Category:Letter of Aristeas (text)

The Letter of Aristeas is a Jewish text usually included in collections of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha or Jewish Hellenistic Literature.

Overview

Manuscript tradition

Synopsis

The Letter of Aristeas in Scholarship (History of research)

The Letter of Aristeas was first printed in translation--by Mattia Palmerio in 1471 (Latin), by Dietrich Reisach in 1502 (German), and by Lodovico Domenichi in 1550 (Italian). The editio princeps of the Greek text was published in 1561 by Simon Schard, with Latin translation by Matthias Garbitius. New translations followed, including its first translations in Hebrew (1574) by Azariah de' Rossi, and in English (1633) by John Done.

The Letter was initially seen as a faithful account of the translation of the Septuagint by an eyewitness. Its historical reliability was first questioned by Humphrey Hody (1685), who also published in 1692 a new edition of the Greek text with Latin translation.

What could be considered the first critical edition of the document was published in 1870 by M. Schmidt, until the definitive edition by Henry St. John Thackeray in 1902.

The Letter of Aristeas in Fiction

Related categories

Dictionaries

• Aristeas, Letter of / Kaufmann Kohler and Paul Wendland / In: Jewish Encyclopedia (1901-1906 Singer), dictionary

• Aristeas, Letter of / R. James H. Shutt / In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary, 1:380-382

• Aristeas, Epistle of / Chrys C. Caragounis / In: Dictionary of New Testament Background (2000 Evans & Porter), dictionary, 114-118

• Aristeas, Letter of / Benjamin G. Wright / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), dictionary, 376-378

• Wikipedia

External links

Online Greek text

• Online Critical Pseudepigrapha (Greek text)

Online Translations

• Christian Classics Ethereal Library (English translation)]

Select Bibliography

Bibliographies

Editions

• Schard (1561; ed. pr.); Schmidt (1870; 1st critical ed.); Wendland (1900); Thackeray (1902); Tramontano (1931); Hadas (1951); Pelletier (1962)

Modern translations

• Done (1685; English); Wendland (1900; German); Thackeray (1903; English); Andrews (1913; English); Thackeray (1917; English); Riessler (1928; German); Tramontano (1931; Italian); Meecham (1932; English); Kahana (1937; Hebrew); Pelletier (1962; French); Meisner (1973; German); Kraus Reggiani (1979; Italian); Fernandez-Marcos (1983; Spanish); Schutt (1985; English)

Studies

• Per la data e la caratteristica della Lettera di Aristea / Arnaldo Momigliano / Aegyptus 12 (1932):161-72

• The Ideology of the Letter of Aristea / Victor Tcherickover / Harvard Theological Review 51 (1958): 59-85

• The Letter of Aristeas and Diaspora Judaism / G.E. Howard / JTS 22 (1971): 337-48

• La Lettera di Aristea come fonte per la storia del Giudaismo alessandrino durante la prima meta del I sec. a.C. / Fausto Parente / Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 2 (1972): 177-237, 517-67

• The Septuagint as Holy Writ and the Philosophy of the Translators / H.M. Orlinsky / HUCA 46 (1975): 89-114

• The Letter of Aristeas: A Dialogical Judaism Facing Greek Paideia / Gabriele Boccaccini / Middle Judaism (1991 Boccaccini), book: 161-185

Bibliography

1980s

• Werner Schmidt, Untersuchungen zur Fälschung historischer Dokumente bei Pseudo-Aristaios (Bonn: Habelt,1986)

1970s

• Norbert Hans Meisner, Untersuchungen zum Aristeasbrief (Berlin: Kirchlichen Hochschule, 1972)

1950s

• Bruno Hugo Stricker. De brief van Aristeas; de Hellenistische codificaties der praehelleense godsdiensten <Dutch> (Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitg. Mij., 1956)

1910s

• Books
  • Henry St.J. Thackeray, The Letter of Aristeas, translated with an appendix of ancient evidence of the origin of the Septuagint (London: SPCK, 1917).
  • Paul Wendland and Ludwig Mendelssohn, Aristeae ad Philocratem epistula cum ceteris de origine versionis LXX interpretum testemoniis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1900)

1890s

• Ludwig Mendelssohn, Aristeae quae fertur ad Philocratem epistulae initium (SS 1-42 M. p. 13-23 Schm.) (1897)

1880s

• Spyridon K. Papageorgios, Uber den Aristeasbrief (München: Wolf, 1880)

1700

• Thomas Lewis, The History of the Seventy Two Interpreters (London: Hooke & Caldecott, 1715)

Editions: Schard (1561; ed. pr.); Schmidt (1870; 1st critical ed.); Wendland (1900); Thackeray (1902); Tramontano (1931); Hadas (1951); Pelletier (1962)

Modern translations: Done (1685; English); Wendland (1900; German); Thackeray (1903; English); Andrews (1913; English); Thackeray (1917; English); Riessler (1928; German); Tramontano (1931; Italian); Meecham (1932; English); Kahana (1937; Hebrew); Pelletier (1962; French); Meisner (1973; German); Kraus Reggiani (1979; Italian); Fernandez-Marcos (1983; Spanish); Schutt (1985; English)

* * * * * * * * * *

Raurell, Frederic. Carta d’Arísteas (Barcelona: Alpha, 2002) [Greek text and Spanish trans.]

Troiani, Lucio. "Lettera di Aristea," in AAT, ed. Paolo Sacchi, vol. 5 (Brescia: Paideia, 1997) 173-217 [Italian trans.]

Wit-Tak, Thalien M.de. De oorsprong van de Griekse bijbel: de brief van Aristeas over het ontstaan van de Septuagint (Kampel: Kok, 1995).

Schmidt, Werner. Untersuchungen zur Fälschung historischer Dokumente bei Pseudo-Aristaios (Bonn: Habelt, 1986)

Shutt, R.J.H. in OTP 2 (1985) 7-34 [English trans.]

Fernandez-Marcos, N. in ApAT 2 (1983) 9-63 [Spanish trans.]

Meisner, Norbert Hans. JSHRZ 2.1 (1973) 35-85 [German trans.]

Meisner, Norbert Hans. Untersuchungen zum Aristeasbrief (2 vols.; Berlin: Kirchlichen Hochschule, 1972)

Prynne, J.H. Aristeas (London: Ferry, 1968)

Artom, Elia Samuele. In Sipurim ve-divre kokhmah (Tel-Aviv: Yavneh, 1963) [Hebrew trans.]

Stricker, Bruno Hugo. De brief van Aristeas. De hellenistische codificaties der praehelleense godsdiensten <Dutch> (Amsterdam: 1956)

Kahana, A. Ha-sepharim ha-hizonim (Tel Aviv, 1937; 2nd ed., 1956) (Hebrew trans.)

Riessler, Paul. ASB (1928) 193-233 (German trans.)

Tracy, Sterling. III Maccabees and Pseudo-Aristeas: A Study (New Haven: Yale University, 1928)

Thackeray, H.St.J. The Letter of Aristeas (Translations of Early Documents 2; London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917 [repr. 2003]) [English trans.]

Andrews, H.T. in APOT 2 (1913) 83-122 [English trans.]

Thackeray, H.St.J. "The Letter of Aristeas," JQR 15 (1903) 337-91 (English trans.)

Thackeray, H.St.J. "The Letter of Aristeas." In An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, ed. H.B. Swete (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1900) 533-606 [Greek text]

Wendland, Paul. in APAT 2 (1900) 1-31 [German trans.]

Wendland, Paul. Aristeae ad Philocratem epistula (Leipzig: Teubner, 1900) [Greek text]

Papageorgios, Spyridon K. Uber den Aristeasbrief (München: Wolf, 1880)

Schmidt, M. "Der Brief des Aristeas am Philokrates," Archiv fur wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Alten Testaments 1 (1870) 1-72 (1st critical edition of the Greek text)

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Whiston, William (1667-1752). The Literal Accomplishments of Scripture Prophecies… with a large appendix, to prove, that Aristeas’s hostory of the version of the Pentateuch, by the LXXII interpreters, still extant, is genuine (London: Senex and Taylor, 1724).

Grabe, Joannes Ernestus (ed.) / Lewis, Thomas (tr.). The History of the Seventy-Two Interpreters (London: Hooke and Caldecott, 1715 [Greek text, ed. Grabe / English, tr. Lewis]

Dale, Antonius van (1638-1708). Dissertatio super Aristea de LXX interpretibus (Amsterdam: Wolters, 1705) [Greek text and Latin trans.]

Hody, Humphrey (1659-1707). Aristeae historia LXII interpretum (Oxford, 1692) (Greek text and Latin trans.)

Hody, Humphrey (1659-1707). Contra historiam Aristeae de LXX interpretibus dissertatio (Oxford: Lichfield, 1685)

1574 – Rossi, Azariah (c1511-c1578) [Hebrew trans.] (Mantua 1574)

Göbler, Justinus. Ein schöne und herrliche Histori von dem göttlichen Gesatz (Frankfurt, 1562) [German trans.]

Editio princeps of the Greek text, edited by Schardius, Simon (1535-1573). Aristeae de legis divinae ex Hebraica lingua in Graecam translatione (Basel: Oporinus, 1561) [Greek text with Latin trans. by Matthias Garbitius]