Syro-Hexaplar version

The Syro-Hexaplar version (or Syro-Hexapla) is the Syrian Aramaic (Syriac) translation of the Greek of the Septuagint as found in the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla. The translation was made by Bishop Paul of Tella at the monastery of the Enaton in Egypt around 617.[1][2]

The Syro-Hexapla was more popular in the West Syrian church than in the Church of the East. Jacob of Edessa used it in his revision of the Peshitta. It was used by the East Syriac scholar Ishodad of Merv in his commentaries.[3]

The Syro-Hexapla is important for the study of the Septuagint, for Henry Swete believed that it often includes the symbols Origen used to mark the differences he observed between the Septuagint text and the Hebrew text.[4] Since many later copies of the Septuagint dropped Origen's symbols, the Syro-Hexapla is one of the primary ways that textual critics can identify Hexaplaric material in the Septuagint.[5]

Being a direct translation from the Septuagint into Syriac, the Syro-Hexapla should be distinguished from the Peshitta, which is a Syriac translation directly from the Hebrew.

  1. ^ The Scattered Pearls: A History of Syriac Literature and Sciences, by Ighnāṭyūs Afrām I (Patriarch of Antioch). ISBN 9781931956048. p.313.
  2. ^ A Short Commentary on the Book of Daniel by A. A. Bevan. ISBN 9781107669949. p.43.
  3. ^ Alison G. Salvesen, "Yaʿqub of Edessa" in Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition (Gorgias Press, 2011; online ed. Beth Mardutho, 2018), edited by Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron M. Butts, George A. Kiraz and Lucas Van Rompay.
  4. ^ "The Origenic signs were scrupulously retained", p. 112 Swete, Henry Barclay. 1914. Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Cambridge.
  5. ^ 1953. Charles Fritsch. The treatment of the Hexaplaric signs in the Syro-Hexaplar of Proverbs. Journal of Biblical Literature 72.3: 169-181.