Great swept through the Middle East in the early 300s B.C., Greek became the prevailing language. Within about a century, an Egyptian king decided to create a new holding for his renowned library in Alexandria. As legend has it, he asked the high priest in Jerusalem to loan him about 70 top scholars who would translate the five revered books of Moses into Greek. The result—the first Bible translation—became known as the Septuagint, meaning 70. Over the next hundred years or so, the rest of the Hebrew