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Seventy-Two Elders Left Jerusalem With Eleazar's Worry

Eleazar sends his finest sages to Alexandria but fears no king will release men whose wisdom makes them too valuable to return.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The King Wanted More Than Books
  2. The Letter That Remembered the Captives
  3. The Names Were Called Tribe by Tribe
  4. The Worry That Praise Could Not Quiet

The King Wanted More Than Books

Demetrius brought Ptolemy a problem. The royal library was almost complete, but the Jewish law was missing, and the law could not simply be copied. It needed translators who had lived inside it, men whose whole lives had been shaped by what they were asked to render. The king listened, and instead of sending for texts, he sent for people.

The request that went to Eleazar in Jerusalem asked for six elders from each of the twelve tribes: men of noble life, skilled in the law. Seventy-two in all. Israel would not send a single interpreter working alone. It would send a miniature people, six from each tribe, wide enough to carry memory and disagreement and consensus all at once.

The Letter That Remembered the Captives

Ptolemy's letter to the high priest was careful. It remembered the Jews already in Egypt, some carried off by the Persians in an earlier age, others who had come as captives with his own father. Some had proved loyal enough to command fortresses against the native Egyptians. The king had released all of them as a gesture of goodwill, and he was asking Eleazar now to do the same: release men, not as slaves or captives, but as sages lent to a king who understood their value.

The letter also reminded Eleazar that hundreds of thousands of Jews already lived in his realm, more than enough reason to treat their holy writings with respect. It was a letter that knew exactly which arguments would land on a high priest who cared about the condition of Jews outside Judea.

The Names Were Called Tribe by Tribe

Eleazar selected carefully. From the fourth tribe, Jonathan, Abraeus, Elisha, Ananias, Chabrias. From the fifth, Isaac, Jacob, Yeshua, Sabbataeus, Simon, Levi. From the sixth, Judas, Joseph, Simon, Zacharias, Samuel, Selemias. Tribe by tribe the names came, tribe names and ancestor names braided together so that the translation being sent to Alexandria would carry genealogies inside it whether the king knew it or not. Seventy-two in all.

These men had grown up in the same house as the texts they would translate. They had not studied the law the way a scholar studies a foreign subject. They had kept it, lived inside it, been formed by it. Eleazar was not lending Ptolemy linguists. He was lending him parts of himself.

The Worry That Praise Could Not Quiet

The elders loved Eleazar, and Eleazar loved them in a way that made the separation visibly painful. He sent a letter with them to the king asking for their safe return. He asked Andreas and Aristeas, who were carrying the king's reply, to work for their return with all the effort they could give. They promised to give their best attention, but Eleazar said he was still greatly distressed.

He had seen this pattern before: a king who became fond of brilliant men near his person. Such a king, out of the goodness of his nature, considered it his highest privilege to summon men superior in culture and wisdom to his court and keep them there. Eleazar had given Ptolemy seventy-two of the finest minds Jerusalem held, and he understood that a king who loved wisdom might not easily let them go home.

WisdomPatriarchsLetter Of AristeasSeptuagintEleazarApocrypha
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From the tradition

Sources

6 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Letter of Aristeas 1:32Letter of Aristeas

It is necessary that these should be made accurate for your library since the law which they contain, in as much as it is of divine origin, is full of wisdom and free from all blemish. For this reason literary men and poets and the mass of historical writers have held aloof from referring to these books and the men who have lived and are living in accordance with them, because their conception of life is so sacred and religious, as Hecataeus of Abdera says.

If it please you, O king, a letter shall be written to the High Priest in Jerusalem, asking him to send six elders out of every tribe - men who have lived the noblest life and are most skilled in their law - that we may find out the points in which the majority of them are in agreement, and so having obtained an accurate translation may place it in a conspicuous place in a manner worthy of the work itself and your purpose. May continual prosperity be yours!'

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Letter of Aristeas 1:36Letter of Aristeas

I shall give you a full account of the workmanship after I have set before you copies of the letters. The letter of the king ran as follows:

King Ptolemy sends greeting and salutation to the High Priest Eleazar. Since there are many Jews settled in our realm who were carried off from Jerusalem by the Persians at the time of their power

and many more who came with my father into Egypt as captives - large numbers of these he placed in the army and paid them higher wages than usual, and when he had proved the loyalty of their leaders he built fortresses and placed them in their charge that the native Egyptians might be intimidated by them. And I, when I ascended the throne, adopted a kindly attitude towards all my subjects, and more particularly to those who were citizens of yours

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Letter of Aristeas 1:50Letter of Aristeas

Of the fourth tribe, Jonathan, Abraeus, Elisha, Ananias, Chabrias.... Of the fifth tribe, Isaac, Jacob, Yeshua, Sabbataeus, Simon, Levi. Of the sixth tribe, Judas, Joseph, Simon, Zacharias, Samuel, Selemias.

Of the seventh tribe, Sabbataeus, Zedekiah, Jacob, Isaac, Jesias, Natthaeus. Of the eighth tribe Theodosius, Jason, Yeshua, Theodotus, John, Jonathan. Of the ninth tribe, Theophilus, Abraham Arsamos, Jason, Endemias, Daniel.

Of the tenth tribe, Jeremiah, Eleazar, Zachariah, Baneas, Elisha, Dathaeus. Of the eleventh tribe, Samuel, Joseph, Judas, Jonathes, Chabu, Dositheus. Of the twelfth tribe, Isaelus, John, Theodosius, Arsamos, Abietes, Ezekiel. They were seventy-two in all.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:124Letter of Aristeas

All of them carefully observed this rule and were anxious above everything else to excel each other in its observance and they were all of them worthy of their leader and of his virtue. And one could observe how they loved Eleazar by their unwillingness to be torn away from him and how he loved them. For besides the letter which he wrote to the king concerning their safe return, he also earnestly besought Andreas to work for the same end and urged me, too, to assist to the best of my ability

and although we promised to give our best attention to the matter, he said that he was still greatly distressed, for he knew that the king out of the goodness of his nature considered it his highest privilege, whenever he heard of a man who was superior to his fellows in culture and wisdom, to summon him to his court.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:126Letter of Aristeas

For I have heard of a fine saying of his to the effect that by securing just and prudent men about his person he would secure the greatest protection for his kingdom, since such friends would unreservedly give him the most beneficial advice.

And the men who were now being sent to him by Eleazar undoubtedly possessed these qualities. And he frequently asserted upon oath that he would never let the men go if it were merely some private interest of his own that constituted the impelling motive-but it was for the common advantage of all the citizens that he was sending them.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:128Letter of Aristeas

For, he explained, the good life consists in the keeping of the enactments of the law, and this end is achieved much more by hearing than by reading. From this and other similar statements it was clear what his feelings towards them were.

It is worth while to mention briefly the information which he gave in reply to our questions. For I suppose that most people feel a curiosity with regard to some of the enactments in the law, especially those about meats and drinks and animals recognized as unclean.

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