Alexandria: The ancient metropolis of Lower Egypt, so called from its founder,
Alexander the Great (about B.C. 333 It was for a long period the
greatest of existing cities, for both Nineveh and Babylon had been
destroyed, and Rome had not yet risen to greatness. It was the
residence of the kings of Egypt for 200 years. It is not mentioned
in the Old Testament, and only incidentally in the New. Apollos,
eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures, was a native of this city
(Acts 18:24) Many Jews from Alexandria were in Jerusalem, where
they had a synagogue
(Acts 6:9) at the time of Stephen's martyrdom.
At one time it is said that as many as 10,000 Jews resided in this
city. It possessed a famous library of 700,000 volumes, which was
burned by the Saracens (A.D. 642) It was here that the Hebrew Bible
was translated into Greek. This is called the Septuagint version,
from the tradition that seventy learned men were engaged in
executing it. It was, however, not all translated at one time. It
was begun B.C. 280 and finished about B.C. 200 or 150
