The Secunda is the second column of
Origen's
Hexapla
''Hexapla'' ( grc, Ἑξαπλᾶ, "sixfold") is the term for a critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in six versions, four of them translated into Greek, preserved only in fragments. It was an immense and complex word-for-word comparison of the ...
, a compilation of the
Hebrew Bible and Greek versions.
It consists of a transliteration of the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible into Greek characters.
As such it serves as an important document for Hebrew
philology, in particular the study of
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 ...
phonology.
Authorship
There is contention as to whether the Secunda was written by Origen, a contemporary, or was a copy of a preexisting older text.
Some suppose that Origen wrote the text himself, perhaps with Jewish helpers.
Others suppose that the Secunda was a preexisting text, added into the Hexapla as an aid for the reader.
There is evidence that Jews of the time made use of transcriptions; for instance a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud describing how the Jews of Caesarea would misread the
tetragrammaton as the graphically similar <πιπι>, suggesting the use of transcribed texts with the tetragrammaton preserved in Hebrew characters.
There is also phonetic evidence for the Secunda being a preexisting text. By the time of Origen <η αι> were pronounced
ː ɛː
The colon alphabetic letter is used in a number of languages and phonetic transcription systems, generally for vowel length or tone.
It resembles but differs from the colon punctuation mark, . In some fonts, the two dots are placed a bit closer ...
a merger which had already begun around 100 BCE, while in the Secunda they are used to represent Hebrew /eː aj/.
Orthography
The text of the Secunda uses various
Greek diacritics
Greek orthography has used a variety of diacritics starting in the Hellenistic period. The more complex polytonic orthography ( el, πολυτονικό σύστημα γραφής, translit=polytonikó sýstīma grafī́s), which includes fiv ...
:
A
diaeresis is used on the character
iota (<ι> to <ϊ>) precisely when iota occurs after a vowel, except when <ει> indicates /iː/.
This is completely independent of whether the segment is consonantal or vocalic in Hebrew, as the following examples attest:
: <αλαϊ> /a.la.i/ =
Tiberian /ʕaːlaj/
: <φεδιων> /pʰɛ.di.on/ = Tiberian /piːð.joːn/
The diaeresis was a later addition of the 8th or 9th century to the Secunda.
The use of
rough
Rough may refer to:
* Roughness (disambiguation)
* Rough (golf), the area outside the fairway on a golf course Geography
* Rough (facility), former gas field now gas storage facility, off the Yorkshire coast of England People
* Alan Rough (born 1 ...
and
smooth breathing signs does not follow an obvious pattern; for example, compare <ἀμιμ> /a.mim/ = Tiberian /ʕam'miːm/ versus <ἁφαρ> /(h)a.pʰar/ = Tiberian /ʕaːfaːr/.
These signs were also an addition of the 8th or 9th century.
The use of accents in the Secunda does not correspond with stress in Masoretic Hebrew; their presence remains a puzzle.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
* Benjamin P Kantor
The Second Column (Secunda) of Origen's Hexapla in Light of Greek Pronunciation
{{Authority control
3rd-century Christian texts
Lost religious texts
Early versions of the Bible
Works by Origen
Christian terminology
Hebrew language
Transliteration
Afroasiatic phonologies