Latin, _Septuaginta_), _seventy_, a round
number for the more exact _seventy-two_, probably arose from
this tradition of the execution of the work by seventy-two
elders in seventy-two days. The story of the parchments sent
from Jerusalem for the use of the translators (with the request
that they might be returned with them) has been rejected on the
ground that the text used by them differs too widely from the
Palestinian text. See further on this subject in No. 5, below.
It has been further affirmed that Demetrius Phalereus did not
belong to the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, but to that of his
father Ptolemy Soter, the son having banished him from court in
the beginning of his reign. For this reason some have proposed
to assign the founding of the Alexandrian library to the father
and not the son. But whatever be our judgment in respect to
Demetrius and his relation to the two Ptolemies, the voice of
history is decisive in favor of the son and not the father, as
the patron of learning.

4. It has been a question whether the Hebrew Scriptures were translated
at one time, or in successive portions. The tradition above considered
speaks only of _the law_, or, in the plural, _the laws_. These might,
perhaps, be understood as comprehensive terms for the whole Old
Testament, but they probably mean the Pentateuch alone, in which both
the Egyptian king and the Jews of his realm would feel a special
interest. It is probable that the Pentateuch--the _Law_ in the proper
sense of the term--was first translated, and afterwards the remaining
books. But how long a period of time was thus occupied cannot be
determined. Respecting the incorporation into this version of the
apocryphal book, see in the appendix to this Part, No. 2.

When the translator of the Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus), says in his prologue, in immediate connection
with his residence and labors in Egypt, that "the law itself and
the prophets, and the rest of the books have no small difference
[as to force] when read in their own tongue," he plainly refers
to the Septuagint version as complete in his day. He visited
Egypt "under Euergetes." But to which of the two monarchs who
bore that title he refers is uncertain. If to the former, it was
between 246-221 B.C.; if to the latter, between 145-116 B.C.

5. The version varies so much in its different pa