manuscripts, however fragmentary, are of great importance, especially when they come from a Jewish milieu. But because revision of the LXX began at least as far back as the first century BCE, even pre-Origenic material has to be examined with great care (the Washington Papyrus of the Minor Prophets from the third century CE, for example, has been partially adjusted to the standard Hebrew). The earliest evidence is Jewish, and comes from both Palestine and Egypt. This will be surveyed, very briefly,