The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the "Letter of Aristeas"
The Letter of Aristeas tells the story of how Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt commissioned seventy scholars to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek.\ Long accepted as a straightforward historical account of a cultural enterprise in Ptolemaic Alexandria, the Letter nevertheless poses serious interpretative problems. Sylvie Honigman argues that the Letter should not be regarded as history, but as a charter myth for diaspora Judaism. She expounds its generic affinities with other works on Jewish...
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The Letter of Aristeas is among the most intriguing literary productions of Ptolemaic Alexandria, and this is the first book-length study to be devoted to it.
Preface and acknowledgementsList of abbreviations1Introduction12Genre and composition in the Book of Aristeas133The central narrative: the transfiguration of history into charter myth374Enforcing the narrative veracity: the rhetoric of historiography in the Book of Aristeas655The origins and early history of the LXX: guidelines for a reconstruction of the past936The Homeric paradigm: a hypothesis on the genesis of the LXX and the Book of Aristeas1197Conclusion: the Book of Aristeas between two worlds145AppOutline of the composition of the Book of Aristeas149Notes151Selected bibliography191Index of sources199General index203
