The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

Updated by: 
Shlomo Brand
Research notes: 
SB/not checked/17/10/2021
Reference type: 
Journal Article
Author(s): 
Hacham, Noah
year: 
2021
Full title: 

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha
Volume: 
30
Issue / Series Volume: 
4
Abbreviated Series Name: 
JSP
Pages: 
175-185
Work type: 
Essay/Monograph
Abstract: 

According to the Letter of Aristeas, the ancient treatise on the creation of the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, the high priest Eleazar chose seventy-two elders and dispatched them to Egypt where they translated the Torah into Greek. Scholars discerned the meaning of this number, indicating the affinity to the seventy elders who joined Moses and Aaron in the Sinai covenant (Exod. 24) and the fact that this number represents all the tribes of Israel equally, thus sanctifying the Greek translation in a similar way to the Torah. Particular attention was paid to Epiphanius, the fourth century church father, who explicitly states that the seventy-two elders provide equal representation to all the constituent tribes of Israel. Rabbinic literature, however, has been entirely absent from this discourse. In this article I point to Sifre on Numbers, a second century midrash, that notes that seventy-two elders experienced the Divine revelation (Numbers 11): seventy in the Tabernacle and Eldad and Medad in the camp. I suggest that based on a similar ancient interpretation of Numbers 11, the Letter of Aristeas chose the number seventy-two in order to bestow the aura, authority and sanctity of the seventy-two elders of Number 11 on the Greek translation. This example also highlights Rabbinic literature as an integral element of the cultural context of Jewish-Hellenistic literature.

Primary Texts: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: 
Composition / Author: 
Letter of Aristeas
URL: 
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09518207211022299
Label: 
25/10/2021
Record number: 
108 015