). The text of the Hexapla is the faint text visible in the upper part of the page; the page has been overwritten by a younger Hebrew text (shown upside down in this image).The text of the Hexapla was organized in the form of six columns representing synchronized versions of the same Old Testament text, which placed side by side were the following: • the
Hebrew consonantal text • the
Secunda – the Hebrew text
transliterated into Greek characters including vowels • the translation by
Aquila of Sinope into Greek (2nd century) • the translation by
Symmachus the Ebionite into Greek (late 2nd century) • a
recension of the
Septuagint, with (1) interpolations to indicate where the Hebrew is not represented in the Septuagint (taken mainly from
Theodotion's text and marked with asterisks), and (2) indications, using signs called
obeloi (singular:
obelos), of where words, phrases, or occasionally larger sections in the Septuagint do not reflect any underlying Hebrew • the translation by
Theodotion into Greek (mid 2nd century) At the end of his life, Origen prepared a separate work called the
Tetrapla (a synoptic set of four Greek translations), placing the
Septuagint alongside the translations of Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion. Both Hexapla and Tetrapla are found in Greek manuscripts of the Septuagint, as well as manuscripts of the
Syro-Hexaplar version. However, in a number of cases, the names of "Hexapla" and "Octapla" (in the Book of Job from the manuscripts of the Syro-Hexapla and the hexaplar Psalms) are also applied to the work of Origen. This caused a discussion in its time about whether these were separate works. According to
Eusebius, the Hexapla contained three more translations of the Greek
Psalms (Quinta, Sexta and Septima), which, however, have not been preserved (for a total of 9 columns, a so-called
Enneapla). According to
Epiphanius of Salamis, the original Hexapla compiled by Origen had eight columns. It included two other anonymous Greek translations, one of which was discovered in wine jars in Jericho during the reign of
Caracalla. The so-called "fifth" and "sixth editions" were two other Greek translations supposedly discovered by students outside the towns of
Jericho and
Nicopolis: these were later added by Origen to his Hexapla to make the
Octapla. == See also ==