The Septuagint is the oldest and most important of the Greek translations of the Old Testament books. It is commonly denoted by the abbreviation 'LXX.' The first translations were made in the 3rdCent BC, probably to meet the needs of Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria, Egypt.
The LXX is a collection of very varied books, and the manuscripts we now have of the LXX contain all the canonical books of the Bible, as well as materials that are not part of the Hebrew Bible or Christian canon; these latter books are collectively known as the Apocrypha.
The name Septuagint, however, is Latin, deriving from septum, 'seven,' and based on the tradition that the translation was accomplished by 72 scholars. LXX is, of course, 70 in Latin.
Although Jesus and the early apostles spoke Aramaic and understood Hebrew, it was the Septuagint that became the version that the New Testament invariably followed whenever the Old Testament is cited. This habit of the early Church's use of the LXX to prove their point had a notable and beneficial effect: it drove the Synagogue to turn their attention back to the Hebrew text, leading them to stabilize its text and produce an authoritative recension that provided the essential base for the Massoretes to do their crucial work eight centuries later. Since then, the LXX has essentially become a 'Christian' document.
Resources:
W. Edward Glenny, "The Septuagint and Biblical Theology," Themelios 41.2 (2016): 263-78. N
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