As the differences between the Greek version and the current Hebrew text, occasioned largely by expansions in the latter, were observed in an age intent upon textual purity, a desire for a more accurate translation. particularly of some books. would naturally arise. Thus IL Esdras appeared in addition to I. Esdras, the expurgat ed edition, further revised by Tbeodotion. beside the Chigi Daniel, the much longer .Job known to Theodotion beside the shorter, the longer Jeremiah already familiar to New-Testament writers beside the shorter, and possibly a new form of Judges. It is quite probable that new versions of certain books 4Nere thus produced not long before Josephus at Antioch or Jerusalem.
(3) In the reign of Hadrian (117-38), Aqui la of Sinope, in l'ontus. a proselyte to -Judaism, made a complete version of the Hebrew Bible, known through ancient writers, fragments of the Ilexapla, and a portion found in 1897 by Burkitt among material brought from the Genizah of Cairo to Cambridge. This translation was sla vishly literal. and removed many inaccuracies Of the current version.
( Theodotion of Ephesus, another Jewish proselyte. probably in the time of Marcus Aure lius (161-so), f•xcented a less literal, yet faith ful translation, preserved in part through an cient writers and fragments of the Ifexapla, manifestly on the basis of an earlier text-re cension.
(5) Symmachns, an Ehionite of Samaritan birth, probably in the reign of Commodus (180 92). produced a more elegant version on the basis of already existing translations.
(6) The most elegant of all versions was Quinta, found by Origen at Nicoll°lis, near Ac tium. of uncertain age. possibly a relic of the early Christianity of Epirus.
(71 Decidedly of Christian origin is Sexta, found at Jericho, e.217.
(8) Septinia little is known.
(9) The Gra-cus Venetus, found in a Venice MS. of the Fourteenth Century, is a version of the Pentateuch, Ruth, Proverbs, Canticles. Lam entations. and Daniel, made by a Jewish transla tor, possibly Elisssous, e.1300. It attempts to reproduce Attic Greek, but uses the Doric dialect for the Aramaic portions of Daniel.
II. Latin.—(n There probably existed be fore Jerome a number of Latin versions. Of these the oldest may date from the end of the Second Century a.D. As Cyprian is the earliest writer acquainted with it, and as Northern Africa was the centre of Latin literature at this time, it has been supposed that the version originated in Carthage. The vulgar dialect in which it is
written may, however, have been spoken in other parts of the Empire: and it has recently been suggested that the relations of the version to a type of Greek text prevailing in Syria points to Antioch as its birth-place. Still others think of Northern Italy. It is possible that manu scripts and quotations from early Latin writers represent versions produced independently in dif ferent centres or Antiochian and Italian recen sions of an original African text. The Old Latin is the most valuable witness to the Greek text before Origen. What remains has been published by P. Sabatier in 1739-49. and the recent addi tions by Minter Ranke, Belsheini, Burkitt, and others.
(2) Jerome in 382 was requested to revise this Latin Bible. His first revision was followed after 392 by another, in which he used the obelus and asterisk of Origen. But already. in 390. he had begun his direct translation from the He brew, which as a version is a masterpiece. and was destined to become the Bible of the Occident. In this Vulgate version. the unrevised books of Siracides, Sapientia Solomonis, I. and H. Mac cabees, and Baruch, as well as the first revision of the Psalter, represent the Old Latin, while Tobit and Judith were translated from Hebrew or Aramaic.. Only gradually the new translation won its way. It was exposed to corruption, and in spite of the labors of Cassiodorus. Aleuin, Lanfrane, and others. was found by Roger Bacon to be "horribly corrupted." The Mazarin Bible was printed in 1452; Gutenberg's Psalter, 1457. For the improvement of the Latin text the He brew and Greek were used in the Compluten sian and the Wittetilrg, Bildes, by osiander and Pelli•anns. hood manuscripts were used by Robert Stephanns for his edition (15281, which became the foundation of the Vulgate, officially recognized as the Bible by the Tridentine Coun cil (1540), and printed with the approval of Six tus V. (1590) and ('lenient V111. (1593). A thoroughly critical edition fines les not yet exist.
(3) Among the later Latin translations, the following are most noteworthy: The very literal version of Sanctus Pagninus (1528), revised by Servetus (1542), by Stephanus (1557), by Arias Montanus (1572) ; that of Sebastian :41finster (1534.35) ; the excellent but incomplete work'.