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In addition to the above, three anonymous versions were also collated and three more
columns added, and a minor edition known as the Tetrapla, in which the first two
columns were omitted, was also compiled.
The transliteration of the Hebrew words serves to show how the Hebrew was
pronounced in Origen's day, as well as to reveal the actual text then in use. Origen found
that he must invent some system of notation that would account for the omissions,
additions and inversions discovered in the LXX as compared with the standard Hebrew
text. His system was as follows:--
(1) Where a passage occurred in the LXX which was not found in the Hebrew, he
marked it with an obelus following a metobelus, a sign something like a mallet.
(2) Where a passage found in the Hebrew was wanting in the LXX and supplied by
himself from the other Greek versions, he used an asterisk (*) following a metobelus
and initial letter of Aquila, Theodotion or Symmachus added.
(3) The obelus and the asterisk were used together when the order of the Greek was at
fault.
There are other signs and combinations of signs used by Origen, the meaning of which
is somewhat obscure.
The tremendous size of this work is hardly conceivable to-day. It was at least five
times the bulk of the Vatican MS, and occupied some 6,500 pages, all written by hand.
The Hexapla as a whole being too formidable to be copied, it occurred to Pamphilus and
his friend Eusebius to issue separately the fifth column, the revised LXX version. This
version was in circulation during the 4th century. It appears that someone named
Antonimus compared the copy with the original, while the corrections were begun by
Pamphilus, when in prison, and completed, after his martyrdom, by Eusebius. While this
work was undertaken in all good faith, the result of their labours was "to create a
recension of the LXX which was a mischievous mixture of the Alexandrian version with
the versions of Aquila and Theodotion". In the course of time, the symbols used by
Origen were either misplaced, omitted, or otherwise so changed, that by the time of
Jerome it was no longer possible to distinguish between the work of the translators and
the correction of Origen. The copies made by Pamphilus and Eusebius were mainly for
the use of readers in Palestine.
At the same time that they were prosecuting their labours, an Egyptians Bishop, name
Hesychius, began a correction of the common Egyptians text. Hesychius, like Pamphilus,
turned his prison into a study, and used the days of captivity to the glory of God.
While this work was being prosecuted in Egypt, one further version was made at
Antioch. This was the work of the martyr Lucian, who had as co-worker a Hebrew
scholar named Dorotheus. Lucian's version is known as the koiné, the "common"
version. He suffered martyrdom under Maximin in A.D.311 or 312.
Dr. Hort,
speaking of the N.T. section of this work, says:--