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Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

◇ Doubted: pseudonymous; where it was written is uncertain. The author poses as a Greek official of Ptolemy II; the work is a later Jewish composition.

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of History

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Anonymous Alexandrian Jew, writing as 'Aristeas', a courtier of Ptolemy II

2nd century BCE. An Alexandrian Jew who wrote in the person of Aristeas, a Greek courtier of Ptolemy II, the story of how the Torah was translated for the king's library. The author is real; the courtier is a literary mask.

Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates

Opening words

Ἀξιολόγου διηγήσεως, ὦ Φιλόκρατες...

Since I have gathered material for a memorable account, Philocrates...

Length: not counted

◇ Doubted: pseudonymous; where it was written is uncertain. The author poses as a Greek official of Ptolemy II; the work is a later Jewish composition.

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 · Probable

Written in Alexandria.

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

Read it today

III · In the show

+ 1 more
  • 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.”Known: attested
    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

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Letter of Aristeas 9-11, 29-32, 301-311
  • Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 12.11-118
Modern scholarship (4)
  • B. G. Wright III, The Letter of Aristeas: 'Aristeas to Philocrates' or 'On the Translation of the Law of the Jews' (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015)
  • S. Honigman, The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas (London: Routledge, 2003)
  • T. Rajak, Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora (Oxford, 2009)
  • R. S. Bagnall, "Alexandria: Library of Dreams", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 146.4 (2002) 348–362

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

LETTER OF ARISTEAS TO PHILOCRATES

Read what is told

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

Legend: told story

Demetrius, keeper of the king's library

The author who wrote as Aristeas, about a century after Ptolemy II, tells that Demetrius of Phalerum, put in charge of the king's library, reported over 200,000 books, hoped soon for 500,000, and urged the king to add the laws of the Jews.

Told by The author who wrote as Aristeas, mid-2nd century BCE, about a century later

What the evidence supports

Demetrius was at the court of Ptolemy I, and Hermippus reports that Ptolemy II kept him under guard. The numbers, his charge of the library and the translation story are not supported; the Letter shows how Alexandrians imagined their Library a century on.

Sources (2)
  • Letter of Aristeas 9–11, 29–32, 301–311
  • Diogenes Laertius 5.78
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it on the table