Septfoil (seven-leaf), an architectural ornament which has seven cusps or points.
Septiniana in Albis (sevenfold in n-hite) is (he name frequently given to the first week in Whitsuntide with reference to the state of the newly baptized, who wore their white robes of baptism during that time. See Alb.
Septimoutium, a Roman festival which was held in the month of December, and lasted only for a single day. The day of the Septimoutium was a dies feriatus for the Montani,or the inhabitants of the seven ancient hills, who offered sacrifices to the gods in their several districts. They were believed to have been instituted to commemorate the enclosure of the seven hills of Rome within the walls of the city. See Ro.me.
SeptuagesSima (seventieth'), the third Sunday be- fore Lent. The reason of its application to the day is uncertain. Some liturgical writers — e. g. Pamelius — trace it to the association of the ancient monastic Lent of seventy days with the seventy years' captivity of Is- rael in Babylon. The following is more probable : There being exactly fifty days between the Sunday next before I^ent and Easter-day inclusive, that Sunday is termed Quinquagesima, i. e. the fiftieth ; and the two immediately preceding Sundays are called from the next roinid numbers Sexagesima, the sixtieth, and Septua- gesima, the seventieth. The observation of these days and the weeks following appears to be as ancient as the time of Gregory the Great. Some of the more devout Christians observed the whole time from the first of these Sundays to Easter as a season of humiliation and fasting, though the ordinary custom was to commence fasting on Ash -Wednesday. See Eden, Diet, of the Chureh, s. v. ; Blinit, Diet, of Theology, s. v.
Septtiagiiit is the common title of the earliest and most important version of the Old Testament, namely, into Greek, and is generally held to have de- rived its title (se%-enty) from the traditionary number of its translators (see below), rather than (as Eichhorn thought) from the authority of the Alexandrian San- hedrim as consisting of seventy members. (In the fol- lowing account we largely make use of that in Smith's Diet, (f the Bible, v,iih additions from other sources.) See (iuEKK Versions.
I. Origin of the Version. — This is as great a riddle as the sources of the Nile. The causes which produced the translation, the number and names of the transla- tors, the times at which dift'erent portions were trans- lated, are all uncertain.
1. Ancient Testimony on the Subject. — (1.) The oldest writer who makes mention of the Septuagint is Aristo- buhis, an author referred to by Eusebius (Pnepai: Evan- gel, xiii, 12) and Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, v, 595). According to Eusebius, he was a Jew, who united the Aristotelian with the Jewish philosoi)hy, and com- posed a commentary on the law of Moses, dedicated to Ptolemy Philometor. He is also mentioned in 2 Mace, i, 10. Both Clement and Eusebius make him contem- porary with Philometor (2d century B.C.), for the pas- sages in their writings, in which they speak of hiin un- der Philadelphus must eitlier have been corrupted by ignorant transcribers or have been so written by mis-
SEPTUAGINT
539
SEPTUAGINT
take (Valckenaer, § 10, 1 1 ; Diihne, p. 81 sq.). His words relative to the Septuagiiit are these :
"It is manifest that Plato has folhiwecl our law, and studied diligently all its particulars ; for before Demetrius Phalereus a translation had been made by others of the history of the Hebrews' goiug-forth out of Egypt, and of all that happened to them, and of the conquest of the land, and of the exposition of the whole law. Hence it is manifest that the aforesaid philosojiher borrowed many things, for he was very learned, as was Pythagoras, who also transferred many of our doctrines into his system. But the entire translation of onr whole law (n 6e oXrj tp- /uffi/eia Tuw dill rod i/<j|Liou niii/Tian) was made in tiie time of tlie king named Philadelphus, a man of greater zeal, un- der the direction of Demetrius Phalereus."
Tlie entire passage has occasioned much conjecture and discussion. It is given by Valckenaer (Diatribe, etc.), Thiersch (Be Versione Alexandrinci), and Frankel ( Vorstudien, etc.). It appears that the words of Aristo- bulus do not speak of any prior Greek translation, as Hody supposes, or indeed of any translation whatever. They rather refer to some brief extracts relative to Jew- ish history, which had been made from the Pentateuch into a language commonly understood by the Jews in Egypt, before the time of Demetrius. The entire hno was first rendered into Greek under Philadelphus. Hody, and after him Eichhorn, conjectured that the fragments of Aristobulus preserved by Eusebius and Clement were written in the 2d century by another Aristobulus, a Christian, and that Aristobulus, the pro- fessed Peripatetic, was a heathen. But the quotation of Cyril of Alexandria {Contra Julianum, lib. vi), to which they appeal, was erroneously made by that fa- ther, as may be seen by comparing it with Clement. Kichard Simon also denied the authenticity of Aristo- bulus's remains {//istoire Critique du V. T. p. 189). But Valckenaer has sufficiently established their authentici- ty. The testimony of Aristobulus is corroborated by a Latin scholion recently found in a MS. of Plautus at Kome, which has been described and illustrated by Kitschl in a little book entitled Die alexandrinischen Bibiiolheketi, etc. (Berlin, 1838). From the passage of Aristobulus already quoted, it appears that in the time of Aristobulus, i. e. the beginning of the 2d centurj' B.C., this version was considered to have been made Avhen Demetrius Phalereus lived, or in the reign of Ptolemy Soter. Hody, indeed, has endeavored to show that this account contradicts the voice of certain his- tory, because it places Demetrius in the reign of Phila- delphus. But the version may have been begun under Soter and completed under Philadelphus, his successor. In this way may be reconciled the discordant notices of the time wlien it originated; for it is well known that the Palestinian account, followed by various fathers of the Church, asserts that Ptolemy Soter carried the work into execution, while according to Aristeas, Philo, Jo- sephus, etc., his son Philadelphus was the person. Hody harmonizes the discrepancy by placing the trans- lation of the Pentateuch in the two years during which father and son reigned conjointly (B.C. 286 and 285). The object of Demetrius in advising Soter to have in his library a copj^ of the Jewish laws in Greek is not stated by Aristobulus, but Aristeas relates that the librarian represented it to the king as a desirable thing that such a book should be deposited in the Alexan- drian library. Some think that a literary rather than a reli(jious motive led to the version. So Hiiverniuk. This, however, may be reasonably doubted. Hody, Sturz, Frankel, and others conjecture that the object was religious or ecclesiastical. Eichhorn refers it to private impulse; while Hug takes the object to have been political. It is not probable, however, that the version was intended for the king's use, or that he wished to obtain from it information respecting the best mode of governing a nation and enacting laws for its economic well-being. The character and language of the version unite to show that an Egyptian king, probably ignorant of Greek, could not have understood the work. Perhaps an ecclesiastical motive prompted