XII

Latin: "Prolegomena" refers to a formal introductory treatise or preliminary remarks.

...he so expanded and refined it that he related the interpretation not to the law alone, but to the writings of Moses and the rest of the prophets 1 original: "τὴν τοῦ Μωυσέως καὶ τῶν ἄλλων προφητῶν" and claimed that the seventy translators themselves were enclosed in as many individual cells for the work of translating, and thus prevented from meeting with one another; nevertheless, he claimed they all produced one and the same interpretation, with the King marvelling at this as a divine matter. As proof of this narrative, he testifies that he received these accounts from the inhabitants of Alexandria and that he saw the ruins of those cells on the island of Pharos with his own eyes. Finally, he notes that the same can be learned from other writers, most notably from Philo and Josephus 2.

The divine power which Justin had attributed to the seventy translators in these matters was confirmed by Irenaeus and Clement, and after them many others, although they did not all repeat every part of the story—such as the detail about the seventy cells—or did not relate them in exactly the same way. But two in particular are worthy of more careful consideration: Epiphanius and Jerome. For the former 3 departs from the tradition of Justin regarding the cells, in that he says the seventy-two translators were enclosed in thirty-six cells, specifically two in each, and he shapes many other details in that manner. For he says that twenty-seven books—that is, all the books of Holy Scripture—were translated into the Greek language, and he narrates the whole affair so as to prove it was carried out "in a marvelous way" and by the "singular providence of God and the consensus of the Holy Spirit." In particular, it has seemed serious to many that the things which Ptolemy Philadelphus wrote to Jerusalem—first for the books of the prophets 4, and second for the purpose of sending translators of the Hebrew text to him—differ greatly from what is read in the booklet of Aristeas and even in Josephus, although Epiphanius appeals to Aristeas himself in that matter 5.

Jerome viewed it far differently. His own words in the prologue to Genesis are these:

"I do not know what first author constructed the seventy cells
at Alexandria by his own lie, in which they, being divided,
wrote the same things, since Aristeas, the defender original Greek: ὑπερασπιστής (hyperaspistēs), meaning a shield-bearer or protector of the same Ptolemy,
and Josephus a long time later, reported no such thing, but
write that they, gathered in a single hall, conferred together,
rather than prophesied."

1. of Moses and the other prophets.
2. See Exhortation to the Greeks, chapter 13. Again in another place (in Apology I, section 31), touching upon the same history, he confirms that the books of the prophecies original: "τὰς βίβλους τῶν προφητειῶν" were requested by King Ptolemy; in that account, however, he confuses the dates by saying that the Egyptian legates were sent to King Herod.
3. See Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures, volume II, page 161 (Cologne edition, 1682).
4. books of the prophets concerning God and the creation of the world.
5. as Aristeas set forth in his treatise.