Though different from the traditional Masoretic text, this bracketed text is translated from the Greek Old Testament, most commonly called the Septuagint or LXX. The Masoretic text was finalized around 1,000 A.D. in the 10th century, about 1,200 years after the Septuagint.
The Septuagint was made for the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the common language throughout the region. According to the Letter of Aristeas, the Septuagint was translated at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 B.C.E) by 70 Jewish scholars or, according to later tradition, 72, with six scholars from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, who independently produced identical translations. Analysis of the language has established that the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), was translated near the middle of the 3rd century B.C. and that the rest of the Books (Joshua through 2 Chronicles) was translated in the 2nd century B.C.
The Septuagint (from the Latin: septuāgintā literally “seventy”; often abbreviated as 70 in Roman numerals, i.e., LXX) is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures and was in wide use by the time of Yeshua and his disciples because most Jews could no longer read Hebrew. For this reason it is frequently quoted in the Gospels and writings of the Apostles. The miraculous character of the Aristeas legend indicates the esteem in which the translation was held in the ancient Jewish diaspora and, later, among followers of Yeshua.
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