Discovering the Septuagint: A Guided Reader, ed. Karen Jobes
The Septuagint or LXX is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. It is estimated that the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or Pentateuch, were translated in the mid-3rd century BCE and the remaining texts were translated in the 2nd century BCE. Under Christian auspices, the Septuagint includes the Hebrew Bible as well as the deuterocanonical books of the Christian Old Testament. Considered the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, particularly in Pauline epistles, by the Apostolic Fathers, and later by the Greek Church Fathers.