1705, when Humphrey Hody argued for the fictitious nature of the story.29 But the letter is important as the likely source of all subsequent traditions concerning the Septuagint and remains an active topic of study. Writers subsequent to the Letter of Aristeas add little information of substance.30 Philo, a Jewish Alexandrian philosopher who lived in the first century of our era, embellished the story of the origin of the Greek version of the Bible (Life of Moses 2.25–41). Probably relying on an