Sĕp'tu-a-gĭnt, n.

n. [From Lat. septuaginta, seventy.] A Greek version of the Old Testament;—so called because it was said to be the work of seventy, or rather of seventy-two, interpreters.

☞ This translation from the Hebrew is reported to have been made in the reign and by the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, about 270 or 280 years before the birth of Christ. But this is very doubtful. From internal evidence it is clear that it was not all the work of one man, nor of one company of men; for the translators of different books were of very different degrees of competency, and were governed by very different rules of interpretation. It was probably not all the work of one age.

☞ The word is sometimes used adjectively, in the sense of, pertaining to the Septuagint; contained in the Greek copy of the Old Testament; as, Septuagint chronology, the chronology founded upon the dates of the Septuagint, which makes 1500 years more from the creation to Abraham than the present Hebrew copies of the Bible.