HEXAPLA, THE. Besides the Septuagint (q.v.) and the versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus (see GREEK VERSIONS, OLD TESTAMENT), other Greek versions of the Old Testament were known to Origen (e. 185-86 A.D.-251-54 A.D.). Two of these, designated Quinta and Sexta he made use of in his Octapla. Euse bins and Jerome mention a third version, designated Septima. Origeu sought to provide a critical edition of the Septuagint in the first half of the third century A.D. He first collected all existing Greek versions of the Old Testament. " He then proceeded to transcribe the ver sions in parallel columns, and to indicate in the column devoted to the Septuagint the relation in which the old Alexandrian version stood to the current Hebrew text." The work was called Hexapla because there were six columns. They were as follows : (1) the Hebrew text in Hebrew; (2) the Hebrew transliterated in Greek characters; (3) the Greek of Aqnila; (4) the Greek of Symmachus; (5) the Septuagint; (6) the Greek of Theodot ion. Origen also compiled a Tetrapla, that is to say, an edition in which the first two columns were omitted. The Hexapla, when the book of Psalms is in question, is sometimes referred to as the Octapla, apparently " because in the Psalter of the Hexapla there were two additional columns which received the Quinta and Sexta" (H. B. Swete). Similarly it was sometimes
called Heptapla in reference to portions where a seventh column appeared. Origen " sought to determine the true primitive form of the Greek [which had become corrupt], and by an elaborate system of obelisks and other artificial marks inserted in the text to guard it from the possibility of further corruption. Unfortunately this system, owing to its detailed and highly-elaborate character, lent itself most easily to the cause of error. Copyists trans posed Origen's asterisks, obelisks, etc., omitted them alto gether, or inserted at wrong points, thus defeating the object which their author had in view, and introducing new variations and confusion " (A. S. Geden). The fragments of the Hexapla which have been preserved are collected in F. Field's Oriqenis Hexaplorum quae Super sunt Fragmenta, 2 vols. 1876. See H. B. Swete, to the O.T. in Greek, 1900; A. S. Geden, Intr. to the Hebrew Bible, 1909.