Aristeas

Also known as: Aristeas
Dates: uncertain (traditionally 3rd–2nd century BC)
Role: Author of the Letter of Aristeas on the Septuagint translation

Author of the Letter of Aristeas, an account of the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (the Septuagint) under Ptolemy Philadelphus.

Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture

Arguments for the Old Testament — With Josephus, relates the stories of Theopompus and Theodectes
"Josephus and Aristeas relate"
Moses as the Most Ancient Theologian, Philosopher, Poet, and Historian — Testifies Ptolemy Philadelphus asked why no historian or poet mentioned so great a work as the Law of Moses
"Ptolemy Philadelphus (as Aristeas testifies in his work on the 72 Translators)"

Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses

Canons Bearing a Torch Before the Pentateuch — Envoy of Ptolemy Philadelphus who asked Eleazar about Mosaic dietary laws; wrote on the Seventy Interpreters
"Aristeas (as he himself attests in his treatise On the Seventy Interpreters, volume 2 of the Library of the Holy Fathers), the envoy of Ptolemy Philadelphus"