Translation and Survival

Tessa Rajak offers a radical new understanding of the translation of the Torah into Greek – the first major translation in Western culture. Its significance was far-reaching but largely forgotten. Without a Greek Bible, European history would have been entirely different. It is these translators who invented the term ‘diaspora’, made the survival of the first Jewish diaspora possible and had a huge impact on Jews, Christians and Greeks.

Philip Alexander is Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature at  the University of Manchester and Co-Director of the Manchester University Centre for Jewish Studies.

Tessa Rajak is Professor of Ancient History Emeritus at Reading and is currently between Oxford and UCL. Her new work is Translation and Survival: the Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora.

In association with the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society