This is an occasional series of readings from and brief notes
and commentary upon Eusebius of Caesarea’s The
Ecclesiastical History: Book 6, chapters 16-17. Listen here.
Notes and Commentary:
These chapters discuss perhaps Origen’s most celebrated work,
the Hexapla.
Chapter 16 notes how Origen learned the Hebrew language and collected
editions and translations of the Hebrew Bible, including that of the Septuagint
(the “Seventy”), Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotian.
This was his celebrate Hexapla. Oulton notes that is was
arranged in six columns: (1) the Hebrew; (2) a transliteration of the Hebrew
into Greek letters; (3) Aquila; (4) Symmachus; (5) the Septuagint; and (6)
Theodotian.
Eusebius says that in the Psalms of this edition three other
Greek translations were added (a fifth, sixth, and seventh).
He also produced an edition that only held the main four
Greek translations, called the Tetrapla.
Chapter 17 provides further details about Symmachus. He is described as
part of the Ebionite heresy. The Ebionites denied the virgin birth and the deity
of Jesus, as well as advocating the strict keeping of the Jewish law. Eusebius
says that Symmachus’ memoirs were extant and in his writings he opposed the
Gospel of Matthew. He adds that Origen had gotten his material by Symmachus
from a woman named Juliana.
Conclusion:
Origen’s Hexapla was indeed a key work in the history of early
Christianity. Its production reflected and influenced the centrality of Hebrew
as the authoritative original language text for the Old Testament, by which
Greek translation of it were to be measured. This would, in turn, influence Jerome
in his translation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin, and this view would
eventually influence the Protestant Reformers who saw Hebrew as the immediately
inspired language for the Old Testament.
JTR
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