Ī Greek and polyglot edition of the Pentateuch commonly called " Constantinople Pentateuch" published in Constantinople in 1547 by Romaniote Jews has the Hebrew text in the middle of the page, the Aramaic on the base, with a Yevanic translation on one side and a Judaeo-Spanish translation on the other. Translations of the Old Testament, which is the other part of the Christian Bible, have been completed for similar reasons.Īgapius of Crete translated and published in 1543 the book of Psalms into modern Greek. Therefore, various translations have been completed over the centuries to make it easier for Greek speakers to understand Holy Scripture. However, like other living languages, the Greek language has developed over time. The New Testament part of the Christian Bible was originally written in Koine Greek, as most of the Church and scholars believe, and is therefore not a translation (notwithstanding that some reference material may have been from Aramaic).
Other early Greek translations of Hebrew Scripture that survive only in fragments are those of Aquila of Sinope (2nd century AD), Theodotion (2nd century AD), Symmachus (3rd century AD) and Fragments of the Samareitikon. It is studied along with Hebrew and Aramaic texts as an ancient source of information about the Old Testament. The LXX is the source of the majority of quotations from the Old Testament by writers of the New Testament. It was widely disseminated among ancient Hellenistic Jews, and was later used by Greek-speaking Christians for their Old Testament (refer canon). The LXX contains the oldest existing translation of Holy Scripture into any language. Some of these other documents are believed to have been written originally in Greek. It also includes several other documents which are considered to have differing levels of authority by various Christian churches. It contains the Hebrew Bible translated from Hebrew and Aramaic. The first known translation of the Bible into Greek is called the Septuagint (LXX 3rd–1st centuries BC).