Final answer:
The Greek translation of the Old Testament for Greek-speaking Jews is known as the Septuagint. It made the Hebrew Bible accessible to both Jewish and Christian communities in the Hellenistic era which had Greek as the lingua franca.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Greek translation of the Old Testament made for Jews living in the Greek-speaking world is known as the Septuagint. This translation was particularly significant because during the Hellenistic period, Greek was not only the everyday language but also the official language of the state in the Empire and was used within the church. The Hebrew Bible, which is the sacred text that recounts the history of the Hebrew people and is termed the Tanakh in Judaism and the Old Testament in Christianity, needed to be accessible to Hellenistic Jews and later to Greek-speaking Christians.
By the second century BCE, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek under the Ptolemaic reign, as many Jewish people had moved to Alexandria and other Greek-speaking areas. This was a time when Hellenism, which denotes a high regard for Greek cultural institutions, was widespread. The Septuagint provided Greek-speaking believers, both Jews and Christians, with a reliable version of the Hebrew Scriptures. Christians also see the Old Testament as containing prophecies that are fulfilled in the New Testament, consolidating the importance of the Greek translations that contributed to Christianity's scriptural foundation.