Hexapla

Hexapla
Fred the Oyster · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Hexapla
Native name	Ἑξάπλα
Author	Origen
Language	Greek language, Hebrew language, Syriac language, Latin language
Country	Alexandria
Subject	Bible
Genre	Textual criticism
Release date	circa 3rd century

Hexapla The Hexapla was a critical, multi-column edition of the Hebrew Bible compiled in Alexandria by the Christian scholar Origen in the early 3rd century. Intended to present parallel Hebrew language and Greek language versions for comparative study, it became central to later transmission by communities such as Byzantium, Antioch, Jerusalem, Rome, and Cappadocia. The Hexapla influenced subsequent editors including Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Clement of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, and later Renaissance humanists.

Origins and Purpose

Origen produced the Hexapla around the reign of Septimius Severus and the intellectual milieu of Alexandria where institutions such as the Library of Alexandria and the catechetical school fostered comparative scholarship. Commissioned by early Christianity leaders to reconcile variant Septuagint readings with the Hebrew consonantal text of the Masoretic Text tradition, the work addressed disputes between proponents of the Septuagint and advocates of Hebrew originals, matters debated in venues associated with figures like Ammonius of Alexandria and later cited by Eusebius. The Hexapla’s aim paralleled textual efforts seen earlier in Alexandrian scholarship and later in Byzantine scholarship seeking authoritative scripture for liturgy in Antioch and doctrinal disputes involving Arianism and Chalcedonian controversies.

Composition and Structure

Arranged in six parallel columns, the Hexapla juxtaposed distinctive witnesses: a Hebrew consonantal column, a Greek transliteration of Hebrew called the "Hebrew in Greek letters", and four Greek versions including the Septuagint and revisions by Aquila of Sinope, Symmachus the Ebionite, and Theodotion. Origen used critical signs—such as obeli and asterisks—adopted in dialogues across Alexandrian exegetical methods and later mirrored by editors like Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome. The Hexapla’s format informed the layout strategies of scriptoria in Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and later Rome; its apparatus intersected with the work of scribes in Syriac Orthodox Church contexts and translators associated with Benedictine copying centers. Origen’s editorial practice referenced authorities like Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and earlier Hellenistic Jewish scholarship.

Surviving Fragments and Reconstructions

No complete copy of the Hexapla survives; its remnants appear in palimpsests, quotations, and medieval manuscripts preserved in libraries such as Vatican Library, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, and collections in Florence, Venice, and Athens. Key witnesses include a Codex Sinaiticus-era marginalia tradition, fragments cited by Jerome in his Latin Vulgate prefaces, and selections preserved by Sophronius of Jerusalem and John of Damascus. Modern reconstructions draw on citations in works by Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, and the Syriac Peshitta tradition, supplemented by collations from scholars such as Richard Bentley, Benjamin Kennicott, Gustav Bickell, Paul de Lagarde, Constantin von Tischendorf, and Fenton John Anthony Hort. Contemporary critical editions and digital projects hosted by institutions including Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the German Bible Society use these witnesses to approximate Origen’s apparatus.

Textual Significance and Influence

The Hexapla shaped textual criticism methods later formalized by editors like Karl Lachmann, Brooke Foss Westcott, and Fenton John Anthony Hort, and it informed translation choices for the Vulgate by Jerome and revisions used in liturgies of Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church. Its systematic comparison of Septuagint and Hebrew texts influenced biblical scholarship in Renaissance humanism and the Reformation debates involving figures such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Desiderius Erasmus. Philological techniques from the Hexapla undergird modern critical apparatuses seen in editions by Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece tradition, and comparative studies undertaken at centers like Institute for Advanced Study and University of Oxford. The Hexapla’s legacy also touches patristic exegesis as recorded in the works of Gregory Nazianzen, Basil of Caesarea, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine of Hippo.

Reception and Scholarly Study

Reception of the Hexapla varied: medieval Byzantine scribes both preserved and adapted Origenic readings while Latin West scholars debated its utility, with Jerome critiquing and using it. Enlightenment and 19th-century scholars such as Richard Simon, Johann Jakob Griesbach, and Johann Jakob Wettstein re-evaluated Origen’s methods within emerging textual criticism frameworks. 20th- and 21st-century scholarship—represented by researchers at University of Cambridge, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Oxford, Université de Paris, and research projects like the Oxford Hexapla Project—use philology, codicology, and digital humanities to reconstruct the Hexapla’s readings from manuscript evidence and patristic citations. Debates continue about Origen’s editorial principles among specialists including F. F. Bruce, Bruce Metzger, Emanuel Tov, Michael Mulder, and Martin Hengel, reflecting the Hexapla’s enduring role in biblical studies, patristics, and classical philology.

Category:Biblical criticism