Ptolemy of Egypt was a book collector. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle preserved by Moses Gaster in 1899, the Macedonian king who ruled Egypt commanded his two officers, Aristios and Andrios, to gather every book they could find. After amassing 950 volumes in Median, Persian, and other languages, Ptolemy laughed and told them to find fifty more to make a thousand.
His officers had a better idea. They told Ptolemy about a collection of books far more valuable than anything in his library—the Torah of the Jews, containing laws of unmatched wisdom. Ptolemy sent messengers to the high priest Eleazar in Jerusalem, requesting seventy-two elders who could translate the Torah into Greek. Eleazar complied, sending six scholars from each of the twelve tribes bearing a Torah scroll written in gold ink.
Ptolemy received them with honor, then placed each elder in a separate room to produce an independent translation. When the seventy-two versions were compared, every single one matched—word for word. God had placed identical understanding in each translator's heart. This, the chronicle says, was the origin of the Greek translation of the Torah.
But the chronicle pivots sharply to darker times. Antiochus, king of Greece, marched against Jerusalem after learning that the Jews had celebrated when a false rumor of his death spread. He slaughtered 80,000 men, women, and children in three days. He entered the Temple—a place where only the high priest could go—and plundered its golden vessels, treasures, and sacred objects. Before departing, he left his officer Phillipos with orders to forbid Torah study, prohibit Sabbath observance, ban circumcision, and execute anyone who refused to bow to an idol or eat swine's flesh.