Law, Prophets, and Wisdom

For a long time it has been the prevailing view that the books of the Greek Bible, the Septuagint, all originated in Alexandria, the famous city in Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great. However, in recent research it has become clear that this idea cannot be taken for granted for every translation unit. In this joint publication the provenance issue is dealt with regarding the following books, or set of books, in the Septuatint Version: Pentateuch, Isaiah, Proverbs, and Job. Both internal and external data are brought to the fore for making an attempt to determine the provenance of these books. Since a translation could have been made in Egypt by a Jewish scholar who came from Palestine, as was the case with the work of Ben Sira, attention is also paid to the provenance of the translators. This study aims at contributing to the research of books of the Greek Bible within the historical and cultural setting of their time.