II. AQUILA, a celebrated Translator of the writings of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek. He was made Surveyor of the works by the Emperor Adrian, when the city of Jerusalem, from him called Ælia, was rebuilt by his orders, and had an opportunity, while he was in this imployment, to see the first Disciples of Jesus Christ, with the purity of whose lives, and eminent examples of their virtues, he was so affected as to embrace Christianity, and desire Baptism, which he obtained. But as he was very much addicted to judicial Astrology, the governor of the Church remonstrated to him, that this curious and unprofitable art was inconsistent with the profession of Christianity; and observing that he was not willing to relinquish it, they expell’d him out of the Church. Aquila not able to endure the shame of their excommunication, renounced Christianity, embraced Judaism, and received Circumcision. He then applied himself to the study of the Hebrew tongue; and having acquired an accurate knowledge of it, he undertook to translate the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek; and designing to conceal the ignominy of his apostacy, he endeavoured, as Epiphanius says1, from whom we learn these particulars, to distort the sense of those passages, which related to our Saviour, and to interpret them in a sense different from that of the Septuagint. Which he executed, as is believed in the Emperor Adrian’s time.
Acts xviii. 7.Aquila at first set about his translation of the Scripture, designing to keep close to the meaning of the text, but to render it in a more free and easy manner. After which he undertook another more exact one, wherein he attempted to render the most minute terms in their literal signification2; and this last the Jews call’d an accurate translation, and valued it above any other version. Aquila contentiosus interpres, qui non solum verba, sed etymologias quoque verborum transferre conatus est, says S. Jerom in his epistle to Pammachius. Notwithstanding in other places the same Father commends Aquila’s very scrupulous and literal exactness3. Aquila, qui non contentiosius ut quidam putant, sed studiosius verbum interpretatur ad verbum. And whereas the generality of the Ancients accuse him of changing the sense of such passages as favour Christianity, S. Jerom writing to Marcella a Roman lady, tells us, that he was continually examining Aquila’s translation, and every day discovered many things in it, which confirm our belief, Ut amicæ menti fatear, quæ ad nostram fidem pertineant roborandam plura reperio.
We do not know certainly, whether Aquila was originally a Jew, or whether he was a Gentile before he embraced Christianity. Epiphanius makes no doubt but that he was by birth a Gentile, but others urge such difficulties against it, as it is not easy to resolve. It is matter of dispute likewise whether he be the same person with Onkelos, the celebrated Paraphrast of the Pentateuch. There are some Rabbins and Christian authors for the affirmative, and others for the negative. This is certain, that in the account of the generality of the Jews, Onkelos is more ancient than the Aquila we are speaking of; and there are many places in Onkelos and Aquila, that are differently translated. The reader may consult F. Montfaucon’s Dissertation before his Hexapla, p. 51. and Walton’s and Serrarius’s Prolegomena.
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