The completed Septuaginta, published in 1935, relies mainly on the Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus and presents a critical framework with variants from these and several other sources.
But the story stuck enough that their translation eventually became known in Latin as the Versio Septuaginta Interpretum, or “Version of the Seventy Translators” — which I suppose sounded nicer than “of the Seventy-Two.”
The name Septuagint (from the Latin septuaginta, “70”) was derived later from the legend that there were 72 translators, 6 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel, who worked independently to translate the whole and ultimately produced identical versions.
The Septuagint, or the Greek version of the Old Testament is, written in full, the Interpretatio septuaginta vivorum or seniorum, i.e. the translation of which the first instalment was attributed by Alexandrian tradition to seventy or seventy-two Jewish elders.
SEPTUAGINTA LXX : Η Παλαια Διαθηκη Κατα Τους Εβδομηκοντα | Greek Old ...
The term “Septuagint,” derived from the Latin “septuaginta” (seventy), reflects the tradition of 70 or 72 translators. By 150 B.C.E., the full Hebrew canon was translated, though the exact scope and order varied.
The name Septuagint comes from the Latin septuaginta, meaning “seventy.” This is why the abbreviation for the Septuagint is LXX, the Roman numeral for seventy.
The name "Septuagint" is an abbreviation of Interpretatio secundum (or juxta) Septuaginta seniores (or viros), i.e. the Greek translation of the Old Testament of which the first installment was, according to the Alexandrian legend (see III, below), contributed by 70 (or 72) elders sent from Jerusalem to Alexandria for the purpose at the request ...