Cleopatra". Added to this evidence we have the fact that the LXX is quoted very

frequently in the N.T.--so that it is conclusively proved that it was already an authorized

version before the beginning of the Christian era.

Enough has been said in an article which does not attempt to be technical, to prove the

venerable antiquity and authority of this version of the O.T. Scriptures. We must pursue

the subject further in our next paper.

In our previous article we traced the growth of the Septuagint up to the Christian era,

and saw that it was intended primarily for the Alexandrian Jews. Soon, however, it began

to assume a position of the highest authority, and was reverenced almost as much as the

inspired original. Philo, a Jew and a native of Egypt, used the LXX in his allegorical

expositions of the Law; and Bochart, Bauer and others have shown that Josephus also, a

Palestinian Jew, used it extensively. This version, as the quotations from it shew, was in

constant use in Palestine during the Lord's life on earth, and the "Fathers" of the Church,

Chrysostom, Theodoret, Athanasius and Basil, had no Old Testament other than the

LXX version.

Until the commencement of the first century after the birth of Christ, the Jewish

synagogue recognized the authority of the LXX, but, when the Christians began to quote

it in favour of Christian doctrine, there came about a revulsion of feeling and the version

was decried. To discredit it effectively, the Jews instituted a fast on the eighth of Thebet

(December) to execrate the memory of its inception, and this was followed by the

expunging of several passages from the version in a further attempt to vitiate its witness.

From this time the Rabbis banned the LXX as the "Christian's Bible", and compared

the "accursed day when the seventy elders wrote the Law in Greek for the King" with the

day "when Israel made for itself the golden calf". Circumstances, however, were such

that a Greek version of the Scriptures was absolutely necessary for the Jews, most of

whom knew no Hebrew. The problem was solved by a certain Aquila of Pontus, a

Gentile employed at Jerusalem during the reign of Hadrian (A.D.117-138).  While at

Jerusalem, he was "converted" under the ministry of the Christians who had returned

from Pella. Being reprimanded, however, for retaining the pagan teaching of astrology,

and refusing to abandon it, he was excommunicated, and in anger joined himself to the

Jews, became circumcised, and developed into a zealous defender of Rabbinical teaching.

He became the pupil of Rabbi Akiba, and, after learning Hebrew, turned his attention to

the production of a new Greek version that could be used by Hellenistic Jews. His

version was acclaimed by the Jews, his teachers in their congratulations using the words

of Psa. 45: 2--"Thou art fairer than the children of men."