Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
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. (See VERSION.)
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
ALEXAN'DRIA,the Grecian capital of Egypt, founded by and named after Alexander the Great, b.c. 332. Situation. — It was a noted seaport of Lower Egypt, and was situated on a low, narrow tract of land which divides Lake Mareotis from the Mediterranean, and near the western mouth of the Nile, about 120 miles from the present city of Cairo. History. — Soon after its foundation by Alexander it became the capital of the Ptolemies and the Grecian
kings reigning in Egypt, and one of the most populous and prosperous cities of the East. Its harbor could accommodate vast navies, fitting it to become the commercial metropolis of the entire Eastern world. In front of the city, on the island of Pharos, stood a famous light-house, named after the island and noted as one of the Seven wonders of the world. Alexandria numbered, in the days of its ancient prosperity, 600,000 inhabitants (half of them
slaves), and ranked next to Athens in literature. It had the greatest library of ancient times, which contained upward of 700,000 rolls or volumes. The portion in the museum, consisting of 400,000 volumes, was burnt in b.c. 47. The additional or "new library" in the Serapeum, afterward increased to about 500,000 volumes, including the original 300,000 volumes, was destroyed by the fanatical vandalism of the Saracens in a.d. 640. At Alexandria the
O. T. was translated into the Greek by seventy learned Jews (hence called the "Septuagint"), in the third century before the Christian era. The Alexandrian Greek dialect, known as Hellenistic Greek, was the language used by the early Christian fathers, and is still the study of the biblical scholar in the pages of the N. T. Alexandria was the birthplace of Apollos, Acts 18:24, and in the apostle Paul's time, it carried on an extensive commerce
with the countries on the Mediterranean. Acts 6:9; Acts 27:6; Acts 28:11. The city was the home of Philo, who there blended the Mosaic religion with the philosophy of Plato. Mark founded there a Christian church, which in later years became a patriarchal see, outranking Jerusalem and Antioch, being itself afterward outranked by Constantinople and Rome. In its catechetical school — the theological seminary of those days — Clement and Origen
taught the Christian religion, in opposition to the false philosophy of the Gnostic sects. In Alexandria originated the Arian heresy denying that Jesus Christ was divine, and there Athanasius, the "father of orthodoxy," firmly opposed the false and defended the true doctrine of the deity of our Lord. From a.d. 300 to 600 the city was second only to Rome in size and importance, and was the chief seat of Christian theology. It was conquered by the
Saracens under Caliph Omar about a.d. 610, when it began to decline. The rising importance of Constantinople, and the discovery of an ocean passage to India by way of Cape Good Hope, contributed to its further ruin, until it was reduced from a prosperous city of half a million to a poor village of only 5000 to 6000 inhabitants. The plan of Alexandria on the next page is taken from Fairbairn's Imperial Dictionary of the Bible. Present Condition.
— It is now an important city of 200,000 inhabitants (including 50,000 Franks), and is connected with Cairo by a railway, and also with Suez, on the Red Sea. The city has a new artificial harbor with a breakwater two miles long. Among the ancient monuments to be seen are the Catacombs, the Column of Diocletian, 94 feet high and named "Pompey's Pillar" — not from the famous Pompey, but from a Roman prefect who erected the column in honor of
the emperor Diocletian — and one of the two obelisks or "Needles of Cleopatra," which, however, belong to the time of the Pharaohs and were brought from Heliopolis. One was transferred to London in 1878, and now adorns the embankment of the Thames; the other is to be removed to the city of New York (1880).