clear resonance to the contemporaries of Ezekiel. Moses’s role as executor
of God’s will on earth, with absolute authority, reflected royal rule in the
Hellenistic realms. The author thus reinvents the position of Moses on the
model of Hellenistic kingship while making him the precursor of Hellenis-
tic kingship itself. Moses as supreme judge would expound the Law for all
nations. The Israelite hero becomes a beacon for humankind, a representa-
tive of the divinity, described in phraseology that struck responsive chords
among Ezekiel’s Hellenic or Hellenized compatriots. The tragic poet had
effectively commandeered a preeminent Greek genre and deployed it as a
source of esteem for his Jewish readership.
Another celebrated composition illustrates both the intersection of
Jew and Gentile in the Diaspora and the emphasis on the special qualities
of the Jews. TheLetter of Aristeaswas drafted by a Hellenized Jew from Al-
exandria, probably in the second centuryb.c.e.It purports to recount the
events that led to the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. That un-
dertaking came about in Alexandria around the middle of the third cen-
tury, an episode of the highest importance for Diaspora Jewry. The need
for a Greek Bible itself holds critical significance. It indicates that many
Jews dwelling in the scattered communities of the Mediterranean had lost
their mastery of Hebrew but nonetheless clung to the centerpiece of their
tradition. If they were to read the Bible, it would have to be in Greek. The
initial rendering or renderings eventually congealed into what became
known as the Septuagint. For the vast majority of Jews living in the Greco-
Roman period, itwasthe Bible.
TheLetter of Aristeasascribes the translation’s origin to the initiative
of the court of Ptolemy II, ruler of Egypt in the mid-third century. As the
narrative has it, the impetus came from the chief librarian in Alexandria,
who persuaded King Ptolemy to authorize the addition of “the laws of the
Jews,” evidently the Pentateuch, to the shelves of the great library. This re-
quired translation, for the available Hebrew texts were carelessly and im-
properly drawn up. Ptolemy composed a letter to the high priest in Jerusa-
lem, requesting translators. The high priest graciously complied and
selected seventy-two Jewish scholars, six from each tribe, experts in both
languages, to do the job. The Jewish sages reached Alexandria, where they
were warmly welcomed, Ptolemy himself paying homage to the sacred
scrolls that they had conveyed from Jerusalem. Indeed, he went beyond
that to organize a seven-day banquet (serving kosher food!), during which
the king put a different question to each of his seventy-two guests, largely
concerning the appropriate means of governing wisely, and found reason104erich s. gruenEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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