1. Ancient versions of the Old Testament:
a. The Septuagint
i. Greek for "70"
ii. Often abbreviated LXX
iii. Refers to the 72(?) translators which are reported to have translated the original Hebrew manuscripts into Greek independently but miraculously all arrived at exactly the same translation.
iv. Third century BC (~250BC) under the direction of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
v. The 72 men were 6 men from each tribe of Israel and sent to the island of Pharos off of Egypt. By happy coincidence the task was finished in 72 days.
vi. It was approved as an accurate translation and a curse was put upon it for anyone who would change any of the text.
vii. This account comes from a letter by Aristas who claims in the letter to be an official in the court of Ptolemy but later scholars have determined he was actually a Jew who lived a 100 some years later and had no direct knowledge of the actual events.
viii. What we have been able to determine from going back to the Hebrew texts are this: the Pentateuch (first five books of the OT) were done first and by the same person or persons; Job, Proverbs, Isaiah, Daniel and Ester were translated in a free manner (vice-literal manner); Judges, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles were translated in a literal manner.
ix. The Septuagint is arranged according to the type of writing: (1) Pentateuch and historical books (2) Poetic/wisdom books (3) prophetical.
x. Septuagint has several books in it that were not found in the original OT such as Tobit, Maccabees, The ...