Syro-Hexapla

The Syro-Hexapla is a Syriac translation of the Hexaplaric Greek Old Testament and one of the most important witnesses to Origen's textual work. Its scope is the Old Testament within the Septuagint tradition, and it was made from Greek rather than from a Semitic original, taking as its base text Origen's Hexaplaric Septuagint—that is, the fifth-column tradition of his great synoptic edition. Its translation philosophy is extremely literal, mirroring the Greek closely, and it is best categorized as a fresh translation of a revised Greek text, its predecessor or base translation being Origen's Hexaplaric recension of the Septuagint. Among its distinctive features, it preserves the asterisks and obeli that marked additions and surplus material in that recension, along with readings of ancient Greek versions that are now otherwise fragmentary, making it a standard resource for scholars reconstructing the lost Hexapla.