Are Old Greek Numbers and Deuteronomy Affected by the Alexandrian Milieu of Their Production? An Analysis of the Rendering of Words Related to Seas and Lakes

Naveau, Simon
(2026) Interpreting the Septuagint in Its Greco-Roman Context: Proceedings of the Montreal Septuagint Colloquium, June 19-20, 2024 — accepted/in-press

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  • Naveau, SimonUCLouvain
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Abstract
Recent research has suggested a significant influence from the Egyptian, or more precisely the Alexandrian milieu, on the Greek translators of the Septuagint—not only in the Torah, but in some other books as well. It is indeed generally accepted—and rarely debated—that the translation of the Torah took place in Alexandria, Egypt, during the 3rd century BC. However, this research too often considers the Septuagint of the Pentateuch or even the Greek Bible, as a whole. Therefore, the results obtained need to be refined, by studying each book separately. In fact, the translators were namely presumably not always the same from one book to another. The aim of this paper is to examine two books in greater detail: Numbers and Deuteronomy. This analysis will involve a review of some words for which the translators probably had to make reasoned choices (like technical words, toponyms, or hapax legomena):6 I will first deal with the translation of the word “sea,” when it points in Hebrew to the orientation “west”. After that, I will examine the Greek renderings of the names of the seas and lakes.
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Naveau, S. (2026). Are Old Greek Numbers and Deuteronomy Affected by the Alexandrian Milieu of Their Production? An Analysis of the Rendering of Words Related to Seas and Lakes. In Collectif (ed.), Interpreting the Septuagint in Its Greco-Roman Context: Proceedings of the Montreal Septuagint Colloquium, June 19-20, 2024. SBL Press. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/268701