The Septuagint (/ˈsɛptjuədʒɪnt/), (sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy, often abbreviated as LXX)[2] is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Hebrew. The full title (Ancient Greek: Ἡ μετάφρασις τῶν Ἑβδομήκοντα, romanized: The Translation of the Seventy) derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BCE) by seventy-two Jewish translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Biblical scholars agree that the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, probably in the early or middle part of the third century BCE. The remaining books were presumably translated in the 2nd century BCE. Some targumim translating or paraphrasing the Bible into Aramaic were also made during the Second Temple period.
Few people could speak and even fewer could read in the Hebrew language during the Second Temple period; Koine Greek and Aramaic were the most widely spoken languages at that time among the Jewish community. The Septuagint therefore satisfied a need in the Jewish community.
Some scholars claim that the Septuagint includes only the books of the Pentateuch, while others claim it includes all twenty-four books of the Tanakh (5 books of the Torah, 8 books of the Nevi'im, and 11 books of the Ketuvim). Still others claim that the Septuagint includes not only all of the books of the Tanakh, but also several books (such as the Book of Tobit, the Books of the Maccabees, and the Book of Sirach) which are not recognized in the official Jewish canon. Modern critical editions of the Greek Old Testament are based on the Codices Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus.[citation needed] There are important differences among these three versions. For example, the Codex Alexandrinus contains all four books of the Maccabees, the Codex Sinaiticus contains only 1 and 4 Maccabees, and the Codex Vaticanus contains none of the four books.