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In the work of Philo of Alexandria, the translation legend is developed further.

Judging this (scil. The island of Pharos) to be the most suitable place in the district, where they might find peace and tranquillity and the soul could commune with the laws with none to disturb its privacy, they fixed their abode there; and, taking the sacred books, stretched them out towards heaven with the hands that held them, asking of God that they might not fail in their purpose. And He assented to their prayers, to the end that the greater part, or even the whole, of the human race might be profited and let to a better life by continuing to observe such wise and truly admirable ordinances. Sitting here in seclusion with none present save the elements of nature, earth, water, air, heaven, the genesis of which was to be the first theme of their sacred revelation, for the laws begin with the story of the world`s creation, they became as it were possessed, and, under inspiration, wrote, not each several scribe something different, but the same word for word, as though dictated to each by an invisible prompter. (De vita Mosis II, 36–37).³⁸

This then became the 72 cells of the Christian and rabbinic legend, according to which each of them translated the Torah from Hebrew into Greek in identical text.