Aristeas

, a prefect or officer under Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, who respected him on account of his moderation and wisdom, is said to have been df Jewish origin. Ptolemy is reported to have sent him to demand of the high priest Eleazar, some learned men to translate the Jewish laws from Hebrew into Greek, and Eleazar complied by choosing seventy-two persons, who made the translation known by the name of the Septuagint. ArLteas has the credit of having written the history of this translation; and there exists a work of the kind which bears his name, entitled “Historia de S. Scripturse interpretibus,” Oxon. 1692, 8vo, which was first published in the Bible printed at Rome in 1471 2 vols. fol. But archdeacon Hody published it, with a confutation, in his work entitled “De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus,” Oxon. 1705, fol. Van Dale and others have taken the same side of the question, which is amply discussed in Hody, already mentioned, and in Van Dale, “Dissert, sup. Arist.” Amst. 1704, 4to; Prideaux’s “Connections;” Owen’s “Inquiry into the Septuagint Version;” Blair’s “Lectures on the Canon;” Dupin’s “Preliminary Dissertation to the Bible j” Michaelis’s “Introduction to the New Testament,” &c. &c. ¹