''Hexapla'' ( grc, Ἑξαπλᾶ, "sixfold") is the term for a

critical Critical or Critically may refer to: *Critical, or critical but stable, medical states **Critical, or intensive care medicine * Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences. *Critical Software, a company specializing ...

edition of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Greek, preserved only in fragments. It was an immense and complex word-for-word comparison of the original Hebrew Scriptures with the Greek Septuagint translation and with other Greek translations. The term especially and generally applies to the edition of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

compiled by the theologian and scholar

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and the ...

, sometime before 240. The subsisting fragments of partial copies have been collected in several editions, that of Frederick Field (1875) being the most fundamental on the basis of Greek and Syrian testimonies. The surviving fragments are now being re-published (with additional materials discovered since Field's edition) by an international group of Septuagint scholars. This work is being carried out as The Hexapla Project under the auspices of the

International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) is an international association of researchers whose main research focus is the study of the Septuagint and related texts. Research The IOSCS has published a journal sinc ...

, and directed by Peter J. Gentry (

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist theological institute in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville, South Carolina, where it was a ...

), Alison G. Salvesen (

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

), and Bas ter Haar Romeny (

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city o ...

History

Origen began to study

biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of t ...

in his youth; forced to relocate to Palestine during the persecution of Christianity in Alexandria, he went into biblical textology and by the 240s he commented on virtually all books of the Old and New Testaments. His method of working with the biblical text was described in a message to Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 240) and a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew: Origen, in his ''Commentary of the Gospel of Matthew'', explained the purpose for creating the ''Hexapla'':

due to discrepancies between the manuscripts of the Old Testament, with God's help, we were able to overcome using the testimony of other editions. This is because these points in the Septuagint, which because of discrepancies found in thermanuscripts had given occasion for doubt, we have evaluated on the basis of these other editions, and marked with an '' obelus'' those places that were missing in the Hebrew text ..while others have added the asterisk sign where it was apparent that the lessons were not found in the Septuagint; we have added the other, consistent with the text of the Hebrew editions.

Structure

Cambridge, University Library Taylor-Schechter Collection 12

The text of the Hexapla was organized in the form of six columns representing synchronized versions of the same Old Testament text, which placed side by side were the following: #the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

consonantal text #the Secunda – the Hebrew text transliterated into Greek characters including vowels #the translation of

Aquila of Sinope Aquila (Hebrew: עֲקִילַס ''ʿăqīlas'', fl. 130 AD) of Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey; la, Aquila Ponticus) was a translator of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a proselyte, and disciple of Rabbi Akiva. Relationship to Onkelos Opinio ...

into Greek (2nd century) #the translation of Symmachus the Ebionite into Greek (late 2nd century) #a recension of the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

, with (1) interpolations to indicate where the Hebrew is not represented in the Septuagint (taken mainly from

Theodotion Theodotion (; grc-gre, Θεοδοτίων, ''gen''.: Θεοδοτίωνος; died c. 200) was a Hellenistic Jewish scholar, perhaps working in Ephesus, who in c. 150 CE translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Whether he was revising the Septua ...

's text and marked with asterisks), and (2) indications, using signs called '' obeloi'' (singular: ''obelus''), of where words, phrases, or occasionally larger sections in the Septuagint do not reflect any underlying Hebrew #the translation of

into Greek (mid 2nd century) At the end of his life Origen prepared a separate work called ''Tetrapla'' (a synoptic set of four Greek translations), placing the

alongside the translations of Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion. Both Hexapla and Tetrapla are found in Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint, as well as manuscripts of the Syro-hexaplar version. However, in a number of cases, the names of "Hexapla" and "Octapla" (in the Book of Job from the manuscripts of the Syro-Hexapla and the hexaplar Psalms) are also applied to the work of Origen. This caused a discussion in its time about whether these were separate works. According to

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

, the Hexapla contained three more translations of the Greek

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

(Quinta, Sexta and Septima), which, however, have not been preserved (for a total of 9 columns, a so-called ''Enneapla''). According to Epiphanius, the original Hexapla compiled by Origen had a total of eight columns and included two other anonymous Greek translations, one of which was discovered in wine jars in Jericho during the reign of

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname "Caracalla" () was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. He was a member of the Severan dynasty, the elder son of Emperor ...

. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly discovered by students outside the towns of

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho ...

and Nicopolis: these were later added by Origen to his Hexapla to make the ''Octapla''.Cave, Wm.
A complete history of the lives, acts, and martyrdoms of the holy apostles, and the two evangelists, St. Mark and Luke
', Vol. II. Wiatt (Philadelphia), 1810. Accessed 6 Feb 2013.

References

Literature

* Felix Albrecht: ''Art. Hexapla of Origen,'' in: The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception 11, Berlin et al. 2015, cols. 1000–1002. * Alison Salvesen (Hrsg.): ''Origen's hexapla and fragments. Papers presented at the Rich Seminar on the Hexapla, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, 25th July – 3rd August 1994'' (= ''Texts and studies in ancient Judaism.'' Bd. 58). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1998, . * John Daniel Meade,
A Critical Edition of the Hexaplaric Fragments of Job 22-42, Origen’s Hexapla: A Critical Edition of the Extant Fragments
' (Leuven: Peeters, 2020). * Erich Klostermann: ''Analecta zur Septuaginta, Hexapla und Patristik.'' Deichert, Leipzig 1895. * Frederick Field (ed.): ''Origenis hexaplorum quae supersunt: sive veterum interpretum Graecorum in totum vetus testamentum fragmenta. Post Flaminium nobilium, Drusium, et Montefalconium, adhibita etiam versione Syro-Hexaplari.'' 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1875 (vol. 1: ''Genesis – Esther.'' ; vol. 2: ''Hiob – Maleachi.'' ). *Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams, ''Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. *John Johnson
Hexapla
from the Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2013. *
Jewish Encyclopedia: Origen: His "Hexapla"

External links

Full scan of Origen of Alexandria, Hexapla Vol IFull scan of Origen of Alexandria, Hexapla Vol II

A Hexapla's mss

Another Hexapla's mss
{{Authority control 3rd-century Christian texts Lost religious texts Early versions of the Bible Works by Origen Christian terminology Polyglot bibles Translations into Greek

History

Structure

See also

References

Literature

External links