Book Two: On the Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek and Latin Vulgate Editions
Chapter Five: On the Various Greek Editions
Nine editions altogether are numbered of the Greek New Testament, in addition to the one mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis bk.1, which was produced, it is unclear by which author, before Alexander the Great got possession of affairs, and from which Plato and other philosophers imbibed not a little; but since this edition, when the very celebrated Septuagint translation afterwards succeeded to it, began first to be neglected and then also to be lost, the result was that now for a long time scarcely the memory of it has been preserved.
The first of all Greek translations that is wont to be counted by writers is the one that was edited by the Seventy elders [sc. the Septuagint] by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, of which we will say much in the next chapter. See Eusebius Hist. bk.6 ch.13, Athanasius in his Synopsis, and Epiphanius in his book on Measures and Weights, who review the translations in order.
The second translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek was made by Aquila of Pontus, in the twelfth year of the Emperor Hadrian, as Epiphanius says in the place noted. But Aquila was first a Gentile, then a Christian, then, after being expelled from the Church because he devoted himself to judicial Astrology, betook himself to the Jews, and, since he translated the Scriptures in this last period, he is believed not to have behaved with good faith in the work.
The third translation was made while Commodus was Emperor by Theodotion; which author, although he became a proselyte of the Jews from being a Marcionist heretic, yet, on the evidence of Epiphanius, was more faithful in his translation than others like him. Wherefore the Church always reads Daniel from the translation of Theodotion, as Jerome testifies in his preface to Daniel.
The fourth is the edition of Symmachus who in the time of Severus Augustus translated the Sacred Books from Hebrew to Greek. But I do not know by what error it has happened that, although Athanasius and Epiphanius in expressive words write that Symmachus did his translation under Severus and Theodotion under Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, and although there is no doubt but that Commodus preceded Severus, yet the same authors make Symmachus first and Theodotion second.
But as far as Symmachus is concerned, he was first an Ebionite, if we believe Eusebius, or a Samaritan, if we follow Athanasius and Epiphanius; and since he could not obtain the primacy among his own people he joined himself to the Jews and was circumcised a second time. Where Epiphanius advises by the by that it is not remarkable that Symmachus could be circumcised twice, since by the medical art and by certain instruments the Jews were accustomed again to superinduce or to draw down a remade foreskin; and this is what the Apostle says in I Corinthians ch.7: “He who is called being circumcised let him not pull down the foreskin,” or, as the Greek words more clearly indicate, “let not his foreskin be drawn down.”
The fifth edition was found, without name of author, in certain wine jars in the city of Jericho, as Epiphanius says in the place noted, in the seventh year of Antoninus Caracalla, who succeeded his father Severus in the Empire.
The sixth edition is also without name of author, and on the evidence of Epiphanius was found contained in wine jars at Nicepolis by Alexander, reigning son of Mammeas.
From all these editions Origen, as Eusebius reports Hist. bk.6 ch.13 and Epiphanius Heresy 63 and book on Measures and Weights, composed what is called the Hexapla, or the Tetrapla, or even the Octapla. For Origen first divided the page into six columns, and on the first he wrote the Hebrew text in Hebrew letters, in the second the same Hebrew text in Greek letters, in the third the translation of Aquila, in the fourth the translation of Symmachus, in the fifth the Septuagint, in the sixth the translation of Theodotion. And these volumes are called Tetrapla because of the four translations, and Hexapla because of the six columns. He next added the fifth and sixth translations in two other columns, and those volumes are called the Octapla.
The seventh edition is that of Origen, who did not indeed translate the Scriptures from Hebrew, but so emended the translation of the Septuagint, with many things mixed in from Theodotion and notes marked with the sign of a radiant star, many too with an obelisk, that is, yoked with a spear, that he seems to have made a new edition. This edition was so approved at that time that it quickly filled all the libraries, as St. Jerome writes in epist.89 to Augustine, which is number 11 among the epistles of Augustine. The same Jerome writes in the preface to bk.16 on Isaiah, that the same edition was also accustomed to be called common.
The eighth edition is of Lucian the priest and martyr, who since he knew that in the above numbered editions many faults had crept in, again with great labor constructed a new edition. Which edition, Athanasius writes, was in the time of the Emperor Constantinus found at Nicomedia written out in the martyr’s own hands and preserved in a certain wall. Now St. Lucian suffered in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, while Maximian was exercising tyranny in the East, as the same Athanasius briefly indicates in his Synopsis and as Eusebius more fully narrates in Hist. bk.9 ch.6.
Ninth and last is the edition of Hesychius, who again emended the translation of the Septuagint, and gave it to the Churches in Egypt. About these editions St. Jerome writes in the following way in his preface to Chronicles: “Alexandria and Egypt in their Septuagints praise Hesychius as author. Constantinople up to Antioch approve the exemplars of the martyr Lucian. The province of Media among these reads the Palestinian codices, which were worked on by Origen and were made popular by Eusebius and Pamphilus.”
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