When, therefore, the death of Alexander was followed by the partition of his conquests among his generals, Egypt became, in B. C. 322, governed by the Ptolemies, the second of whom, Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 286‒247, had the Law of Moses, that is the =first five books=, translated from the Hebrew into the Greek.
=21. Under the first of the Ptolemies= (Soter) the Alexandrian Museum was founded for the reception of learned men, as well as of literary treasures, and Alexandria soon superseded Athens as the chief nursery of Greek literature. Under his successor and son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, the library of the Museum contained 90,000 volumes of distinct works, but 400,000 with the duplicates.
Beginning with some period in the reign of the first Ptolemy (Soter), the Jews were attracted to Alexandria in large numbers as settlers, to whom this Ptolemy assigned a suburb on the coast towards the east. The city became the resort of some of the wisest and ablest men of the age, including such men as Apelles the painter, Euclid the mathematician, and many others, artists and scholars.
=22. But under Ptolemy II., Philadelphus=, B. C. 283, the Museum became most prosperous, and among its members were numbered grammarians, natural philosophers, astronomers, physicians, poets, and Greek philosophers of the schools.[140] It was under this state of things that the translation above referred to was asked by the king and was undertaken, according to tradition, by seventy of the most learned Jews of that date, and hence called “The translation of the seventy,” or the Septuagint.
=23. Although at first= only the Pentateuch was translated, the other books were, in after years, gradually added to this translation. The Septuagint was used among the Jews not only of Alexandria, but of Palestine also, and during the times of our Saviour and the apostles was more frequently quoted than was the original Hebrew.[141]
=1. It will be remembered= that although under Cyrus the Jews were permitted full liberty to return to Palestine, not all the Jewish nation accepted the privilege. A very large number of the wealthiest, and indeed of the most learned classes, remained behind. They did much for the support of the Temple and for other objects among those who had returned to Palestine, but they themselves continued the synagogue service in Babylonia and in Persia, as appears from various statements and allusions, not only in Jewish writings, but also in other history.