramaic were the lingua francas at that time among the Jewish community. The LXX, therefore, satisfied a need in the Jewish community.
Etymology
The term "Septuagint" is derived from the Latin phrase ("The Old Testament from the version of the Seventy Translators"). This phrase in turn was derived from the . The Roman numeral LXX (seventy) is commonly used as an abbreviation,
Composition
Jewish legend
thumb|alt=Fragment of a Greek manuscript|upright=1.2|Beginning of the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 11th century)
According to tradition, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Macedonian Greek pharaoh of Egypt, sent seventy-two Hebrew translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—from Second Temple era Jerusalem to Alexandria to translate the Torah from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek, for inclusion in Library of Alexandria. This narrative is found in the possibly pseudepigraphic letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, and it was repeated by Philo, Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, and by later sources, including Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. It is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud: