The Shelves · Laws

The Greek Pentateuch (the Law; core of the Septuagint)

Ὁ νόμος

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

See it on the shelves ›

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Laws

Conjecturedvery likely class

Anonymous Jewish translators in Alexandria

The Greek Pentateuch

Ὁ νόμος

Opening words

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Translated in Alexandria.

On the table: translated in Alexandria; no evidence it was in the Library.

Read it today

Genesis, Greek with English (Scaife Viewer) · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS), free PDFs · a translation · to re-check

III · In the show

Translation History: Hebrew to Greek to Latin, episode 17, at 27 minutes 18 secondsTranscriptTranslation history: Hebrew to Greek to Latin, around the word Lucifer.Known: probable
Translation History: Hebrew to Greek to Latin, episode 17, at 27 minutes 18 secondsTranscript“henistic Judaism gave us two really important things for the western esoteric tradition. It gave us merba mysticism and it gave us the septuagent.” (intended: Septuagint)Known: probable
Correction
What was said
The Septuagint means seventy books.
What the sources say
It is named for the seventy (or seventy-two) translators of the legend. Merkavah mysticism is not shown to be Alexandrian.
Reference
- Letter of Aristeas 46–50
Kabbalah, Merkavah & Platonic Parallels, episode 22, at 22 minutes 17 secondsTranscript“We have the Septuagen translation from around then”The Torah was translated in the 3rd century BCE; the rest over the next two centuries.Known: probable

+ 6 more

Lucifer, Isaiah, and mistranslated context, episode 14, at 17 minutes 59 secondsTranscript“That's a Latin translation out of the Septuagen”The Septuagint renders Isaiah 14:12's helel ben shahar as heosphoros, 'dawn-bringer'; Latin lucifer renders that Greek word in the Old Latin, and Jerome kept it in the Vulgate.Known: probable
Elohim, Genesis, and “Let Us Make Man”, episode 36, at 1 hour 43 minutes 59 secondsTranscript“We our translations come from the Septuagent era translations which is when the Hebrew scriptures quote unquote were translated into Greek during that like first BCE, 1st century CE” (intended: Septuagint)Known: probable
Correction
What was said
The Hebrew scriptures were translated in the 1st century BCE or CE.
What the sources say
The Torah was translated in the 3rd century BCE. The view, voiced next, that the Hebrew Bible postdates Plato is a minority thesis, not consensus.
Reference
- R. Gmirkin, Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible (2017)
Pythagorean Parallels & Hellenistic Influence, episode 24, at 28 minutes 45 secondsTranscript“that's when you get the Septuagent which is the translation of Hebrew scripture into Greek” (intended: Septuagint)The Hekhalot literature mentioned next is centuries later and not Alexandrian.Known: probable
Pythagorean Parallels & Hellenistic Influence, episode 24, at 27 minutes 39 secondsTranscriptPythagorean parallels and Hellenistic influence on Jewish texts.Known: attested
Solomon, Grimoires & Hebrew Magical Traditions, episode 24, at 35 minutes 39 secondsTranscript“come from that whole early period of of the Hellenistic period in Alexandria and surrounding areas”Spells invoking the archangels, Moses and Solomon: the Jewish strand in the Greek papyri.Known: attested
Esoteric vs institutional Christianity, episode 16, at 24 minutes 15 secondsTranscript“It was the Jews in Alexandria”Known: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (4)

Letter of Aristeas
Aristobulus fr. 3 (Eusebius, Preparation 13.12.1-2)
Philo, Life of Moses 2.25-44
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 12.11-118

Modern scholarship (4)

T. Rajak, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora (Oxford, 2009)
S. Honigman, The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas (London: Routledge, 2003)
J. M. Dines, The Septuagint (London: T&T Clark, 2004).
A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright (eds), A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 change noted on On the Pinakes · Suggest a correction ›

Ο ΝΟΜΟΣ

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend

The seventy-two elders

The Letter of Aristeas, written about a century later, tells that Demetrius of Phalerum urged Ptolemy II to add the laws of the Jews to the king's library, and that seventy-two elders, six from each tribe, translated them in seventy-two days.

Told by The Letter of Aristeas, mid-2nd century BCE, about a century later

What the evidence supports

The Greek of the Pentateuch is the Greek of Ptolemaic Egypt, and a translation in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE is secure. Whether the court had any part in it, and whether it was ever placed in the Library, is unknown.

Sources (2)

Letter of Aristeas 9–11, 301–311
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 12.11–118

The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it on the table

Athanasius of Alexandria, Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter367 CE · Survives in large part