By about 200 b.c.e. the Jewish community of Alexandria had become large and sophisticated enough to require a translation of its Hebrew Bible into its current vernacular, Greek; the Septuagint translation of the Torah was the result.

JUDAISM IN ALEXANDRIA: HALAKAH AND THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

Ever since Jews had begun to settle in Egypt in increasing numbers, whether because pro-Babylonian forces in Judah from about 600 b.c.e. had made it necessary for them to emigrate or because subsequent social–political conditions at home had made flight desirable, the growing community had adjusted itself extraordinarily well to the pagan environment. A significant portion of the Jewish population had retained its loyalties and ties – especially the religious – with Judah at the same time as it adopted many of the more meaningful aspects of the gentile society in which it dwelt and flourished. Thus the Alexandria Jewish community sent tithes and made pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem and acknowledged the religious authority in Jerusalem as theirs also.

One of the most radical changes that had taken place in the homeland was the belief that the spirit of prophecy, since Malachi, had ascended to heaven and that until God let it descend again it was only those who were learned in His written Law who were authorized to speak in His name. 1 Mace. 4:42–6 (see also, for example, 9:27 and 14:4) put it this way: [Judah] chose blameless priests devoted to the Law, and they cleansed the Sanctuary…they tore down the altar, and stored the stones on the Temple Mount, in a suitable place, until a prophet should come to decide what to do with them.’