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When Ptolemy Learned How Torah Judges Kings

Ptolemy frees one hundred thousand captives, Sosibius calls it a thank offering, and the banquet reveals that Torah measures power by what it releases.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Aristeas Asked for One Hundred Thousand People
  2. The Table Carried Its Own Argument
  3. Ptolemy Strengthened Egypt Through What He Released
  4. The Banquet Questions Tested What Power Understood
  5. Eleazar Confirmed What the Table Had Already Said

Aristeas Asked for One Hundred Thousand People

Before any translation begins, before a single scholar is summoned from Jerusalem, Aristeas makes a request that sets the moral terms of the entire story. He asks Ptolemy to release the Jewish captives held throughout Egypt. The number Andreas estimates is over one hundred thousand people, soldiers and their families taken during military campaigns and distributed to landowners across the country. Ptolemy hears the request and jokes that it is a small favor.

Then Sosibius changes the meaning of the act. Releasing these captives is not merely a political gesture. It can be a thank offering to the God whose Torah Ptolemy is about to receive. A king who wants the sacred text of a people in his library should first demonstrate that he regards that people's dignity as worth something. The release of the captives is Ptolemy's down payment on the relationship the translation assumes. Torah does not enter a house that treats its people as property.

The Table Carried Its Own Argument

The table Ptolemy sends to Jerusalem is not simply a gift. It is a demonstration of what the king thinks the transaction requires. Gold wire wound into complex patterns. Wave-work carved in raised ropes along the border. Precious stones set in alternating colors around the edge. The dimensions are exact, the craftsmanship described in a way that makes clear the king understood he was not purchasing Torah. He was offering honor in exchange for the privilege of receiving it.

The Letter of Aristeas is making a case that translation has conditions. The Septuagint did not happen because a powerful king demanded sacred text and got it. It happened because a powerful king demonstrated, through the treatment of captives and the quality of his gift, that he was capable of receiving what he was asking for. The table's weight in gold is the visible measure of the king's understanding of what he was asking for.

Ptolemy Strengthened Egypt Through What He Released

The letter is careful to note that freeing the captives made Egypt stronger rather than weaker. Ptolemy's generosity toward a captive population was not a drain on the country's resources. It was the kind of act that builds the loyalty of a population and the reputation of a king in the eyes of those who can measure character. Egypt grew through agriculture, through the labor of people who were treated justly rather than through the labor of people who were kept against their will.

That is the Letter's royal theology in its most practical form. Power is not secured by keeping everything within your grip. It is secured by knowing what to release. A king who cannot let go of what he has claimed cannot receive what is freely given. Ptolemy had to free the captives before Jerusalem would send the scholars, because a man who holds people is not yet ready to receive the book that was given to free them.

The Banquet Questions Tested What Power Understood

At the banquet, the scholars who have traveled from Jerusalem answer Ptolemy's questions about kingship one by one. What is the greatest virtue a king can possess? The answer: moderation, which governs all the others. What makes a ruler endure? Justice toward those who are weaker than him. What is piety in a king? Acting toward others as God acts toward the king: with patience, generosity, and attention to genuine need rather than performed devotion.

Ptolemy applauds each answer. The Letter records this applause carefully because it matters. A king who applauds when Torah's answers challenge the normal assumptions of power is a king who has heard the answers correctly. He is not merely being polite. He is recognizing something that comes from outside his tradition and is true anyway. The scholars are not teaching him Jewish law. They are showing him that the principles Torah operates on are not parochial rules. They are the principles any honest examination of power reveals.

Eleazar Confirmed What the Table Had Already Said

When the translation is complete and the scholars return to Jerusalem, Eleazar receives the report of how Ptolemy treated them throughout. The High Priest's response is the Letter's final theological statement. The king who freed the captives, who sent the honored table, who listened to the scholars' answers without flinching, has demonstrated that he possesses the qualities that make receiving Torah appropriate. He did not merely acquire a text. He passed the examination the text required of him.

The Letter of Aristeas ends where it begins: with the question of what kind of king deserves to receive what the Jewish people carry. The answer is a king who acts toward others as God acts toward him. Ptolemy, by the Letter's account, came close enough to that standard that Jerusalem sent its scholars and the translation held.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:19Letter of Aristeas

How many thousands do you think they will number?' Andreas, who was standing near, replied, 'A little more than a hundred thousand.' 'It is a small boon indeed,' said the king, 'that Aristeas asks of us!'Then Sosibius and some others who were present said, 'Yes, but it will be a fit tribute to your magnanimity for you to offer the enfranchisement of these men as an act of devotion to the supreme God. You have been greatly honoured by Almighty God and exalted above all your forefathers in glory and it is only fitting that you should render to Him the greatest thank offering in your power.'

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Letter of Aristeas 1:72Letter of Aristeas

They made the top of the table in three parts like a triptychon, and they were so fitted and dovetailed together with spigots along the whole breadth of the work, that the meeting of the joints could not be seen or even discovered. The thickness of the table was not less than half a cubit, so that the whole work must have cost many talents.

For since the king did not wish to add to its size he expended on the details the same sum of money which would have been required if the table could have been of larger dimensions. And everything was completed in accordance with his plan, in a most wonderful and remarkable way, with inimitable art and incomparable beauty.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:110Letter of Aristeas

The same thing happened in Alexandria, which excels all cities in size and prosperity. Country people by migrating from the rural districts and settling in the city brought agriculture into disrepute:

and so to prevent them from settling in the city, the king issued orders that they should not stay in it for more than twenty days. And in the same way he gave the judges written instructions, that if it was necessary to issue a summons against any one who lived in the country, the case must be settled within five days.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:112Letter of Aristeas

Since he considered the matter one of great importance, he appointed also legal officers for every district with their assistants, that the farmers and their advocates might not in the interests of business empty the granaries of the city, I mean, of the produce of husbandry.

I have permitted this digression because it was Eleazar who pointed out with great clearness the points which have been mentioned. For great is the energy which they expend on the tillage of the soil. For the land is thickly planted with multitudes of olive trees, with crops of corn and pulse, with vines too, and there is abundance of honey. Other kinds of fruit trees and dates do not count compared with these. There are cattle of all kinds in great quantities and a rich pasturage for them.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:230Letter of Aristeas

The king spoke kindly to him and then asked the next, What is it that resembles beauty in value? And he said, 'Piety, for it is the pre-eminent form of beauty, and its power lies in love, which is the gift of God. This you have already acquired and with it all the blessings of life.'

The king in the most gracious way applauded the answer and asked another How, if he were to fail, he could regain his reputation again in the same degree? And he said, 'It is not possible for you to fail, for you have sown in all men the seeds of gratitude which produce a harvest of goodwill, and this is mightier than the strongest weapons and guarantees the greatest security.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:289Letter of Aristeas

Delighted with the reply, the king inquired of the next man, What is best for the people? That a private citizen should be made king over them or a member of the royal family? And he replied, He who is best by nature.

For kings who come of royal lineage are often harsh and severe towards their subjects. And still more is this the case with some of those who have risen from the ranks of private citizens, who after having experienced evil and borne their share of poverty, when they rule over multitudes turn out to be more cruel than the godless tyrants.

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Letter of Aristeas 1:321Letter of Aristeas

With the escort he sent Eleazar ten couches with silver legs and all the necessary equipment, a sideboard worth thirty talents, ten robes, purple, and a magnificent crown, and a hundred pieces of the finest woven linen, also bowls and dishes, and two golden beakers to be dedicated to God.

He urged him also in a letter that if any of the men preferred to come back to him, not to hinder them. For he counted it a great privilege to enjoy the society of such learned men, and he would rather lavish his wealth upon them than upon vanities.

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