The Hexapla

Origen undertook so exact an examination of the divine words that he even learned the Hebrew language and acquired for himself the original Scriptures in Hebrew letters that were in use among the Jews. He also tracked down the editions of the others who, besides the Seventy, had translated the sacred Scriptures. And besides the well-worn translations of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, he found certain others that differed from them, which had lain hidden for a long time; he tracked them down from I do not know what out-of-the-way corners and brought them to light. [a] Because they were so obscure, he did not know whose they were. He only noted that he had found one at Nicopolis near Actium, and another in some other such place. [b] In the Hexapla of the Psalms, after the four well-known editions, he set alongside not only a fifth but also a sixth and a seventh translation; and on one of them he noted that it had been found in a jar at Jericho in the time of Antoninus the son of Severus. [c] He brought all these together, divided them into clauses, and set them side by side with one another, along with the Hebrew text itself, and so left us the copies of what is called the Hexapla. Separately, he prepared the edition of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion together with that of the Seventy in the Tetrapla. [d]