Footnote 1 – Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon

The so-called Letter of Aristeas is really a lengthy discourse in the tradition of Hellenistic literature. The author Aristeas (probably a pseudonym) provides the classic view concerning how the Torah (or the Pentateuch) was translated from Hebrew into Greek in just 72 days by 72 elders brought to Alexandria at the behest of Ptolemy Philadelphus (283–246 B.C.); this translation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible was called the septuagint (LXX), but the term was later extended to include all of the Hebrew Bible translated at various times into Greek. See Leonard J. Greenspoon, “Mission to Alexandria Truth and Legend About the Creation of the Septuagint, the First Bible Translation,” Bible Review, August 1989.