Bible Dictionary

Alexandria

The Greek capital of Egypt founded 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. It soon became an important center of commerce and learning; its library was the largest in the world. Jews settled here in large numbers, and it was for their use that the Greek translation of the Old Testament was made. (See Septuagint.) Alexandria was the meetingplace of Jewish religious belief and Greek philosophy. We see some of the results of this meeting in the book of the Wisdom of Solomon (see Apocrypha), possibly written in Greek by a Jew in Alexandria about the beginning of the Christian era. Philo, an eminent Jewish philosopher, lived at Alexandria, 20 B.C.–A.D. 50.