1st–2nd centuries

The Bible of the Early Church: The Septuagint and the Old Testament Canon

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible – the Septuagint (LXX), made according to legend by seventy Alexandrian translators – was the Bible of the first known Christian writers and of almost all the New Testament authors. To render Hebrew concepts, the translators had to use Greek terms with connotations foreign to biblical thought, and even the accurate translations reflect the religious ideas of the Hellenes. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70, the rabbis adopted a limited list of books (a canon), which became the basis of the Christian Old Testament canon. Around 170, Melito of Sardis brought back from the East a list of Old Testament books that coincides with the shortened rabbinic canon.