The Septuagint (known by the symbol LXX) is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, It is traditionally ascribed to 70 (or 72) scholars working under the patronage of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria in the third century B.C. We read: “There is no reason to doubt this tradition so far as it applies to the Pentateuch. The remaining books were translated at various unknown periods during the next 150 years.”
In addition to translations of the recognised Hebrew Scriptures, the LXX contains translations of certain other Hebrew religious and historical writings, and these writings are now included in what is termed the Old Testament Apocrypha.
Dr. Η. Ε. Ryle, in The Canon of the Old Testament, says: “The inclusion of the so-called Apocryphal Books in the LXX version is sometimes alleged to be a proof that the Alexandrian Jews acknowledged a wider Canon of Scripture than their Palestinian countrymen. But this is not a legitimate inference. Our copies of the LXX are derived from Christian sources; and all that can certainly be proved from the association of additional books with those of the Hebrew Canon is that these other books found favour with the Christian community. Doubtless, they would not thus have found favour with the Christians, if they had not also enjoyed high repute among the Jews, from whom they were obtained along with the undoubted books of the Hebrew Canon. The fact, however, that neither in the writings of Philo, nor in those of Josephus—Jews who both make use of the LXX version—have we any evidence favouring the canonicity of the Apocryphal Books is really conclusive against their having been regarded as Scripture by Greek-speaking Jews before the second century A.D.”
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Author: P. H. Adams
Keywords: Apocrypha, apocryphal, apocryphal books, Books of the Apocrypha, Catholic Bible, Catholicism, Roman Catholic Bible, Roman Catholicism, Jerome, Vulgate, LXX, Septuagint, Greek Old Testament, canon, Bible canon, Books of the Bible, Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Sirach, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Maccabees, Additions to Esther, Bel and the Dragon
Source: “Why Not the Apocrypha?,” The Testimony, Vol. 17, Nos. 194/196, February & April 1947, pp. 58-9, 134-6.
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