Hexapla (, "sixfold") is the term for an edition of the
Bible in six versions. It is an immense and complex word-for-word comparison of the
Greek Septuagint with the original
Hebrew Scriptures, and other Greek translations. The term especially and generally applies to the edition of the
Old Testament compiled by the theologian and scholar
Origen, sometime before the year 240 CE, which placed side by side:
- Hebrew
- Secunda – Hebrew transliterated into Greek characters
- Aquila of Sinope
- Symmachus the Ebionite
- A recension of the Septuagint, with (1) interpolations to indicate where the Hebrew is not represented in the Septuagint—these are taken mainly from Theodotion's text and marked with asterisks, and (2) indications, using signs called obeloi (singular: obelus), of where words, phrases, or occasionally larger sections in the Septuagint do not reflect any underlying Hebrew.
- Theodotion