It is not correct to say with Philo that the translator rendered each
word of the Hebrew with literal faithfulness, so as to give its proper
force. Rather may we accept the words of the Greek translator of Ben
Sira: "Things originally spoken in Hebrew have not the same force in
them when they are translated into another tongue, and not only these,
but the law itself (the Torah) and the prophecies and the rest of the
books have no small difference when they are spoken in their original
language."[21]

From the making of the translation one can trace the movement that
ended in Christianity. By reading their Scriptures in Greek, Jews
began to think them in Greek and according to Greek conceptions.
Certain commentators have seen in the Septuagint itself the infusion
of Greek philosophical ideas. Be this as it may, it is certain that
the version facilitated the introduction of Greek philosophy into the
interpretation of Scripture, and gave a new meaning to certain Hebraic
conceptions, by suggesting comparison with strange notions. This
aspect of the work led the rabbis of Palestine and Babylon in later
days, when the spread of Hellenized Judaism was fraught with misery to
the race, to regard it as an awful calamity, and to recount a tale of
a plague of darkness which fell upon Palestine for three days when it
was made;[22] and they observed a fast day in place of the old
Alexandrian feast on the anniversary of its completion. They felt as
the old Italian proverb has it, _Traduttori, traditori!_ ("Translators
are traitors!"). And the Midrash in the same spirit declares[23] that
the oral law was not written down, because God knew that otherwise it
would be translated into Greek, and He wished it to be the special
mystery of His people, as the Bible no longer was.