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Were the 70 translators of the Septuagint Israelites or jews?

Please post any links to reliable sources on all aspects of the LXX and it's history.

Thanks.

From Wikipedia entry Septuagint;

These titles refer to a legendary story, according to which seventy or seventy-two Jewish scholars were asked (Talmud text implies the scholars were forced) by the Greek King of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus to translate the Torah from Biblical Hebrew into Greek, for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria.[8]

This legend is first found in the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates,[9] and is repeated, with embellishments, by Philo of Alexandria, Josephus[10][11] and by various later sources, including St. Augustine.[12] A version of the legend is found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud:

King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher". God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.[13]

Philo of Alexandria, who relied extensively on the Septuagint,[14] says that the number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Is this a situation where 70 true Israelites were guided by Yahweh to make identical translations? Is the Talmud reference possibly an attempt by jews to claim that these translators were really their seed who were forced into a situation and subsequently produced identical translations the implication being that their god enabled them to create a uniformly corrupt text under duress? Could their purpose for this have been to distance themselves from the LXX in order to substantiate their Masoretic corruptions as authentic? In other words taking a miracle of Yahweh for His children and claiming it for themselves in an upside-down satanic manner?

One of the bozos from my wife's church told her that the Septuagint was translated by "Egyptian jews" who didn't understand Hebrew and as such it's basically worthless. Of course the bible tells us that Yahweh can give his people the supernatural ability to communicate in foreign tongues when needed [Acts 2: 5-13]. If the translators were true Israel their limitations with Hebrew need not necessarily be a problem.

From: http://kinsmanredeemer.com/inspired-word-part-4

Most modern day Christians, who are for the most part judaized, are terribly ignorant of what Jesus and His followers relied upon for Scripture. At the time of Christ the Hebrew language of the Patriarchs had faded from use. That area of the world had become Hellenized and therefore spoke Greek. The problem of preserving Scripture presented itself around the 3rd century BC when 70 translators began their work; the legend of 70 was thus named the Septuagint (in Latin) and represented by the Roman numerals LXX. The fact that Jesus and writers of the New Testament quoted from the LXX gives the credibility of inspiration for the Old Testament rendered in Greek rather than Hebrew. Thank God, because there are no known manuscripts of the OT uncials in Hebrew. The God of Israel has guaranteed that every attempt to destroy the canon of Scripture will fail. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” Mt. 24:35. During this time, the house of Judah (the southern house of Israel) was returning from their Babylonian captivity and the Levitical priests were still the custodians of canon as they rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem with the LXX in hand.

The LXX also played an important role in reaching lost Israelites (the northern house of Israel) from their captivity and dispersion from Assyria; much like John the Baptist paved the way for the Gospels in Judea. The LXX reminded both houses of Israel about their transgressions and were able to read and study for themselves the Law and the Prophets and therefore the prophetic fulfillment of a Messiah that would redeem them. They were being prepared to enter a New Covenantal relationship with God; to repent of their sins. For several hundred years our race was somewhat isolated from the leavening influence of mongrel jews, because the Greek OT was the only Bible they had. By the time of Christ however, Scripture was being leavened by the scribes and Pharisees. The Apostle Paul, one of the most vehement opponents to the mongrel jews of his day (following the lead of Jesus), was the missionary to the ‘gentiles’ (the second most confusing word in the Bible) or actually the White race Israelites of the dispersion, who had in their possession the LXX. Paul exhorted them in Galatians 5:1 to, “Stand firm in the freedom which Christ has made us free, and do not again be entangled in a yoke of bondage.” In other words, separate yourselves from the race of people who cannot hear the inspired Word and cannot believe in Christ and will fill your thinking with darkness. The jew is the eternal enemy of Jesus Christ and the White race.

Apart from its being the oldest translation of considerable extent that has ever been written, the LXX was the first step towards that fusion of ancient Hebrew with the Greek that has issued in the hearts and minds of modern Christendom to procure the inspired Word. It is a key to understanding the NT and the revelation of Christ. The difficulties in getting behind the confusion of versions and revisions and weighing things in the balance are very formidable. The LXX translators made some mistakes; their knowledge of Hebrew was sometimes inadequate; they occasionally interpreted as well as translated; and they sometimes introduced local color. And yet there is no doubt that much may be learned from the LXX. A word of caution for any text considered official canon is that they mirrored the religious authority of that era and shouldn’t be treated with blind faith or cavalierly dismissed, but looked at objectively and wholistically. We can be confident in the integrity of the language of the LXX, when at the turn of the last century, non-literary papyri was discovered in Egypt and gives us greater insight into the actual Koine Greek that was employed with the LXX. It was not an artificial language, it was not jewish slang and it was not the language of elitists, but of the common White man. The same cannot be said of the Masoretic text, which was artificial.

Mark

^^^Thanks Mark!!

Staropramen wrote:^^^Thanks Mark!!

Thanks from me, too, Mark.

"And you shall know the Truth ..."
It's interesting that this is a direct statement of fact by our Redeemer to His people.

So, the jews claim the 70 are of their tribe because the Septuagint is the most ancient translation of the Old Testament and predates the Masoretic text? To keep with their lie, the Septuagint must have been translated by jews so they can claim everything as their own. When in truth, they created the Masoretic after the Septuagint because Judaism, as Ignatius of Antioch said, is a corruption of Christianity.

EnemyofEdom wrote:So, the jews claim the 70 are of their tribe because the Septuagint is the most ancient translation of the Old Testament and predates the Masoretic text? To keep with their lie, the Septuagint must have been translated by jews so they can claim everything as their own. When in truth, they created the Masoretic after the Septuagint because Judaism, as Ignatius of Antioch said, is a corruption of Christianity.

We're talking approximately 1000 years between the authors of the LXX and the authors of a vicarious pseudo-Hebrew alphabet i.e the Masoretic Text. The jew never stops at supplanting the Word of God with adulterations. They were responsible for collecting as much true Israelitish literature that they could buy or steal in order to destroy it all. Judaism or the oral traditions of the elders, spawned during the Babylonian captivity, was a circumvention of the Pentateuch, the Mosaic Law and the prophets and pslams. It thrives as the modern talmud and permeates as much of the "versions" translated by them, that they dare to do without being hanged from a tree. Later manuscripts however, discovered in more recent times, acts as a check against the jewish leaven, to maintain the integrity of the Word. But, it requires a great deal of study by the student of truth.

Mark