TT #3 · Bereishis 1:1 · Megillah 9a

Core Text

מַעֲשֶׂה בְּתַלְמַי הַמֶּלֶךְ שֶׁכִּנֵּס שִׁבְעִים וּשְׁנַיִם זְקֵנִים וְהִכְנִיסָן בְּשִׁבְעִים וּשְׁנַיִם בָּתִּים וְלֹא גִּלָּה לָהֶם עַל מָה כִּנְּסָן. וְנִכְנַס אֵצֶל כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד וְאָמַר לָהֶם: כִּתְבוּ לִי תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה רַבְּכֶם. נָתַן הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּלֵב כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד עֵצָה, וְהִסְכִּימוּ כֻּלָּם לְדַעַת אַחַת, וְכָתְבוּ לוֹ: אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא בְּרֵאשִׁית.

An incident with King Ptolemy who gathered seventy-two elders and placed them in seventy-two separate houses without telling them why. He went to each and said: Write for me the Torah of Moses your teacher. The Holy One, blessed be He, placed counsel in the heart of each one, and they all arrived at the same decision and wrote for him: “God created in the beginning” (reversing the order).

The sugya lists deliberate changes made by the seventy-two elders when translating the Torah into Greek for Ptolemy. The first change is the inversion of the opening words so that a reader could not construe “Bereishis” as a creator-god who produced Elohim.

Complete Passuk