septuagint Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament; said to have been translated from the Hebrew by Jewish scholars at the request of Ptolemy II

From L. septuaginta seventy.

A Greek version of the Old Testament; -- so called because it was believed to be the work of seventy (or rather of seventy-two) translators. ✍ The causes which produced it [the Septuagint], the number and names of the translators, the times at which different portions were translated, are all uncertain. The only point in which all agree is that Alexandria was the birthplace of the version. On one other point there is a near agreement, namely, as to time, that the version was made, or at least commenced, in the time of the early Ptolemies, in the first half of the third century b.c. Dr. W. Smith (Bib. Dict.)