ABSTRACT
Hellenized Jews studied Greek literature and philosophy, and many highly influential Jewish texts were composed in Greek. The Greek translation later came to be known as the Septuagint, from the Latin word septuaginta ‘seventy’, because legend has it that the translation of the Torah was made by seventy-two Jewish scholars. The Septuagint remained the standard Bible used by Greek-speaking Jews into the 1st century CE. The most well-known of Jewish Greek works are the books of First and Second Maccabees, which include the story that gives to the holiday of Hanukkah. As Greek influence in the Mediterranean waned, Jews living in the region gradually abandoned the language in favour of other vernaculars. Noteworthy Judeo-Greek texts include a complete translation of the Book of Jonah from the 14th century, a translation of the entire Torah that was printed in Constantinople in 1547, and a number of original poems.
