Nevertheless, there is a grain of truth in the story. The Torah/Pentateuch section of the ‘Old Greek’ version indeed dates from the 3rd century BC. Proofs for this include the fact that the Greek is representative of early Koine used during the time period, as well as citations and early manuscripts datable to as early as the 2nd century BC. However, in the case of the other books, it is not altogether clear which was translated when or where the translation was undertaken. It seems that other books were translated from between the 3rd-2nd century BC: some books may even have been translated twice, into different versions, and then revised. Note that the quality and style varies considerably from book to book, ranging from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. Still, nearly all attempts at dating specific books, with the exception of the Pentateuch, are tentative.
In short, there was probably no ‘
the Greek translation’: instead, one should think of different versions of a single book probably floating around in circulation.
well, i imagine that, as these things were on scrolls back then, that they did not have, “a huge, fat codex.” i imagine that they had, as kevin orlin johnson says, a standard canon and a standard version of each book in the canon.
Correct! The codex was not attested until the 1st century BC.
There is, however, a problem with the idea that they had “a standard canon and a standard version of each book in the canon.” On the contrary, Jews of the time had anything but. Quoting myself again: “I should warn about projecting modern ideas of a fixed, closed canon of Scripture at this time. While the Torah was held by every Jew to be authoritative and people already had pretty good guesses about the Prophets and a few Writings, the ‘canon’ (I’m using it in a loose sense here) was far from being closed: people could conceivably consider other books as authoritative (*deutero-*canonical) and question some books that were in this de facto ‘canon’.”
Josephus, for instance, says this in his work
Against Apion (1.8):
For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,]
but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine;
and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes,
the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly to die for them.
Josephus is our earliest reference to a ‘fixed’ collection of Jewish Scriptures. As per his reckoning, his ‘canon’ consisted of:
(1) the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy);
(2) the Prophets (Joshua, Judges-Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah-Lamentations, Ezekiel, Minor Prophets, Job, Daniel, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther);
(3) the “four books”: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. This is almost identical (but at the same time, different) to the later rabbinic categorization of twenty-four books (counting Ruth and Lamentations separately from Judges and Jeremiah, respectively) into the tripartite category of
Law-
Prophets-
Writings. There might also be a reference to the tradition of reckoning twenty-four (as opposed to Josephus’ twenty-two) books in a near-contemporary apocryphal work known as
2 Esdras (aka 4 Ezra):
And on the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, “Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink.” Then I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory; and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed. And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know. They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. As for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at night. So during the forty days ninety-four books were written.
And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, “
Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge.” And I did so.
) are attested at Qumran.