Access to the Source: Cicero, Ben Sira, the Septuagint and their Audiences

This article tries to apply some insights from the modern field of Translation Studies to the relationship between translation, source text and audience in Cicero, Sirach and the Septuagint. Cicero's very free translations are possible because his audience is able to read the Greek originals that he translates. Sirach's rather literal translation is the result of adopting an approach to the Hebrew text that the grandson found operative in the Septuagint, but he is not really trying to provide his audience access to the original Hebrew. The Septuagint translators were trying to give access to the Hebrew original by producing an "interlinear" translation, which could have originated in several social contexts.