When King Ptolemy of Egypt gathered seventy-two Jewish elders and placed them in separate rooms, commanding each to translate the Torah into Greek, a miracle occurred. The Talmud (Megillah 9a) records that every single elder, working independently, produced the exact same translation — including the exact same deliberate changes to the text.
These changes were not errors. They were strategic. In several places, the literal Hebrew could have been misunderstood or exploited by hostile readers. So God placed identical thoughts into the minds of all seventy-two scholars, guiding them to adjust the same passages in the same way.
For example, where the Torah begins "In the beginning God created" (Genesis 1:1), the elders translated it as "God created in the beginning" — rearranging the words to prevent anyone from claiming that a being called "In the beginning" created God. Where the Torah says "Let us make man" (Genesis 1:26), they wrote "I shall make man" — eliminating the plural that might be twisted to support the idea of multiple gods.
The sages regarded this event with deep ambivalence. On one hand, the miraculous unanimity proved divine guidance. On the other, the translation of Torah into Greek was compared to the day the Golden Calf was made — a necessary concession that nonetheless diminished something sacred. Torah in Hebrew was alive; Torah in translation was a shadow, accurate but incomplete.
The day of the translation, some rabbis taught, was as grievous for Israel as the day the Calf was built. What is gained in accessibility is lost in depth.