l. 1. c. 16.HEXAPLA. This is the name of a large work composed by Origen, wherein he collected all the Greek Versions of the Scripture, which had been made till that time: namely, those of the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and a fifth found at Jericho in 217, together with a sixth found at Nicopolis in 228. These six Versions were disposed in six columns opposite to one another, that it might be observed at one view, where they agreed or disagreed; and to confront them more easily with the Hebrew, Origen placed the Hebrew in Hebrew letters at the head of them, and the same text in Greek letters in two columns answerable to the six columns before mentioned. So that there were in all eight columns; two for the Hebrew, and six for the six Greek Versions. There was even a seventh Version, which contained the Psalms only: but of this no notice was taken in the denomination of the Hexapla. From these two columns of the Hebrew, the work was sometimes called Octapla, by reason of the eight columns.
It is not now in being intire, and the loss of such an immense performance is the greatest the Church ever has sustained. The ancient Fathers have preserved several fragments of it. Eusebius, St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and the other Greek Fathers, and among the Latins, St. Jerom, have often cited the Hexapla, and confronted the passages of Scripture according to the several Versions contained in this work. Some of the moderns have collected the fragments of it: among others, Drusius has given us a large Volume of them in 8vo. But the R. F. De Montfaucon, a Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Maur has carried his enquiries much farther, and given us two Volumes of them in folio, printed in 1713. To these he has added Prolegomena, wherein he explains the form and history of the Hexapla1.
Origen, before he wrote his Hexapla, had composed the Tetrapla; that is to say, a collection of the four principal Versions of the Scripture, which are those of the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. Tetrapla signifies properly a compound of four rows, or four folds.
Origen is thought to have begun this great work of his Hexapla about the year 231, but we cannot tell exactly when he finished it. So large an undertaking must have required a great deal of time in the execution of it.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. St. Jerom*, in his Epistle to* Marcella*, calls* Origen, Adamantius, the indefatigable, one not to be overcome with labour; and indeed, says Dr. Prideaux*, it was not without indefatigable labour, that he compleated this and the* other works which he published. The same learned Doctor is very particular in his description of the Hexapla*; and* speaking of Father Montfaucon’s Edition of it, he says, that it is as bulky as the Hexapla*, and a very pompous edi-* tion of it hath made us expect concerning this matter much more than is performed. See Dr. Prideaux’s Connection, &c. Part II. Book I. ↩