respect of the last; for that last containing only a small part, and, as some say, no more than the Psalms, no regard was had to it, in the name given to the whole work. In this edition Origen altered the order of several parts of the Septuagint, where it differed from the Hebrew original: for whereas a several passages in that version, especially in Jeremiah, were inverted, transposed, and put into a different order from what they are in the Hebrew, it was necessary for him to reduce them again to the same order with it for the making this edition answer the end he proposed: for his end herein being, that the differences between all the versions and the original might be the more easily seen, in order to the making of that version the more correct and perfect which was in use through the whole Greek church, he found it necessary to make the whole answer line for line in every column, that all might appear the more readily to the view of the reader; which could not be done without reducing all to the same uniform order: and that of the original, in which all was first written, was the properest to be followed. The fifth and sixth edition abovementioned were found, the one of them at Nicopolis, a city near Actium in Epirus, in the reign of Caracalla, and the other at Jericho in Judea, in the reign of Alexander Severus. Where the seventh was found, or who was the author of this or of the other two, is no where said. The first of these three contained the minor prophets, the Psalms, the Canticles, and the book of Job; the second the minor prophets and the Canticles; and the third, according to some, only the Psalms. But very uncertain, and, in some particulars, very contradictory accounts being given of these three last versions, and the matter being of no moment, since they are now all lost, it will be of no use to make any further in z Vide de hac re Usserii Syntagma de Græca LXX. Interpretum Versione, c. 9. Morini Exercitationes Biblicas, part 1, & Hoddium de Textibus Bibliorum Originalibus, lib. 4, c. 2, seet. 15. a Origen. in Epistola ad Africanum. Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Jere miam. b Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6, c. 16. Epiphanius de Ponderibus & Mensuris. Hieronymus. Auctor Synopsis Sacræ Scripturæ aliique. c Hieronymus citat eam versionem in his libris, nemo in aliis. 8th Col. 7th Col. Greek Version. Version. 5th Col. The Greek Theodotion. 6th Col. The fifth | The sixth 9th Col. The seventh Version. Greek Version of Symmachus. the LXX. quiry concerning them. How the whole was disposed in this edition of Origen's, will be best understood by this scheme. All the last three versions, as well as the other three, of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, Origen published in this edition as he found them. But the Septuagint, which was in the fifth column, being that for the sake of which he published all the rest, he bestowed much more pains upon it, to make it as correct and perfect as he could: ford the copies of it, which in his time went about for common use among the hellenistical Jews and Christians, and were then read by both in their public assemblies, as well as in private at home, were then very much corrupted, through the mistakes and negligence of transcribers, whose hands, by often transcription, it had now long gone through; and therefore, to remedy this evil, he applied himself with great care, by examining and collating of many copies, to correct all the errours that had this way crept into this version, and restore it again to its primitive perfection. And that copy which he had thus restored he placed in his Hexapla, in the fifth column; which being generally reputed to be the true and perfect copy of the Septuagint, the other copy that went about in common use was, in contradistinction to it, called the common or vulgar edition. And his labour rested not here; for he not only endeavoured, by comparing many different copies and editions of it, to clear it from the errours of transcribers, but also, by comparing it with the Hebrew original, to clear it from the mistakes of the first composers also; for many such he found in it, not only by omissions and additions, but also by wrong interpretations made in it by the first authors of this version. The law, which was the most 4th Col. 3d Col. 2d Col. 1st Col. Version of Version of in He-Text in Greek The Hebrew | The Hebrew Letters. brew Letters. The Greek | The Greek Aquila. Text d Origen. in Matthæum editionis Huetianæ, tom. 1, p. 381. e Hieronymus in Epistola ad Suniam et Fretelam. The exactly translated of all, had many of these, but the other parts a great many more. All which he endeavoured to correct in such manner, as to leave the original text of the Septuagint still entire, as it came out of the hands of the first translators, without any alterations, additions, or defalcations in it; in order wheretof he made use of four marks, called obelisks, asterisks, lemnisks, and hypolemnisks, which were then in use among the grammarians of those times, and put them into that edition of his corrected version of the Septuagint which he placed in his Hexapla. obelisk was a straight stroke of the pen, resembling the form of a small spit, or the blade of a rapier, as thus (-); and thence it had the name of Obeλoxos, in Greek, which signifieth, in that language, a small spit, and also the blade of a sword: the asterisk was a small star, as thus (*), and was so called, because in Greek that word thus signifieth: the lemnisk was a straight line drawn between two points, as thus (+): and the hypolemnisk, a straight line with one point under it, as thus (-). By the obelisk he pointed out what was in the text of the Septuagint to be expunged, as that which was redundant over and above what was in the text of the Hebrew original. By the asterisk he shewed what was to be added to it, to supply those places where he found it deficient of what was in the original. And these supplements he made to it mostly according to the version of Theodotion, and only where that could not serve to this purpose did he make use of the other versions. The lemnisks and hypolemnisks he seemeth to have used to mark out unto us where the original interpreters were mistaken in the sense and meaning of the words. But how these marks served to this end the accounts which we have of them are not sufficient to give us a clear notion. To shew how far the redundancies went that were marked with obelisks, and how far the additions that f Epiphanius de Ponderibus et Mensuris. Hieronymus in Prologo ad Genesin, et in Præfatione ad librum Psalmorum, et in Præfatione ad libros Paralipom, et in Præfatione ad libros Solomonis, et in libro secundo adver. sus Ruffinum. g Hieronymus in Prologo ad Genesin, et in Præfatione ad librum Job, et in libro secundo adversus Ruffinum, et in Epistola 74, ad Augustinum. were marked with the asterisks, another mark was made use of by him in this edition, which in some copies were two points, as thus (:), or else in othersi the head of a dart inverted, as thus (4); and by these marks was pointed out where the said redundancies and additions ended, in the same manner as by the obelisks and asterisks was where they begun, as thus avros, or thus autos). But all this he did without making any alteration in the original version of the Septuagint: for, taking out all these marks, with those supplements which were added under the asterisks, there remained the true and perfect edition of the Septuagint, as published by the first translators; and this was that which was called Origen's edition, as being corrected and reformed by him in the manner as I have said. This was a work of infinite labour, which gained him the name of Adamantius,1 and was also of as great benefit to the church. It is not certainly said when he finished it; but it seems to have been in the year of our Lord 250, which was four years before his death. The original copy, when completed, was laid up in the library of the church of Cesarea in Palestine, where Jerome, many years after, consulted it, and wrote out a transcript from it. But the troubles and persecutions which the church fell under in those times, seem to have been the cause that, after it was placed in the library, it lay there in obscurity about fifty years without being taken notice of; till at length, being found there by Pamphilus and Eusebius, they wrote out copies of it; and, from that time, the use and excellency of it being made known, it became dispersed to other churches, and was received every where with great applause and approbation by them. But the voluminousness of the work, h Hieronymus in Præfatione ad librum Psalmorum. i Vide Græcam versionem libri Joshua a Masio editam. k Hieronymus in Epistola 74, ad Augustinum. 1 Hieronymus in Epistola ad Marcellam. For Adamantius, as applied to him, signified the indefatigable, who was not to be overcome with labour; and it was not without indefatigable labour that he completed this and the other works which he published. m Hieronymus in Psalmum Secundum, et in Comment. in Epistolam ad . Titum, c. 3 n Hieronymus in Proœmio ad Comment. Danielem, & in' Epistola 74, ad Augustinum. and the trouble and charges it would have cost to have it entirely transcribed, became the cause that it was not long-lived: for it being very troublesome and expensive to have so bulky a book wrote out, which consisted of several volumes, and also very difficult to find scribes among Christians in those times sufficiently skilled to write out the Hebrew text, many contented themselves with copying out the fifth column only, that is, the Septuagint, with those marks of asterisks, obelisks, lemnisks, and hypolemnisks, with which Origen placed it in that column, that part thus marked seeming to comprehend an abridgment of the whole, whereby it came to pass, that few transcripts of this great work were made, but many of the other. In the transcribing of which, the asterisks being often left ouf, through want of due care in the writers, this occasioned that, in many copies of the Septuagint which were afterwards made, several particulars were taken into the text of the Septuagint, as original parts of it, which had only, under this mark, been inserted there by way of supplement out of other translations. However, several copies of the whole work, both of the Tetrapla and Hexapla, still remained in libraries, and were consulted there on all occasions, till, at length, about the middle of the seventh century, the inundation of the Saracens upon the eastern parts having destroyed all libraries wherever they came, it was after this no more heard of; for there hath never since been any more remaining of it, than some fragments that have been gathered together by Flaminius Nobilius, Drusias, and Bernard de Montfaucon. The latter, in a book lately published, almost as bulky as the Hexapla, and a very pompous edition of it, hath made us expect concerning this matter much more than is performed. Pamphilus and Eusebius having, about the conclusion of the third century, found the Hexapla of Origen in the library of Cesarea (or, according as some relate, brought it from Tyre, and placed it there,)° corrected out of it the Septuagint version then in common use; and, having caused to be written out several copies of • Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Paralipomena. |