Daniel Pearlman wrote:
>
> Have I missed a couple of postings?  I don't know who this
> Alexander is or who the Ker is that he quotes, but the Ker
> quote seems naively anachronistic regarding the purpose of
> Bible translation in pre-modern times.  The primary criterion
> for early translators was faithfulness to God's *word*,
> literally, and therefore style and often target-language
> sense could go hang.  Remember the old story about the
> seventy-five (I think) translators who were each set to
> work independently to produce a translation into Greek
> of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch)?  The result
> was that they all, without consulting with each other,
> produced word for word the same translation of the
> original Hebrew!!--proving, of course, the legitimacy of
> the operation, and thus promoting ecclesiastical interests.
>
> ==Dan Pearlman
 
Then the story continues. A young yeshiva student was so impressed
that he ran to the village rabbi shouting "Miracle, miracle!"
The old rabbi got him to calm down enough to tell the story.
"Pish, tish" said the wise old rabbi, "That's no miracle. Now,
put 75 scholars in the same room, and if they agree, that is a
miracle!"