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The Tasks of the Translators: The Rabbis, the Septuagint, and the Cultural Politics of Translation
- Prooftexts
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 27, Number 1, Winter 2007
- pp. 1-39
- 10.2979/pft.2007.27.1.1
- Article
- Additional Information
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.