septuagint
/sɛpˈtu.ə.d͡ʒənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.52 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
An influential Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible produced in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "2006, Katrin Hauspie, Theodoret and Messianic Verses in the Septuagint version of Ezekiel, Michael Anthony Knibb (editor), The Septuagint and Messianism, Leuven University Press, Peeters Publishers (Peeters Leuven), page 503, Traces of messianism in the Septuagint have occupied scholars for years; the Book of Ezekiel too has challenged attention in this specific domain of research."
- "2009, Jan Joosten, The Prayer of Azariah (DanLXX 3): Sources and Origin, Johann Cook (editor), Septuagint and Reception, BRILL, page 5, The Septuagint originated, for the most part, as a translation of a source text. As such it represents a link—and a very important one—in the reception history of the Hebrew-Aramaic scriptures. But the Septuagint very soon turned into a literary and religious reference in its own right. […] The Septuagint itself became the starting point for a new reception history."
- "Other important works appeared that continued the discussion about the position of the Septuagint within postclassical Greek."
- "This tenebrosity of the interior, he proceeded to say, hath not been illumined by the wit of the septuagint nor so much as mentioned for the Orient from on high which brake hell’s gates visited a darkness that was foraneous."
Etymology
From Late Latin Septuaginta, lit. "The Seventy", a clipping of earlier descriptional names such as septuaginta translatio (“translation by the seventy”) and septuaginta interpretes (“the 70 interpreters”), calques of Koine Greek names such as οἱ ἐβδομήκοντα ἑρμηνευταί (hoi ebdomḗkonta hermēneutaí, “the 70 interpreters”) and οἱ Ο′ (hoi O′, “the LXX”), deriving from the popular (but probably mistaken) belief that its translation of the Torah had been produced in 72 days by a team of 72 Jewish scholars from Jerusalem (6 from each tribe) summoned to Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Septuaginta, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /sɛpˈtu.ə.d͡ʒənt/
- British English: /ˈsɛp.tjʊ.ə.d͡ʒɪnt/