The Tasks of the Translators: The Rabbis, The Septuagint and the Cultural Politics of Translation

This article traces the development of rabbinic legends surrounding the creation of the Septuagint. It places these texts in the context of their Hellenistic antecedents and Christian parallels. I argue that the different rabbinic versions of the Septuagint legend reflect the rabbis' concerns and anxieties not only about the Septuagint, but also about their own self-defined position as transmitters of the Mosaic tradition in a world in which they are challenged both by a hegemonic Greco-Roman culture and numerous other groups claiming to be the true inheritors of the prophets.