Person · 3453–3515 AM · 308 BCE — 246 BCE
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
king of Egypt who commissioned the Septuagint
Ruled Egypt 285–246 BCE. By tradition he gathered seventy-two elders from Jerusalem and set them to translate the Torah into Greek—each apart; all the translations agreed. Thus came the Septuagint, and with it the Torah entered the library of Alexandria and the languages of the nations.
On the timeline
Places
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Megillah 9a — seventy-two elders and one translation
Documents of the period
- Letter of Aristeas — the account of the commissioned translation
Basis: documents and evidence.