Megillah 9 – There is no difference between mezuzah and other scrolls...

There is no difference between mezuzah and tefillin on one hand and other scrolls on the other  – except that mezuzah and tefillin need to be written in Hebrew, while other scrolls (such as prophets) can be written on parchment in any language.

In other places, however, there are different, seemingly contradicting rules. The Talmud distills this as follows: tefillin and mezuzah need to be written in Hebrew, because in their text there is a phrase “these words will be for you,” - that is, they will be as they are in the Torah, without change. Megillah, too, has an instruction, “according to their script and according to their language,” that is, it should not be changed.

Other books can be written in other languages – but Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel disagrees and allows, among all foreign languages, only Greek. Why Greek? Because of the story of the king Ptolemy, who sequestered seventy-two Sages in seventy-two houses, and commanded them to translate the Torah into Greek. Without communication, they translated word for word, and made occasional emendations in the same places. They changed the name of God from plural into singular, such as instead of “let us make man,” - “let Me make man.” They also changed the “rabbit” into “creature with short legs,” because Ptolemy's wife was called “rabbit,” and the Sages did not want Ptolemy to think that the Jews were mocking him by inserting the name of his wife among non-kosher animals.

Greek also had the distinction of being the most beautiful language. Now that it has become corrupt, one cannot write the Torah in Greek.

Art: A Forest Floor With A Rabbit And Mushrooms by Franz Werner von Tamm