Hexapla Pdf

[Harald Atta]

Thesubsisting fragments of partial copies have been collected in several editions, that of Frederick Field (1875) being the most fundamental on the basis of Greek and Syrian testimonies. The surviving fragments are now being re-published (with additional materials discovered since Field's edition) by an international group of Septuagint scholars. This work is being carried out as The Hexapla Project[3] under the auspices of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies,[4]. and directed by Dr Neil McLynn. The members of the editorial board are: Peter J. Gentry (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Gttinger Septuaginta-Unternehmen), Dr Alison G. Salvesen (Oxford University), and Bas ter Haar Romeny (Leiden University).

Origen began to study biblical Hebrew in his youth; forced to relocate to Palestine during the persecution of Christianity in Alexandria, he went into biblical textology. By the 240s, he commented on virtually all books of the Old and New Testaments. His method of working with the biblical text was described in a message to Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 240) and a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew:

[D]ue to discrepancies between the manuscripts of the Old Testament, with God's help, we were able to overcome using the testimony of other editions. This is because these points in the Septuagint, which because of discrepancies found in [other] manuscripts had given occasion for doubt, we have evaluated on the basis of these other editions, and marked with an obelus those places that were missing in the Hebrew text [...] while others have added the asterisk sign where it was apparent that the lessons were not found in the Septuagint; we have added the other, consistent with the text of the Hebrew editions.[5]

At the end of his life Origen prepared a separate work called Tetrapla (a synoptic set of four Greek translations), placing the Septuagint alongside the translations of Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion.[7] 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 of Caesarea, 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).[8]

According to Epiphanius, the original Hexapla compiled by Origen had a total of eight columns and included two other anonymous Greek translations, one of which was discovered in wine jars in Jericho during the reign of Caracalla.[9] 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.[10]

The fifth column (e) offered the Septuagint version received by Origen and revised later on by him (therefore sometimes also called Origenic recension): In case of variation between the copies of the Septuagint, Origen chose the readings that matched the Hebrew most consistently. In order to get the text in alignment with the Hebrew, Origen adapted the word order, if necessary. He also revised the proper names. The layout of the Hexapla looked like this:

However, we do not know if Origen included these extra versions in columns (no fragments of a copy in this format are extant) or in the form of marginal notes in the last two columns (e, f) as the so-called Mercati Psalter (Ra 1098) suggests. Apart from two small fragments (Ra 113, f. 7v; Ra 271, p. III), the latter is one of two fragments of the Hexapla of Psalms that have survived in columnar format, both are palimpsests and both are cropped: Ra 2005 (7th century CE, see on this manuscript Benjamin Kantor) is a heavily trimmed leaf that shows four fragmentary columns: Secunda, Aquila, Symmachus, and the Septuagint. Ra 1098 (10th century CE) is the most important fragment of the Hexapla. It provides five columns of selected Psalms that are part of a Psalter Catena. The Hebrew column is not preserved in this manuscript. Marginal notes in the last two columns indicate that two additional sources have been incorporated into it, which have been identified with Theodotion (marginal notes to column e) and with the Sexta (marginal notes to column f). All this leads to the conclusion, that Ra 1098 seems to represent either a reduced copy of the Octapla of Psalms (which contained the eight columns while the last two columns were added as marginal notes to colums e and f), or the outlook of the original Hexapla of Psalms. Mercati followed the idea that Ra 1098 was indeed representing the Hexapla of Psalms in its original layout ([Hebrew], Secunda, Aquila, Symmachus, Septuagint, Quinta).[vii] There were no additional columns, but marginal notes of two additional versions (Theodotion and Sexta). The (reconstructed) layout of Ra 1098 looks like this:

According to Mercati (and confirmed by Venetz, p. 85) Theodoret misidentified column f with Theodotion and quoted these readings as θʹ-readings, so that the tradition depending on Theodoret repeated these false θʹ-readings, which are actually Quinta readings.

The Hexaplaric recension was distributed separately and further edited. In the year 616 CE, Paul of Tella prepared a translation into Syriac, the so-called Syrohexapla, in which readings of the alternative versions were incorporated as marginal notes. In case of Psalms, its Greek Vorlage was not an early version of the Hexaplaric recension, but an advanced one which exhibits influence from the Antiochene tradition as Rob Hiebert has shown.[xi] Our main witness of the Syrohexapla of Psalms is Codex Ambrosianus C 313 inf. (8th century CE).[xii]

Note this, for it teaches us that our memories need to be helped and strengthened in every way, and so it is well to have condensed truth to carry about with us, and exceedingly advantageous to us to have it arranged for us in such a shape that we are likely to recollect it. The apostle has been led by the Spirit to give us goodly words, helping our infirmities; of this help we should gratefully avail ourselves to the utmost. If we be somewhat instructed in the word we have here an example of practical usefulness; we may for ourselves and for others, especially for the young, try to put truth into forms which will help it to retain its hold upon the memory.

I shall call my text a hexapla of essential truth, a sixfold mystery of godliness. You have six great points clearly set forth before you, and these constitute the main, the essential elements of our holy faith, which the church of God is for ever to set forth, and uphold to the end of time.

Hearken also to his words of command, when his Godhead glows through his humanity and proves him divine. He speaks, and it is done; he commands and it stands fast. At his bidding waves sleep and winds rest; pain flies, strength returns, health smiles, and death lives! Has not his spiritual nature, by deeds so astounding, fully justified him?

Das gesamte Werk soll 50 Bnde mit 6000 Blttern umfasst haben. Wahrscheinlich existierten vom Gesamtwerk keine Kopien. Das Original wurde in der Bibliothek des Pamphilos von Caesarea in Csarea gesehen. Sptestens seit dem Arabereinfall 638 gilt es als verschollen.

Eine andere Schrift von Origenes fand sich ebenfalls in dieser Bibliothek: die Tetrapla, die vier Spalten enthielt. Sie enthielt die Werke von Aquila, Symmachus, der Septuaginta und Theodotion. Ob sie eine Vorarbeit oder eine Kurzfassung der Hexapla war, lsst sich heute nicht beantworten.

Giovanni Mercati entdeckte und entzifferte 1895 eine Abschrift der Hexapla in fnf Spalten mit ca. 150 Psalmversen. Es handelt sich um ein Palimpsest mit liturgischen Texten der Griechisch-orthodoxen Kirche, die Mercati in der Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Mailand studierte. Es ist als Codex Rescriptus Bibliothecae Ambrosianae O 39 sup. (Mailnder Fragmente) bekannt. Der Minuskeltext stammt aus dem 9. oder 11. Jahrhundert und enthlt die griechische Umschrift der hebrischen Buchstaben (Secunda), die Werke von Aquila und Symmachus dem Ebioniten sowie, etwas berraschend, die Quinta. Die Umschrift gibt einen Einblick in die Aussprache des Hebrischen im 3. Jahrhundert.

Frederick Field gab 1875/76 zwei Bnde mit dem Titel Origenis Hexaplorum heraus. Sie enthlt eine vollstndige Sammlung der damals bekannten hexaplarischen Fragmente. Er ordnete den Text aber nach anderen Kriterien an.

Allerdings hatte Origenes seine Rezension mit den textkritischen Zeichen des Aristarchos von Samothrake versehen, welche die Abschreiber oft fr unwichtig hielten und nicht mit abschrieben, so dass die erhaltenen griechischen Handschriften oft einen Mischtext der Origenischen und der brigen Rezensionen bieten. Da in der Syrohexaplaris die Varianten oft als solche vermerkt sind, stellt diese eine groe Hilfe bei der Rekonstruktion des ursprnglichen Hexaplatextes dar.

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