Chapter II. Aristeas on the Translation of the Jewish Scriptures

[ARISTEAS] ‘WHEN Demetrius Phalereus was appointed over the king’s library, he acquired large sums of money with the view of collecting all the books in the world, and by making purchases and transcriptions brought the king’s purpose to completion, as far as in him lay.

‘So being asked in our presence how many myriads there are of books, he answered----”Over twenty myriads, O king: and I shall endeavour to have the rest made up to fifty myriads in a short time. It has also been notified to me that the customs of the Jews are worthy of transcription and of a place in thy library.”

‘”What is there then,” said the king, “to hinder you from doing this? For all that you can require has been assigned to you.” And Demetrius replied----”An interpretation also is required; for in Judaea they use characters peculiar to themselves, just as the Egyptians use their own position of the letters, inasmuch as they have also a language of their own. And they are supposed to employ Syriac, but that is not so, for it is a different kind of language.”

‘And when the king understood everything, he ordered a letter to be written to the High Priest of the Jews, in order that the aforesaid matters might be completed.’

And further on he adds:

‘And when this was accomplished, the king commanded Demetrius to report on the description of the Jewish books. For all matters were arranged by these kings in ordinances and with great accuracy, and nothing thrown off at random. For this reason also I have given a place to the report and to the copies of the letters, and to the number of the offerings sent, and the manufacture of each, because every one of them was distinguished by the grandeur of the parts and artistic skill. A copy of the report is as follows:’